Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Understanding God: Who gets into heaven (5)

Without commentary from me, read this and try to imagine not what you assume, but what it sounded like as the disciples and those in the crowd who followed him heard his words.


Luke 13:22-30
And he passed on through towns and villages, teaching and making his way towards Jerusalem. But someone said to him, "Lord, are only a few to be saved?"

But he said to them, "Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

"But when the master of the house has entered and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, open for us!' And he shall say to you in answer, 'I do not know where you are from.' Then you begin to say, 'We ate and drank in thy presence, and thou didst teach in our streets.' And he shall say to you, 'I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.'

"There will be the weeping, and the gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast forth outside.

"And they will come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and will feast in the kingdom of God. And behold, there are those last who will be first, and there are those first who will be last."