The Narrow Gate is About “Him”, Not “I”

29 October 2025  Luke 13:22-30

“Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Luke 13:24

The New Testament speaks often about Jesus as a “Way,” a “Gate,” or a “Door.” “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14). “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and not be able” (Luke 13:24).

Sometimes, however, the metaphor gets lost on people and they start thinking that the Way, the Gate and the Door refer to prayer, or Bible study, or giving to charity, or some other thing that we do. People talk about “walking the straight and narrow,” and believe that it is our efforts that open the gate or indicate the way of salvation.

They have a disastrously wrong pronoun problem. The Way, the Gate, and the Door are never a matter of I, or Me, or We, or Us.

There is a story about the “Good Thief,” crucified alongside Jesus, to whom Jesus said, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Sure enough, the Good Thief turned up at heaven’s gate, where the angel on duty asked, “So, why are you here?”

The thief replied, somewhat timidly, “I’m not entirely sure. Where exactly am I?”

The angel was troubled by the man’s answer, thinking it impossible that anyone could get lost and find heaven. So, he went to get his supervisor to question the strange arrival.

When the Supervising Angel arrived, he asked the Thief, “Perhaps you could tell us a little about the parish you attended on earth.”

“I wasn’t a member of any parish. I’m not entirely clear what a parish is.”

“I see. Well maybe then you could share your favorite Bible verse.”

“I don’t have one. Never read it,” the Thief replied.

“I see. Well, could you tell us something, anything you did for the good of your fellow man?”

The Thief, embarrassed said, “I can’t say I did anything much for my fellow man. Mostly I just took their stuff.”

Exasperated and confused, the Supervising Angel finally asked, “What can you tell us about why you are here?”

The thief said softly, “The guy on the middle cross – He said I could come.”

He.

The narrow gate isn’t learning how to pray, or reading the Bible, or charitable service, or any other thing that we do.

It isn’t about I, or Me, or We, or Us. It is about Him. The narrow gate is Him.

At heaven’s gate it is important to get the pronouns right.