How many paths are there to salvation?

How many paths are there to salvation? The catechetical answer would be a nuanced response about how there remains one path granted by Jesus Christ, through the church, but yet somehow open to all people of good will who have never heard the Gospel message. The question itself remains a basic concern of theology. This Sunday’s Gospel presents the same concern, slightly altered and asked by a follower of Jesus: “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” (Lk 13:23).

This worry in the Gospel of Luke has been answered repeatedly beginning with the first chapters. Luke portrayed the narrative and purpose of Jesus’ life as a means of salvation for the multitudes, for both those classified within the Jewish cultural milieu as well as those who ethnically belong to foreign tribes and nations, collectively called the Gentiles. 

This Sunday’s first reading and the psalm reinforce the vastness attached to the question of salvation. The diaspora, according to Isaiah’s final chapter, would reach the farthest places previously unknown to the Hebrew people: “I will send survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands which have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory; and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations” (Is 66:19). This optimistic sentiment is reinforced by this Sunday’s psalm. Through liturgical recrafting, however, the refrain is borrowed from the ending of Mark’s Gospel, “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News” (Mk 16:15). Meanwhile, this Sunday’s psalm remains the shortest hymn among all the psalms. Its message provides a short hymn relishing the idea that all the nations find their secure existence within God’s merciful hands (Ps 117).

That salvation goes out to all the world is met with a sobering response found in Jesus’ reply to the questioning voice. “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough” (Lk 13:24). The narrow gate in Jesus’ time is actually a narrow door next to a larger gate meant for caravans when entering a walled city. Luke has inserted a discussion about salvation in the middle of his story. Previously, the question of salvation outside of the community of faith was placed at the very end of a composition, as highlighted through Isaiah, Mark and Matthew. Luke, however, connected the question of salvation for a few to Jesus’ proximity and journey to Jerusalem, the walled city where prophets meet their passion. Jerusalem, and the passion that awaits Jesus there, is one aspect of the narrow door that will be taken as a means of salvation. 

In other words, resistance to this demanding model Jesus has placed before his disciples could be interpreted as preferring the more attractive, wider passage. Through the wide gate there is no need nor effort required to unload extra weight measured by sin or injustice. This Sunday’s second reading described the struggle against sin through the lens of discipline for the willing student. The practice is meant to encourage one’s resolve against falling off the path. “So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed” (Heb 12:12-13). In the following section that ends chapter 13 in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is informed of what awaits him if he continues on his path and walks through the narrow door that represents Jerusalem. His response ought to become our own to the demands of the Gospel that are met with resistance: “I must continue on my way, today, tomorrow, and the following day” (Lk 13:33).

Jesus’ response to the question—“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”—remains puzzling. Salvation will eventually reach all peoples, but it will also surprise not a few. The last ones will be first and vice versa. Those who felt secure in their faith might be strangers to Jesus at the time of final judgment. But encouragement to strengthen one’s resolve and enter through the narrow door remains this Sunday’s prevailing emphasis.