Today's Gospel in Art - Try your best to enter by the narrow door

The Cross, the Narrow Way by David Hayward, 2002 © David Hayward

Gospel of 25th August 2019 - Luke 13: 22-30

Through towns and villages Jesus went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, 'Sir, will there be only a few saved?' He said to them, 'Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.

'Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you may find yourself knocking on the door, saying, "Lord, open to us" but he will answer, "I do not know where you come from." Then you will find yourself saying, "We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets" but he will reply, "I do not know where you come from. Away from me, all you wicked men!"

'Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves turned outside. And men from east and west, from north and south, will come to take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.

'Yes, there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last.'

Reflection on the Gouache

'Try your best to enter by the narrow door' Jesus says in today's reading. The drawing here today, shows a narrow opening, in the form a cross… For the artist the only way to get through the 'narrow door' that Jesus mentions today, is through His cross. A simple but yet very effective drawing. All of us are far from perfect, so every day we have to get up and try and do better than the day before. A Christian life is all about starting over again every day, with renewed freshness to improve our lives and that is only possible by realising that we have to get through obstacles, through difficult times, through the Cross to improve our interior lives.

All the Gospel readings we have looked at so far make it clear that our destiny depends on the outcome of our encounter with Christ and if we decide to follow Him. He is the only way, the only path by which we will be saved. That salvation will depend on whether or not we 'know' Jesus.... To read on see: www.christianart.today/daily-gospel-reading/153