"Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able." This is Jesus’ response to the question, "Lord, will only a few be saved?" In typical fashion, Jesus does not directly answer the query, but redirects the questioner’s curiosity about others’ fate and future with God, to the questioner’s own attitudes and efforts to be in relationship with God. We might paraphrase this response, "Do not speculate about others (Judge not that you be not judged); pay attention to your relation with God, and strive hard." The word that is translated "strive" in this passage is agonizomai, the same root as for the word "agony". In the Greek of Jesus’ day, it meant "to contend for a prize; to fight, to struggle." It denotes "strenuous exercise of muscle and power," like competing in the Olympics, or in an athletic contest.

The "narrow door" echoes many meanings. Not a lot can be carried through a narrow door. It hints at getting rid of non-essentials, giving up extraneous stuff; self-denial, renunciation; giving up excess baggage. It hints at difficulty, endurance, long term effort and struggle.

And the words that follow confirm all of those echoes and meanings of "strive" and "narrow door."

"When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside and to knock… saying, "Lord open to us," in reply he will say to you, "I do not know where you come from." Then you will begin to say, "We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets." But he will say, "I do not know where you come from; go away from me…"

The meaning is that some who thought they knew Jesus, who spent time in his presence, who thought they had a relationship with him, did not put forth enough effort to know him. They treated their relationship with him casually. They took for granted his love and his good will. Casual relationships yield casual results. Superficial relationships yield superficial results. These are sobering words, almost chilling words, because they speak of the human propensity to presume upon God’s goodness, and to treat our relationship with God as a casual and unimportant non-essential and dispensable part of our lives.

The image of the narrow door and the use of the verb "to strive and to struggle" suggest however, that our relationship with God, like all human relationships that are intimate and long-lasting, faithful and profound, requires effort, patience, long suffering and endurance.

There is a reason that Jesus’ words are serious and sobering in this passage. The gospel opens with the statement that he is making his way to Jerusalem. And in the middle of today’s gospel, the Pharisees warn Jesus that Herod is after him and wants him dead. Jesus’ response to their warning is ominous and full of irony. It is as if he is saying, "I can’t be bothered with Herod’s death threats. I’m on my way to Jerusalem. That’s where I will be killed." T.W. Manson writes of Jesus’ response, "There is a bitter irony in the words. Herod must not be greedy: for Jerusalem has first claim on the blood of God’s messengers."

Jesus knows the prophetic tradition. He is aware of the long history of the religious authorities in Jerusalem who persecuted and murdered many of Israel’s prophets. He is no exception. Jerusalem is where his life will end, also, because of the stubborness and hard-heartedness and distrust and hate of the human heart. The religious authorities, yes, but all of God’s people as well, will cry out for his blood.

And this is where we see the agony and pain of God when his love is rejected. Jesus laments, cries, over their inability to accept God’s ways and God’s love. He brings God’s ways and God’s love. He brings God’s pardon and peace, God’s forgiveness and love, and he desires for their sake that they love him and learn to love each other. He wants to embrace and shelter them like a hen gathers her brood. But they do not want to love him and they do not want to love each other. They refuse his love.

"How often I would have gathered you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not." Jesus’ lament is a glimpse into the heart of God.

Jesus’ words are serious and sobering in the passage because he is acutely aware of what he is going to Jerusalem to face. No easy task is it. No casual relationship with God will sustain him in order for him to be willing to pour out his life for others. He must be filled to the brim with knowledge of God’s love for him, and with trust that God will not desert him, and with confidence in God’s fidelity if he is to remain steadfast in embodying that love on the cross, in giving himself so that others may live.

And the truth is that the same is true for us. The way of the cross is the way of denying ourselves so that others may live. Spouses deny themselves for each other; parents deny themselves for their children; friends deny themselves for each other; and children deny themselves for their parents.

In order for us to be willing and able to embrace the good of another before or above our own, we, too, have to be rooted and grounded in the knowledge of God’s love for us, in trust that he will not desert us, and in confidence of God’s fidelity. And the only way we can cultivate that knowledge and trust and confidence is in working at it, making and effort for it, striving after it. We do not strive to earn God’s love; we can’t earn it. We can only strive to let it take root in us, to let it guide us, and to let it sustain us.

"The sacrificial love that Jesus shows on the cross and the love that we are to show others in imitation of him is difficult. It does not come to us naturally. We need a source beyond ourselves to instill it in us, to enable us to do it.

Unfortunately, we have come to think of Lent as a dour and sometimes distasteful season of self-denial. This is unfortunate because in truth, it is a season of renewal. It is a time when we strip away the excesses of our lives in order to make an effort to live closer to God and closer to his ways –0 to be restored in our relationship with him and with each other. It is a kind of spring cleaning of our lives in order to make more room for God and the growth of his love in us. "You bid your faithful people cleanse their hearts, and prepare with joy for the Paschal feast; that, fervent in prayer and in works of mercy, and renewed by your Word and Sacraments, they may come to the fullness of grace which you have prepared for those who love you."

Yes, the love of God is difficult to put into practice. It requires effort, and struggle and striving. It required effort and struggle and striving on the part of Jesus. But God does notask of us what he is not willing to give us. He gave us his love on the cross and he continues to give it every day of our lives.

Lent is a time when we are to renew ourselves in the knowledge of his love, in trust that he will not desert us, in confidence of his fidelity. It requires struggle of us yes, but it is well worth the struggle. It is a love that we need and that we need to practice; and it is a love that the world needs, and the world needs people who will practice it.

May God grant us wisdom and patience and endurance to put forth the effort sustained required to learn and to practice the love he has given us in the cross of Jesus Christ.

The Rev’d Pamela P. Snare is Curate at Christ Church, Covington.

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