Insiders, Outsiders, Judgment, and the Kingdom

I often don't quite know what to make of a Scripture passage when I first read it, and that is the case with today's gospel reading. I don't do any research or study with my devotional readings, and so sometimes I simply tumble things around in my head without any precise meaning. Today I'm thinking about the kingdom, mustard seeds, leaven, narrow gates, insiders who are locked out, and the last who become first. It's quite a mixture.

An uncomfortable piece to this reading is the notion of judgment. Like a lot of people, I'm much bigger on forgiveness, grace, and unconditional divine love than I am on judgment. But today's reading clearly speaks of a narrow gate and people who thought they had an invitation to the party but were told, "I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!"

I've read Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, and I'm familiar with his warnings against "cheap grace," forgiveness without repentance and grace without obedience. But I still have trouble reconciling notions of love and grace that nonetheless insist we be changed by that grace.

Perhaps part of my struggle with judgment arises from the Church's all too common practice of speaking judgment against outsiders, those who aren't Christian or not the right kind of Christian. But Jesus' words of judgment are most often aimed at religious insiders, not outsiders. And that seems to be the case today where insiders are locked out and watch as all manner of folks " from east and west, from north and south," get welcomed into the party. It is insiders, it seems, who most need to be reminded of the requirements of obedience and discipleship.

I'm not about to make any clear-cut doctrinal statements about judgment based on my brief, devotional meditation on today's gospel. I'm not entirely clear whether Jesus is speaking of an ultimate, final judgment, or simply doing what prophets have long done, warn people that they need to change. Regardless, it is abundantly clear that the call of Jesus is to a very particular way of living in the world, one that requires faith, obedience, and assistance from the Spirit. And I can always stand to be reminded of that.

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