Forcing His Way Into The Kingdom (Luke 16:16)

 


Thursday, March 27, 2025


Psalm 68:1-20

Genesis 49:1-21

Luke 16:14-31


Forcing His Way Into The Kingdom (Luke 16:16)


Today’s verse for the day is a curious one. If you have some spare time today, I would encourage you to go online and compare all the different ways that different Bibles have translated it, particularly the last bit. Your own translation might be one of the more gentle ones: that everyone is being strongly urged to enter the kingdom of God. Perhaps yours is a bit more forceful: that everyone is now forcing their way into the kingdom of God. Maybe you have a more boutique translation, suggesting that everyone that is entering the kingdom is under attack, or is entering into the kingdom of heaven violently.


It is a tricky word to get right in English; perhaps we could be a little Shakespearean and accept the King James version, that everyone is pressing into the kingdom of God. It calls to mind images of train carriages in Japan, when it pulls up to the platform and a great mass of people surge on; or like in India, where you have people piled in everywhere, even sitting on the roof.


The Law and the Prophets are still in effect; the covenant God made with Adam and Eve still holds and is being fulfilled in Jesus. But with Jesus we have the clearest revelation of that covenant, and we like what we see, and so we are surging and pressing and forcing our way into the kingdom of God. Meanwhile the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all the things Jesus had to say, and they ridiculed him.


Here we have Jesus giving us probably the clearest teaching on how opposed the love of money is to the love of God. The Parable of Dives and Lazarus (dives being Latin for “rich man”) is the great image of that divide. Abraham, in his reply to Dives, explains: “between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.” (v. 26)


Since trains had not yet been invented, Jesus used this parable so that his hearers would understand. But perhaps there is something to be said about the image of a train pulling up to the platform. It rolls to a stop, the doors open, and the conductor blows his whistle for all aboard. A great mass of people surge to get on; they are pressing in, forcing their way on board. Meanwhile, the lovers of money are standing back at the magazine stand, ridiculing them for not staying behind and chasing money like they are. But the train will one day pull out from the station; those who love money will be left behind; we will all die and face the judgement seat of Christ; the chasm will be fixed.


Are pressing in, forcing your way into the kingdom of God?


God of Abraham, in whose presence is the refreshing water of life: teach to us listen carefully to your Law and your Prophets and to the One who died and rose again, so that we may hear your strong encouragement to press on into your kingdom.

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