As a Christian minister, I also serve as the lead for our local multifaith network in our borough in the UK, working closely with people of faiths in our common pursuit for peace and justice initiatives. It has been quite a learning experience of being with friends of many faiths, engaging in healthy conversations, enjoying mutual hospitalities, seeking commonalities in our quest for love, and collectively involved in the work of peace. However, few of my Christian friends have asked me how can I as a Christian partake and work with people whose faiths are different from Christian faith? Can we as believers be in the company of ‘non-believers?’ Are we not as Christians called out communities, for we are saved people? Don’t we as people of Christian faith subscribe to the fact that only a few chosen are saved? Isn’t interfaith work a compromise of Christian faith? 

I am rather not surprised to receive these questions from my Christian friends, for all I could notice and analyse is how colonial understanding of Christian faith is at play here in this context. A colonial understanding of Christian faith has always thrived on ‘othering’ difference, employing a ‘divide and rule,’ principle, ingraining exclusivism on one hand and demonising the ‘other’ on another hand, by emphasising that only a few are saved, and the rest stay out. Allow me to pick this question ‘will only a few be saved?’ and offer a decolonial hermeneutical reading of it, particularly in the context of interfaith/multifaith engagements today. 

In the reading from Luke 13:22-30, we notice that when Jesus was on a mission of visiting cities, towns, and villages, (for the mission of Jesus is about a movement) a certain person enquired “will only a few people be saved?” We haven’t got any details of the person enquiring this question here. However, what we can infer about this person from their question is that; this person knew about Jesus’s growing movement, for they were longing to be saved and would have recognised that Jesus is the Messiah who has come to liberate them from their bondages. This question was born of the religious-cultural-political context of this person. For living under the oppressive Roman empire who have invaded their lands and are stealing the hard work of their hands, this person wanted to be saved from such cruel colonial rule. On the other hand, with the temple religious right leaders exploiting the vulnerable, this person would have been longing to be saved from their clutches. Maybe the kind of religious tradition this person was being nurtured in would have mentioned that only a few will be saved if they follow the dos and don’ts of that tradition rigorously. Therefore, to an expansive, all-inclusive mission of Jesus, this person enquires, “will only a few be saved?”

To such a question, Jesus could have answered with a yes or a no, but like in other instances, Jesus offers three different responses to this person. Firstly, Jesus says in verse 24 to try to enter the narrow door. The word for ‘try’ in its original Greek, is agonizomai, which means to “agonise”, and in my Telugu language, it is translated as poradumu, which means to struggle, to strive and to work hard. Jesus’s first response to the question, “will only a few be saved,” is to keep striving to enter the narrow door, is to keep busy living and journeying a life of solidarity with the crushed and broken people, as a way of discipleship. Narrow door experience for Jesus is about choosing the way of love, peace and justice, a door where people experience struggle for life. Narrow door experience is where people go through suffering for the cause of justice, where people experience crucifixion for the way they stand up against the oppressive regimes, and where people love others recklessly and selflessly transcending all boundaries and barriers. 

Secondly, Jesus responds with a parable of a house owner who has stood up and shut the door. In this parable, the person knows the address of the house owner, knows who the house owner is, and then comes to knock on the door to be opened. The person comes and knocks on the door saying, “please open the door, it is us.” Those knocking on the door may not then be a singular person, rather they are a community of people saying, “it is us.” The owner replies that he neither knows this person, nor the community, nor knows where they come from. When the one knocking door reminds the owner of the house that they all had a good company of eating together and drinking together, thinking that will help them to an open-door experience, the head of the house says, sorry I don’t know where you come from. They have missed a narrow door experience. For the door to be opened, a narrow door experience matters. It is important to understand that salvation is not based on human striving, rather it is a gift of God, it is by and through the grace of God, based on God’s terms and not on human merit. One might then ask, what is this emphasis on striving for a narrow door experience? Well, the person who asked this question, “will only a few be saved?” I think has already received salvation, for he was found by Jesus in his town, and as such was able to enquire further with Jesus Christ. So, striving for a narrow door experience is a result of living a saved life – reflects a salvific experience and not a qualification to be saved or to receive salvation. 

Thirdly, Jesus responds with an all-inclusive open banquet, where people from all directions, particularly people who are considered ‘last’ will find a seat at a feast in the Kingdom of God. In a way, Jesus’s reply to “will only a few be saved?” begins with striving for a narrow door and ends with an ever-widening door, where people from all directions, particularly the last, the least, and the lost will be at that bountiful table. It will be a surprising feast, with those considering themselves to be in might not make it, and those who are not prominent in their faith will make it to the feast.

In what ways are we striving for a narrow door experience in our pluralistic contexts today?

As a community of faith, describe our actions where ‘love is real in giving and receiving?’ 

Make a visit and engage in your local interfaith work as our Christian witness today. 

Let us reflect on this Christian hymn by Michael Forster from the hymnal Singing the Faith:

Let love be real, in giving and receiving,
Without the need to manage and to own;
A haven free from posing and pretending,
Where every weakness may be safely known.
Give me your hand, along the desert pathway,
Give me your love wherever we may go.
As God loves us, so let us love each other;
With no demands, just open hands and space to grow.

Let love be real, not grasping or confining,
That strange embrace that holds yet sets us free;
That helps us face the risk of truly living,
And makes us brave to be what we might be.
Give me your strength when all my words are weakness;
Give me your love in spite of all you know.
As God loves us, so let us love each other;
With no demands, just open hands and space to grow.
Let love be real, with no manipulation,

No secret wish to harness or control;
Let us accept each other’s incompleteness,
And share the joy of learning to be whole.
Give me your hope through dreams and disappointments
Give me your trust when all my failings show.
As God loves us, so let us love each other;
With no demands, just open hands and space to grow.