Jesus started his final trip to Jerusalem. He was in a hurry, but not so much a hurry that he quickly passed people. Jesus stopped by every big town and small village he passed. He did not stop to rest. He stopped to teach the people about the kingdom of God, his favorite subject these last few months.
An unnamed person asked, “Lord, are only a few going to be saved?” The person was probably a believer for he called Jesus Lord. “Lord” is “Kyrios” in the original Greek, a designation of supremacy. “Saved” is the Greek verb “sozo” meaning “to make whole”, “to be whole”, and “to heal” while implying a person is delivered and protected. Why did he ask this question?
Several reasons exist for what led this person to ask this question. Perhaps he heard and thought about what Jesus had taught in verses 2-9. Jesus’ teachings had convicted him because he was an average person of his day, no different than those Pilate had desecrated or who were killed when the tower collapsed. Jesus said he had to repent or he would perish.
Another possibility was the person noticed how although many came to hear Jesus so that there were often large crowds, few actually remained loyal to Jesus and followed him. This would explain Jesus’ answer about not putting off making a decision and thus being fickle.
Or perhaps the unnamed person could not accept how everyone needed repentance even though many, he thought appeared to be good people who obeyed God’s law and were good citizens.
A slight possibility is that this person was trying to trap Jesus. If Jesus answered, “Yes,” then many could have left Jesus in contempt. Another slight possibility was that he admired Jesus’ hard-line stand he also believed everyone needed to repent.
No matter which, Jesus’ answer in tomorrow’s BDBD would have been and still is a shocker.
