Does Matthew 7:13-14 contradict Luke 13:22-29?

Question

Both depict a narrow passageway into the kingdom but Luke records a question, possibly asked by someone responding to Jesus's teaching as recorded in Matthew 7, by asking, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” (Lk 13:23) His answer gives more detail that seems to say, yes and no! (Lk. 13:28-29)

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in that place, when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves thrown out. They will come from east and west, from north and south, to share the banquet in the kingdom of God.

Answer 1

Background
Matthew 7 (ESV)

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

The passage is from the Sermon on the Mount and the interpretation is fairly straightforward. The way which leads to life is hard and few find it. Those who do, enter by the narrow gate. The way which leads to destruction is easy and many use it and enter by a wide gate.

Luke 13

²³ And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, ²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. ²⁵ When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ ²⁶ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ²⁷ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ ²⁸ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. ²⁹ And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Luke's passage is more complicated. It begins with a question. The answer also includes a parable.

Few or Many
To begin, imagine the question interrupting Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount:

Jesus: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Someone: “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”

The question asks two things: 1) Is the way which leads to life, salvation? 2) Will those who are saved be few?

The answer to the question about salvation may seem obvious, but in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus never uses σῴζω, saved. The interruption is to clarify whether Jesus is in fact speaking about salvation. The question about few, or many, can be interpreted as a question about the number or a question about who are saved. The second is the more likely.

Are they few that be saved? (ε ολιγο ο σωζομενοι;). Note use of ε as an interrogative which can be explained as ellipsis or as ει=η (Robertson, Grammar, p. 1024). This was an academic theological problem with the rabbis, the number of the elect. ¹

From a rabbinic perspective, the number of the elect also speaks to the question of who. The answer Jesus gives can be interpreted as speaking to the issue of salvation of both Jews and Gentiles. Luke 13:28b-30 is about the exclusivity of salvation. Some who are Jews by birth will be cast out while others, likely Gentiles, will come from all directions and recline at the table in the Kingdom of God.

This does not speak explicitly to either concern, but it's reasonable to conclude Jesus equates salvation with reclining at the table in the Kingdom of God and includes Gentiles. Regardless of interpreting the precise details, "few" and "many" in Luke should be understood in the light of a question about salvation for Jew and Gentile. For example, since most Jews rejected Jesus, it is accurate to say many (Jews) will be cast out. Therefore, there is no contradiction: few people enter by the narrow gate. Jews are few with respect to mankind but that does not mean many (Jews) will not be cast out.

It is important to apply the parable Jesus uses to understand He is addressing the issue of whether one who is not a Jew is saved.

Gate and Door
Jesus has answered the question about few or many in terms of Jew and Gentile. This is essential to interpreting the answer and the parable which follows. Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many (descendants of Abraham), I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

The way to the narrow gate leading to life is hard. This is speaking to the fact salvation is by faith alone. It is hard for those who practice Judaism to accept salvation is by faith not by works of the law. The few are those descendants of Abraham who accept a truth many will reject.

In addition, in Luke Jesus speaks of a door not a gate.

John 10

¹ “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. ² But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. ⁵ A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶ This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

⁷ So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

In Luke Jesus says, strive to enter through the narrow door (my crucifixion and resurrection). For many, I tell you will, seek and will not be able.

Many must be understood with Jesus as the door, when once the master of the house has risen and shut the door... The risen one is Christ Jesus and He is the door. When He finally shuts the door, it will not be opened.

There is no contradiction between the two teachings.

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1. Robertson Word Pictures in the New Testament

Answer 2

A very interesting question! I would hazard such an interpretation: “you” here means not specifically this person, the questioner, but a, so to say, statistical Jew who thinks that the very fact of being a Jew, a member of the chosen nation physically descending from Abraham, is enough for salvation. Since such Jews were majority and, on the contrary, Jews who correctly understood that taking cross and following Christ’s life of purity and perfection to the point of loving even enemies was a sine qua non for salvation, were minority, then truth of His words stays: few will choose to follow Him.

However, when He indicates the many coming from all parts of the world, He does not contradict of course Himself, but says that salvation is for representatives of all nations of the universe, and those chosen from each nation will come to the blissful banquet of salvation, and since nations are many, such chosen ones will also be many, but they will be few of and in each nation, for few are those who choose the path of perfection in Christ and even many of His disciples could not withstand following this path (cf. John 6:66).

Thus, there is not any contradiction and Christ’s prophesy that many will follow an easy path leading to damnation, while few will follow the difficult path of salvation, is firmly established both for Jews and for all other nations, for all humanity until the end of history.

Answer 3

I believe Matthew is written specially for the Jews and is a warning about rejecting Jesus as the Messiah while Luke is written specially for Gentiles and shows them that they have every right to enter the kingdom if they come to God through their faith in Jesus!

Answer 4

Rather than a contradiction to the "narrow gate" doctrine, what we have in Luke is an application of that idea in the context of the universalization of the gospel. In Matthew, Jesus describes himself as being sent "only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 15:24) His disciples are instructed not to enter Gentile territories. (Matthew 10:5) Only at the end of this gospel does he tell his disciples to go to "all nations." (Matthew 28:19) But Luke, who wrote for a Gentile audience, presents the gospel as being for everyone much earlier. So in Lk. 13:28-29 Luke says that people will come from all over the world to join in the messianic feast, which is described in Isaiah 25:6:

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples. A feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.

In Luke's context, Jesus is still the narrow gate, but Luke adds that the gate will be open to all nations. In Matthew the gate is also narrow, but its availability to nations far and wide is not yet specified. So there is no contradiction, but only Luke mentions that people from all over the world will enter through the narrow gate.