Hell is not a topic that easily trips off our lips, the elephant in the room we are trying to avoid whilst we get on with the business of life. No one likes the thought of Hell and would rather have had Jesus and the Church not mentioned it at all – but Jesus does. Uncomfortably bold and in searing description His vision of Hell is terrifying, lucid and direct. No one can come away from the Gospels and say we didn’t know. When we do think of Hell we ask the ‘what’ or ‘who’ goes to it? We might ask why there is a need for it, but in this article, I want to ask the question; why Jesus mentions it at all? I think by answering this question we can begin to answer the others.
Why Talk About Hell?
Let us just briefly sketch why Jesus came in the first place…’ He came ‘to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross’. He is the light of the world. He is the Bread of Life. He came to bring us life and life in abundance. He has invited us the great marriage feast of the lamb where we can join with Him and all the faithful for ages to come in the joy of the Father. He was the promise and fulfilment of the covenant God made with Abraham and then reaffirmed and deepened with Moses and the people of Israel. Sometimes it is hard to fully grasp these things but when we read the Bible it might be good to read it the way the early Christians did. When the Fathers expounded on what they read they often saw typology throughout scripture – namely that a person or event in the Jewish Scriptures was pointing to Jesus. We too should read the Gospels this way and when we do, it opens up a rich seam in which we can delve ever deeper into the mystery of God. Therefore, if we are to understand the passages in the gospels about hell let us see if this lens makes it clearer?
Luke 13:1 – 31 (Read the passage as we go).
Luke thirteen is an incredibly challenging chapter but it is forcibly demonstrating the new Kingdom Christ was inaugurating. First, Jesus mentions two tragedies; a building collapse killing 18 people and the (presumably) murder of a group of Galileans by Roman forces which led to Pilate mingling their blood in ritual sacrifice – Jesus does not show direct compassion for them, instead He uses it as a simple lesson – repent or die like them. However he is not talking about kowtowing to Roman authority, instead He wanted to teach about the Kingdom of God and eschatology in particular.
He continues in the dialogue with the first of three parables, the parable of the barren fig tree. Figs were symbols of prosperity and good fortune over the House of Israel, ‘every man will sit under his vine and fig tree’ spoken by the Prophet Micah in chapter four as part of his famous Messianic prophecy and of the future Church as well. But in Jesus story this fig tree was barren, it was for the chop as St John the Baptist preached for all those not producing good fruit. However the gardner advocated for it and it got a stay with more time given to see if it would produce. Patience and mercy but judgement would come.
The events in Luke 13 appears to have happened at different times, with a division between verses 1-9, (possibly) 10-21 and then 22 – 35. But Luke’s a master editor and had a theological point to make which continued for he chose to highlight a woman’s healing on the the Sabbath that garnered negative attention from the Synagogues leaders. However Jesus calls them out as hypocrites in a voice that thunders with despair at the hard heartedness:
And ought this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for 18yrs be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?
Again, Jesus was saying more here; He of course called himself elsewhere the Lord of the Sabbath whose meaning we find succinctly laid out in Hebrews chapters three and four. The people of Israel had been disobedient to God in the desert, murmuring against God and Moses and so God swore that none of those who he had taken out of Egypt would enter the Promised land (barring some notable exceptions) which Psalm 95 took up later as ‘they shall not enter my rest’. But Jesus understood Himself as the Lord of this rest, He was the door into it and so in Hebrews we find the warning, to take care that we really do enter this rest and not sin as they did in the desert, St Paul also warns the Corinthians of the same thing. To Jesus and the Church the Sabbath is a day of healing and resurrection and ultimately a return from exile.
Then Luke includes what seems two contrasting parables to what has been these large brushstrokes of the Kingdom picture Jesus is painting. Yet again He is not allowing His followers to think that the Kingdom was going to be what they thought. It would indeed be large and all could find their home in it; that it was potent and would spread everywhere, but it would not look like armies in bright shining mail with tall horses and heavy chariots. It would come through the weak, the reviled, the beaten – the fools of the world, the meek and the poor in spirit.
Then we get to the crux of this great fresco Jesus is presenting to us in Luke 13 and the focus of our attention.
The Narrow Door
This begins with a question; how many will be saved? Saved from what? We must remember this phrase carries with it a different meaning to us than it might a listener in 1st century Judea. The Messiah was long expected to bring peace to Israel and destruction to its enemies but in this ‘Day of the Lord’ tribulation would precede it as prophesised by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos and the other Minor Prophets – Jewish eschatology expected only a ‘remnant’ to survive and this remnant would be holy and follow Gods laws perfectly – as Joel prophesised, God would pour out His Spirit on all people. Amongst the foreboding thickets of prophetic destruction raining down on His people - ’a small splash of white among the deluges and the thunder’ (Magnus, G. Mackay Brown) – God always remembers His covenant and desires no one to be destroyed. He achieved this through Jesus Christ and we should note then His response in the next few verses will encapsulate these thoughts.
Knocking
What always strikes me about the phrase ‘When once the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and knock at the door’ – is the opposite of Jesus’ words on seeking, knocking, and asking. In those verses and others Jesus’ rewards patience and persistence but here in Luke 13, this being eschatological, He is saying the door will be shut and some will not get in. Like in the parable of the barren fig tree, there will be a time of mercy and then a shutting out. Up to this point, many Jews would have heard this and agreed but then Jesus launches into the punchline – Jesus was making the point that many of the Jews in his hearing will not enter the kingdom just because they are sons and daughters of Abraham – he then evokes some of the OT prophecies of the gathering of a remnant of Israel adding the Gentiles in this new reunited family. Jesus says it more starkly in Mathew’s Gospel; after commending the faith of a Roman centurion he states the same words of gathering from east and west but adds ‘the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness’. This would have deeply shocked his Jewish hearers.
Brooding Hens
Finally Jesus concludes with an OT laden lament of Jerusalem and the way it killed the messengers God sent them. He uses the picture of a hen gathering her chicks which is actually a reference to the idea that in a time of crisis, like fire, a hen will protect her chicks completely and suffer the consequences. She would bare the brunt of the fire and then they would live. Yet, his people would not be protected in the shadow of God and so would not enter into the kingdom as they hoped until they sang ‘blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’ - taken from Psalm 118:26 affirming the cornerstone laid by God as the one who saves; which of course is Jesus.
Conclusion
To pull all this together then, we find the common theme in Luke 13 is the longed for promises of the return of the exiled. Not to merely an earthly Jerusalem but a heavenly kingdom that would gather in people from across the globe, uniting both Jew and Gentile as one body which is Christ. So, to answer our original question; why did Jesus talk about hell? It is because He is the fulfilment of all the promises in the Jewish Scripture, the longed-for Davidic King that will unite the Jews and bring back a new era of peace and holiness. Jesus’ eschatological passages are intrinsically linked with the prophecies of the OT that talk of gathering and banqueting, of those who are being cut off and those who are being invited in. He will fulfill the prophecies of subduing the enemies of this Kingdom when He comes again for the final judgement. He is the means of entry into the Kingdom via his judiciary role paid for by his own death and resurrection. We are in the time of ‘eating and drinking and hearing him teach in our streets’ but another time will come that we won’t know and find the door shut, let us hope we are on the right side.