The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. – Luke 16:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 21, 2014): Luke 16

At some point in our history, we decided that we needed gatekeepers, people who could restrict access to certain people or certain places. The gatekeepers are given the responsibility of deciding who gets in and who remains on the outside. Admittedly, sometimes gatekeepers are a frustrating reality of our society. The can be arbitrary and petty officials who get a sense of personal importance by being able to admit some people while keeping others out. Of course that could simply be my overly cynical view due to my recent experiences with my own set of gatekeepers.

The Law of Moses essentially functioned as a gatekeeper. It described, in no uncertain terms, who was in and who was out. The most obvious example, although not the only example, of the function of gatekeeper involved who was able to enter into the Temple. The tribe of Levi were proclaimed by the Law as the only ones allowed into the inner most parts of the Temple. The Law then specified that the next available space was to be the domain of the men who had been circumcised and who had followed the precepts of the law. The next area was the Court of Women. This was the place where Law keeping women were welcome. And then the last and outermost area was the Court of the Gentiles. This was the area where the gatekeepers were absent and anyone could come. But the Court of Gentiles was far removed from the place where the Jews believed that God resided. They were forever on the outside, looking (But in reality too far away from the action to see anything. From the time of Moses until the time of John the Baptist, this was the spiritual reality of the nation.

But then Jesus came on the scene. The message of Jesus was a little different, especially in regard to gatekeepers, because it made absolutely no provision for them – no expectation that some would be allowed in while others were kept out. And at the moment of Jesus death the curtain that divided the Holy of Holies, the most holy place and the place where only the High Priest was allowed by the gatekeeper to enter, and then only allowed to enter once a year, was ripped in two and this most holy place was laid open for anyone who wanted to take a look. The gatekeeper had suddenly (and violently) left and anyone was allowed to come in. the day of the gatekeeper was over, and this was the final illustration of what Jesus had always taught, that everyone was allowed entrance into the Kingdom. This was gospel message, literally the good news.

But the problem, especially for the religious structure of the day, was that the wrong people began to enter. This new movement started to be filled with the poor, and tax-collectors and prostitutes, and people who had up until this day been kept outside the outermost gate of the temple. For the first time the excluded became the included - the gatekeepers had mysteriously vanished – and the religious elite began to wonder what had happened to their ordered world.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 17