The Narrow Road
We’ve all heard it before. The simple sentence that makes any class wake up and instantly pay attention. “This will be on the exam.”
There are moments in every class when you know it’s a good time to pay attention.
This morning we’re going to look at a passage where things really get real. In college, I took a computer simulation class, and early in the class the professor told us about the semester-long project that we would be doing in his class. He said that he was going to split us up into groups and the group that did the best would get an A, the second group would get a B and so-on. That was a moment where everyone really perked up! Suddenly, everyone was listening at that point! My group ended up with a B, but we got robbed. That’s beside the point.
In Matthew 7, Jesus is talking to a crowd of people and He says something that I think would perk them up. When Jesus begins to talk about what it really looks like to follow Him, He says this in Matthew 7:13-14:
“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.”
The people who are listening to Jesus in this passage had been following Him, but weren’t yet sure about giving Him their all. These people had been watching and hearing about Jesus healing people all over Galilee. Maybe they’ve heard Him teach before, but here, Jesus gets real: there are two different roads. One is easy and one is hard.
It’s hard work clearing a trail in the woods when no one has gone through there before. And the trail isn’t easy – it’s difficult! I think this is the kind of image Jesus is portraying here: there is a narrow gate and a hard road, but that road leads to life.
At the same time that there is a narrow gate and a hard road, there is an alternative: a wide gate and an easy road. It sounds much better, but Jesus says that this road leads to destruction.
Jesus is essentially laying out two alternatives here. We must choose one. Will we follow Jesus down the difficult road that leads to life? Or will we choose our own way down the wide road that leads to destruction? Which will we choose?
It’s not just a one-time decision, but a life lived on the less-traveled path. Why is it so difficult? Why doesn’t everyone travel the path? Because it is a calling to follow Jesus. We’re not making our own way; we’re following someone. We’re not choosing our own path; we’re following Jesus. We don’t decide; we look to Jesus for direction.
That is difficult – it’s way more comfortable to follow ourselves and make our own choices. Jesus presents Christianity, not as the easy choice, the popular choice or even the least painful choice, but He simply presents following Jesus as the only choice. If we want life, we’ve got to follow Jesus. The other way doesn’t bring life – we don’t make it to the end and get anything other than destruction.
If we’re choosing to follow Jesus – we will walk His path. As we walk the path of Christ, we will begin to bear His good fruit.
Here, Jesus is asking all of us a question: which will we choose? Will we choose to believe the Gospel of Christ and follow Him forever? Or will we choose our own path – a wide one, but one that does not lead to life. Jesus is calling for us to experience Him by following Him – setting our eyes on what He has done and moving in His direction forever!