Small is the Gate and Narrow is the Road

 " Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

Matthew 7:13-14

    As we draw near to the end of this message, Jesus continues to hold nothing back and speak nothing but truth. "The path to heaven is guarded by 2 gates, the wide gate and the narrow, choose the narrow one for it is the right path, and fewer people will walk it."(paraphrased) . I live in a college town. At the entrance to the college is a grand archway. If you observe it on any given day, you will find 2 types of people around it, the people who go through the arch, and people who go around. As kind of an unspoken superstition, anyone new to the school is informed by fellow students that if you walk through the arch before you have graduated, you will inevitably not graduate. So, even though there is no lock or even a physical door, day in and day out, students walk around the big beautiful arch. Anyone who you see walking through the arch has either finally graduated, or they simply have no reason to avoid it. 

    In this parable of Jesus, he is saying that the wide gate, the path around the arch, is common, easy and popular. It is the ways of the world that are not always deadly or hazardous, but they are things the world has deemed ok. It is the christians who praise God on Sunday, or even just Easter and Christmas, and then live their life however they want for the rest of the week/year. They might act spiritual, but when people aren't watching, they participate in activities that don't bring glory to God. I'm not even talking about major law-breaking or big things. I am referring to the petty things that can cloud our lives. Gossiping, judging, cursing, etc. These things can sneak their way into any commonplace church, and slowly ruin a person from the inside. 

    The second gate is a little more narrow. It isn't flashy or always pleasing to the eye. The only way though this gate is to live a life practically opposite of the world. It's choosing to love people even if something they do differently bothers you. It is holding your tongue when gossip and slander try to slip their ugly heads into a conversation. It is striving everyday to keep your mind and heart pure, so the things that come out of your mouth are also clean and pure. As hard as this may sound, Jesus still forgives us anytime we slip up and fall into pettiness or just backtrack on the path a little. The gracious thing about God is that He knows we are still human, and until he calls us home, there will be moments of weakness that trip us up. A stumble does not kick us off the path, instead it reminds us to shift our focus back to the guide, our Heavenly Father, and ask him to forgive us so we can continue through the gate he has laid out for us. 

    Choose the narrow path, for it leads to a life that is righteous and good, and choose to live a life pleasing to God in all things. 

Adam Semple- A Young Man on a Journey Through the Sermon on the Mount