Matthew 7:13-14
Jesus uses another word picture here: a fork in the road. One fork is wide and well paved, the other fork is narrow and difficult. However, Jesus doesn't leave his audience guessing what the destination of each fork is. The easy path is only temporarily easy for it leads to destruction. The narrow path is only temporarily difficult for it leads to life. However, the narrow path is easy to miss. Lots of people miss the turn off. Wow! That's actually a very contemporary example! I always pictured these roads as ancient roads but as I think about it, we could still use this word picture very easily today.
Jesus is beginning to wind up his sermon about how our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven. He is clear that now a choice must be made: are you going to continue on the path that you've always gone down and many people have gone down before and continue to go down now? Or are you going to seek for that narrow path until you find it and knock on the narrow gate until the door is opened to you? The narrow path, while more difficult to find, less popular and more difficult to travel will lead the traveller to the kingdom.
I think there are two cautions for me. First, Jesus is not telling me to disagree with people just for the sake of disagreeing with them. I can't claim to be on the narrow path just because my position is unpopular. Being unpopular does not make it right. Second, and on the flip side, I must carefully evaluate if I am just being swept along by the majority's views and philosophies and miss the turn off for the narrow path without realizing it. Jesus is telling us to choose the right path, the right way of thinking, the right way of viewing the world, the right way of acting and believing no matter how few or how many are thinking, acting, viewing and believing the same thing. The path way is to be evaluated on its rightness or wrongness and not on its popularity. However, he makes it clear that most people will not choose the right path most of the time. I need to pray for wisdom, discernment and courage to know which path leads to life in every situation I face.
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It is interesting, and sad how brain washed we have become by western society, which I think is not the narrow road. The bible paints us a picture of what the narrow road looks like, and I think Jesus was right when he says many have missed it. May we stop following cultural patterns and may we start following Jesus, the Jesus we see in these scriptures, I think it is time for a revival, so in going out with cultural terms, "Let's start a riot." I am not talking about a typical riot, but let's become people who are unwilling to put up with our consumer driven life style, and want to cahnge that over for the Kingdom of God. Lets find that narrow road, and be a sign for God that points others to the narrow road.
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