Meditation June 16, 2020
Matthew 7
13Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
As some have noted, when we come to this verse, we find Jesus expressing a teaching that violates the greatest of liberal commandments; i.e. thou shalt not be narrow-minded. Jesus says clearly, without hesitation, that there is a narrow way and a broad way; a narrow gate and a broad gate. One gate and way leads to destruction and the other gate and way leads to life. You cannot get to life by the broad way and you cannot get to destruction by the narrow way. This is, I think, the leading thought of the sermon, i.e.; that there are two ways and two kinds of people. There are those born from above who are created new creatures that go one way and there are those who have not been born from above who go another way. The one cannot go in the way of the other.
Jesus may have been pointing or alluding to a nearby city that was in view, for the walled cities has various size gates, gate to accommodate travelers and gates to accommodate merchant caravans. Or he may have been alluding to measures for roads and gates established by Jewish canons with which his listeners would have been aware if only by observation. size of roads and gates opening to them. The smallest of these were private roads; i.e. for single persons with any baggage they may have been carrying. These private gates, the smallest of the main roads or paths from city to city were four cubits wide as established by the Jewish canons. There also were the gates Jesus referred to as the eye of the needle. They were small enough a camel could not enter without stripping any cargo it was carrying and that done the camel would have to stoop to enter. Whether Jesus was referring to the smaller gates, the needle’s eye or a “private gate” is not clear. In any case, the smaller gates were of such small size as to give access yet be easily defended; in other words, too small for a crowd to enter. That is the point Jesus is making. Whatever the gate and way to which he alluded, those to whom he was speaking would have been familiar that there were gates and ways by which crowds entered, exited and traveled between cities and there were gates and ways that simply would not accommodate a crowd. To put it in more contemporary terms, Jesus was saying that if you are running with the crowd, if you can’t tell the difference between yourself and the rest of the world, you are on the road to destruction. He has told them this (see beatitudes) is your new character, he followed that with this is the new behavior, the new conduct, that is consistent with your new character; the things you now do and the things you now avoid. Now he is making it abundantly clear they can’t have it both ways. This idea of a narrow way, though it may have been lost to the people by the time of Jesus, was not a new concept. Isaiah had written seven centuries earlier “and there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it; only those who walk in that Way – and fools will not stray onto it. “ (35:8).
Jesus says to his disciples, “go in through the narrow (stenos from which we get stenosis) gate….” The gate, the door, the entrance through which you passed determined the path that you would take and the path you take determines where your journey will end. Wide gate led to wide roads and narrow gates led to narrow roads. Now, Jesus is using this as an analogy. In reality, at the time of Jesus roads, broad or narrow led from city to city. Never push analogies beyond the point they are making. Jesus envisions not cities but ultimate destinations of life; i.e., to put it plainly, heaven or hell. He is saying there is a way that leads to hell, the broad way, and there is a way that leads to heaven which is the narrow way and the road you travel is going to be determined by the gate through which you pass to begin your journey. He is not talking about the way in which a man goes to get from one city to the next but the way in which a man goes to find salvation and eternal life. To get onto that way, to find the path to eternal life, you must enter the narrow gate. “I am the door…” Jesus says in John 10:9. Jesus teaches neither the heretical doctrine of universalism nor the heretical doctrine there are many ways to God. Rather He teaches that the entrance to life, the entrance to salvation is limited to Himself. I am it, he says, and if you suppose you have gotten onto the path to eternal life by any other door, you are deceived.
John Gill observes that by the narrow gate “is meant Christ Himself; who elsewhere (see John 10 above – HTM) calls Himself the door, as he is into the church below and into all the ordinances and priviliges of it; as also to the Father…He is the gate of heaven. Thus Jesus say “enter at the narrow gate: or as Luke records it, “strive (struggle, agonizethe is the Greek and you will notice we get the English agonize for that) to enter by the narrow gate. In Numbers 22 we read of the encounter of Baalim’s ass with the angel of God. He fist met Baalim on the road. Seeing the angel the donkey ran off the road into the brush and Baalim had to beat him back onto the road. Then the angel of the Lord cut him off in a narrow pass and the donkey crushed Baalim’s foot against the rock attempting to squeeze past the angel. That is a picture of striving, agonizing to enter the narrow gate. It is as if the gate is such that one alone must struggle to squeeze himself through to get onto a similar path. It is the gate of self-sacrifice to the way of self-sacrifice. A couple of years back my daughter, her husband and I hiked a slot canyon. We were quickly introduced to some idea of what lay ahead when discovered the entrance was by way of scrambling over an 8 ft. rock. You didn't take luggage, backpacks and toys with you; only water needed for survival. It was so close that at points the path was too narrow for the width of a man’s foot and one got through by walking on the walls of the canyon. There was sun and rock that had been baking all day in the sun. It was near as hot as one might imagine hell itself. Pleasant is not an adjective you would use to describe the experience and if you did use that anyone with a similar experience would question your whether it was your sanity, your veracity or both that should be held in question. Well, that is the picture of the way Jesus is here saying we must go. The difference is this: at the end of Little Wild Horse Canyon, the only reward was having survived it and whatever reward may come from now being able to say, “I have done that,” at the end of the narrow way Jesus would have you follow lies the heavenly city, life eternal and the marriage feast of the Lamb. It is that important. Either you squeeze in or you don’t get in. It takes self-sacrifice. If we have been paying attention throughout the sermon, we realize it has been about self-sacrifice all along, the giving up of the natural man to the new man, and the new man exercising his new character in sacrifice, in organizing his priorities as God, his fellow man and then himself.
Struggle to enter by the narrow gate for having entered you will find an ever-present help in time of trouble as you navigate the narrow way. (Psalm 45:1) For Jesus has promised He would not leave us alone but that He would send a Helper (John 14:16).
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