The Narrow Gate
Matthew 7.13-14, ‘Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
These words, spoken by Jesus near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, have been interpreted in many ways. Some say it referred to the gates of the city of Jerusalem and others take the narrow gate to be heavenly while the wide gate is the doorway to hell.
To me, this saying resonates with almost all of scripture, which, time and time again, emphasizes the inconspicuous and the overlooked. Joseph was the last of the sons of Jacob. The descendants of Abraham, slaving away in Egypt, were invisible to history for thousands of years. David, the least of the sons of Jesse, was left out to tend the sheep and no one thought he would even be considered by Samuel for the kingship of Israel. Elijah was the greatest of prophets but spoke barely 100 words to those in power. I could go on, right up to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a poor and tiny hamlet no one cared about.
I have heard it said that the Bible is the only major religious scripture in the world written from the point of view of the underdog, the forgotten, the least. This may or may not be true, but there is no doubt that our tradition emphasizes those aspects of life and faith that often go unseen. “The last shall be first and the first shall be last,” said Jesus later in Matthew, “many are called, but few are chosen.”
This upside-down nature of our faith extends right up to the point at which Jesus, God incarnate, was executed by the religious and political authorities of his day. On that day even God was invisible, not seen, inconspicuous, overlooked.
My reading of this passage tells me: listen and look and be awake to the small things in the world: that marginalized person, or that unusual set of circumstances, or the still small voice of your conscience (which is often the still small voice of God), telling you what you should do in small moments when no one is watching.
Forget about the big deals, the grand and showy, and easy things. Forget about being first in line. Forget about the obvious view. Be on the lookout for the small choices and the forgotten people and the road less traveled, for these are the decisions and the people and the way that leads to the Kingdom of God.
Paul Wallace, Pastor for Adult Education, First Baptist Decatur