There are also two gates. For the narrow way, the gate is small. You can’t
drive your car through it. You can’t even squeeze your motor bike through.
Your good ideas won’t go through, and your ego won’t let you go through. You
have to leave your ego behind to get through this small gate. Self-reliance is
left behind. Money doesn’t get a look in. Family background can’t get through,
neither can a good education or church affiliation. The gate is very small.
The other gate is wide. Almost anything and everything goes through quite
comfortably. A fertile imagination, impressive achievements, religious
observance; it’s all good. It’s all socially acceptable. The gates, you will
understand, are both spiritual and human. That is to say, they are spiritual
in that they check your spiritual pulse; they take your spiritual inventory;
they investigate your spiritual disposition. What are you really like? How is
it with your spirit? What goes on inside of you, with your feelings and your
thoughts, your attitudes and your responses to other people and difficult
circumstances? What stirs within your spirit? With what sorts of values and
people is your spirit aligned? Who gets your first allegiance? To what, or
whom, does your spirit respond? But the gates are also profoundly human. Those
who enter the broad gate will find many like-minded people there. Reasonable
people. Accepting people. Understanding people. They know they’re not perfect,
because after all, we’re only human. They know how to live and let live; how
to go along in order to get along. They know how to compromise, to meet others
half-way. And you can bring any amount of luggage you like. At the narrow gate
you find different people. They can also smile and be friendly, but when push
comes to shove you will notice there is something different about them.
They’re aware of their faults; highly self-aware, in fact. They are seldom
pleased with themselves. They don’t really push their own agenda. They don’t
talk too much about themselves. They ask questions, they seek and ask for a
way forward. They check in with an external authority. They don’t always seem
to fit in with the crowd. They are not really impressed with public opinion.
At the wide gate you will find the world-renowned trio: I, me and my. At the
narrow gate you will find Jesus. In fact, Jesus is the narrow gate; whereas my
own will and word and way is the wide gate. The Jewish people were fully
familiar with the concept of the two ways. The idea of the gate was something
new, because Jesus himself is the narrow gate. He is the gate to the narrow
way that leads to life. A last but sobering thought on these verses: “few are
those who find it.” Few is not many. Few is not the majority. Few makes you
look around your family, check out around the Sunday (or Saturday) fellowship
– it makes you pause. Few – does that include me? This is not to make Jesus’
disciples in any way doubt him, or doubt that he has called them to follow
him. No, no – it is a warning. Don’t be fooled by the many. And did you
notice? Few are those who find it! In other words, they’re looking. They’re
seeking. They’re knocking on the door of the throne room incessantly. They’re
asking. So when the Master comes looking for them, they are also looking for
him. He is the one who inspires all this seeking and asking, but the disciples
are the ones who do it. But not many, it seems, are looking.
