Thoughts for the Day

The Narrow Gate

‘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.'

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Castles have existed in the world for thousands of years. The first ones, some 3,500+ years before Christ, were often created out of cave systems, but from medieval times they were enormous man made bastions of power. Most castles had a wide entrance suitable for horses, soldiers and villagers to enter, often with a drawbridge and a portcullis, but also with various traps like murder holes to pour boiling oil down upon invaders. However, castles would also have had at least one postern gate. If the castle was besieged it still needed to get messages in or out. This small hidden gate was easily defended because it allowed only one person (and no horses) to use it at any one time.

If we take a castle as a metaphor for Jesus words on how to live this life, then visitors would have been made welcome into the castle when the drawbridge was down and the gates were wide open; but only those who searched and found the small hidden entrance would be allowed to enter its narrow gate. The wide castle gate allows everyone access, Jesus says, but it's the way to destruction (hell), whereas the tiny postern gate has to be discovered and only allows few people entrance, though this he says, is the way to life (heaven).

The narrowness of the small gate implies difficulty - to find its existence, for instance - and we have to make a deliberate choice to leave the wide road to the castle where the majority of people are heading. The broadness of this path suggests ease and the tendency to follow the crowd. But choosing to leave the crowd should also be carefully examined, to make sure it's not just stubbornness and a desire to be different to everyone else. To attain eternal life means we need to measure all our choices through the eyes of faith; we need to learn to obey Jesus' commands; and we need to keep on searching for the right route with every decision we make. May God then bring us to our real home in time!

Lord Jesus Christ,
may we not just follow choices made by others,
but give prayerful consideration to our decisions.
May we use Your words in our Gospels
as touchstones for the way we live.
Keep us searching for the right path to follow
and constantly questioning the way to go.
Then deepen our faith
and our desire to follow Your word,
through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.