The narrow gate and its narrow path

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Those who heard Billy Graham preach in Australia may recall hearing him expound this passage. Except when Billy read it out, it became a “narra” gate. “It’s a narra gate. But thank God there’s a gate!” Once you have heard it said that way, it tends to stick.

Billy Graham used it because the analogy of salvation being like entering through a gate lends itself so beautifully to evangelism, at least the mass preaching evangelism he mastered.

Nobody should have a problem with that because I think it accurately reflects the way Jesus used it in the sermon on the mount., but what is not often noticed is that Jesus placed just as much emphasis on the path which led beyond the gate (or to it depending on your interpretation!) It is this path we tread as Christians.

No easy path   
What is important to establish is that Jesus was making the claim that the Christian life (ie here likened to walking the path) takes a concerted effort. There is no point trying to explain away the fact that Jesus used “narrow” for both the gate and the path. He means that they are both more difficult than the alternative.

This is not something which gets a lot of support today. Large slabs of the Church have turned this path into a glorious escalator ride, a bit like those at the airport. You can drag your bags up the carpet or just take one step to the right and ride smoothly to your destination. “Sure, the escalator is narrow,” the theory goes, “but it’s much better than walking and they both end up at the same place.”

This is nothing like the metaphor Jesus is using. The choice he gives is not between an easy way or a hard way of doing the same thing. He forces his hearers to choose between one way which really takes no decision at all (the wide gate) and one in which the cost must be counted (going through the narrow gate is no accident).

Gate then path, or path then gate?
Perhaps one of the reasons so little is said about this passage is there has been much discussion about the order of the gate & path.

Some see the gate being the entry point which is followed by a long path (either wide or narrow) and others see the path coming first with the gate at the end.

A third possibility is that the two images combine to mean one can only enter the narrow gate by walking the hard way.

Personally, I see the first option fitting the context, but option three certainly seems possible if we consider the bulk of Jesus’ teaching on this subject. The Christian life is hard, not just the initial decision, and this life is marked by perseverance.

In relation to the unsaved, the picture you get is of a throng wandering through a gate so wide, they are not really choosing the gate at all. They are simply meandering to destruction.

They have chosen this path in one sense, yet in another it is really a choice by neglect. It is like dying from a small cut which was allowed to become infected and then fester until toxic poisoning occurs. Doing nothing much is also a choice.

I suppose the main difference between how I read this passage now and how Billy Graham used it in his crusades, is that I don’t see it only as applying to the initial decision to follow Christ. I don’t assume Billy Graham did either. I think he had a good grasp on the life long demands Jesus was making on every believer, but I don’t now turn to Matthew 7 because there are non-Christians in the room. It’s applicable no matter who is there.

Commitment
I think the main application to the Christian life (after acknowledging the way is tough) is to see that Jesus is calling for committed disciples.

There is certainly a Jewish context to the whole sermon on the mount, so that needs to be understood. This was a unique time: the messiah speaking to his ethnic people.

Jesus’ “disciples” are therefore not full-fledged Christians in the post-Pentecost sense. Jesus is dealing with people more or less committed to him but who have not yet really entered on the “Christian” way. How could they have entered on it? Only now was it being introduced into the stream of redemptive history as the fulfilment of what had come before. ¹

However, the words of Jesus were being spoken down the ages to generations to come all over the globe. It is both a warning and an encouragement. A warning that this will not be an easy walk. The way is tough ahead.

But it is also a call to roll up your sleeves and steel yourself for the challenge. Jesus was not afraid of speaking about the hard yards which lay ahead of him and I think here he presents the same outlook to his disciples.

The troubled path is not the issue, for it leads to life. It is worth it. The opposite can be said of the broad road.

So, the words of Jesus serve several purposes: they call the Old Covenant people to their messiah, they call non-believers to Jesus and they call Christians to persevere in the faith.

The choice is clear: follow the crowd with its characteristic bent toward taking the path of least resistance, or join the few who accept the limiting demands of loyalty. The easy way will turn out hard (it ends in destruction), whereas the hard way will lead to eternal joy (life) ²

Footnotes

1. Carson, D.A. 1984, Matthew, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Zondervan, pp189-190.
2. Mounce, R. 1991, Matthew, New International Biblical Commentary, Hendrickson Publishers, p67.