Matthew 7:8-14 … The Narrow Gate (10/25/16)
“For the Gate is narrow and the Road is hard that leads to Life, and there are few who find It … [though] everyone who Searches, [does indeed] find It.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 7:14+8)
It is easy to see why so many Christians read these and similar verses as saying that Jesus was only open to saving a few “good souls” – that Jesus was somehow only open to redeeming those few who happened to subscribe to the teachings of Paul by worshiping him as the only Son of God … Indeed it is these same dogmatic “Paulinists” (known today as “Christians”) who would have us believe that worshiping Jesus himself is the very “narrow way” Jesus himself mentions in such passages – essentially, having us believe that Jesus was a hypocrite; that he openly abandoned the very same humility that he demanded of others (see Matthew 18:3-4), and that he openly exuded the same pride that he so soundly & repeatedly denounced (see Matthew 23:12) …
And yet this is not how we must read this passage, my Friends. It is indeed possible to read it differently; to read it without selling Jesus so short – just as it is indeed possible to read it without making God out to be such a capricious masochist. For if we read Jesus’ teachings in their entirety, it is quite clear that the Narrow Way of which he speaks has nothing at all to do with worshiping him (see Mark 10:18, John 7:16, John 12:44 et al) and everything to do with enlivening a Way of Being – a Way of Caring – a Way of Loving – a Way of Living with others that puts their own needs above our own – a Way of selfless Kindness that is indeed “the road that leads to [a Meaning-full] life.”
And yes, it is indeed a road that requires immense courage, and thus it is indeed a road few choose to find. And yet it is also just as true that every single person who exhibits the requisite humility to seek it – and then the requisite courage to leap upon and walk it – is indeed guaranteed to both find it and revel thereupon.
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