Jesus & the Prophets – the Narrow Gate … (11/03/18)
The book of Isaiah was without doubt one of Jesus’ favorites, so it comes as no surprise that he seemed to extract one of his ministry’s favorite metaphors from the same – namely, the Narrow Gate (representing the self-sacrificial entrance to the “difficult road” that runs directly between the safety of emotional callousness and the decadence of material abundance) – with Isaiah 35:8 (“A road shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way … It shall be for God’s people and no traveler upon it, not even fools, shall go astray”) clearly being one of the primary inspirations for Matthew 7:13-14‘s “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road smooth that leads to destruction – and there are many who take it, while the gate is narrow and the road challenging that leads to life – and there are few who find it.”1 (see also Luke 13:23-24)
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1 NOTE that even though Jesus truthfully exclaims that few end up finding and then traveling this most noble road, he also makes the incredibly important point in Matthew 7:7 that all who earnestly seek that Way do indeed find it.
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