Widening the Narrow Road

“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 NIV)

Almost anywhere you travel, you will run into road construction.  Bright orange cones and barricades greet you on practically every highway at some point.  Most of the road construction is intended, eventually, to make it easier for travelers to get from point A to point B, and often it involves widening the existing road.  

I see a spiritual parallel to this in the many who try to make it easier and easier for people to get into the Kingdom of God.  Paul and Jude ran into this at the very beginning of the Church.  Teachers were telling people that God’s grace widened the path, that sin didn’t matter and, thus, one could live as he pleased and still get into heaven.  And that teaching, in some form or other, has continued down to the present.  

In the past century, the “sinner’s prayer” was developed and people were told all they had to do to be saved was to repeat the words of this prayer. “It’s that easy!”, they said.  In the present one, there seems to be a sense of shame toward the narrow road of which Jesus spoke.  It has become for many a symbol of intolerance and lack of love.  Thus, they seek to widen the road, making it easier for many more to travel on it.  On this road, there are no requirements or expectations because, as they promote it, God’s love is unconditional and no one is excluded.  To them, churches have been much like the Pharisees, of whom Jesus said, “You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matthew 23:13)  

But it seems strange to me that something of which Jesus spoke as being so difficult, we continually try to make easier.  The Kingdom of God is ruled by the Lord and is for those who desire to submit their lives to Him. C.S. Lewis once wrote that people choose hell because they do not want God to rule their lives.  By making the road wider, we are trying to entice people with a false promise—you can come into the God’s Kingdom, but you still get to be the ruler of your life.  

Instead of trying to make the path easier, like an expert guide, shouldn’t we be pointing the way to the narrow and difficult road, and pointing people to the One who can help lead them along it?  Widening the road for cars to flow more easily is a good thing, but the same cannot be applied to the road that leads to God’s Kingdom.  It was designed to be narrow.  Instead of trying to widen it, we should help people find it.  And if they decide to take it, then we will know they are fit for it. 

© Jim Musser 2014