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"Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is
the gate, and broad the way that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in there at, because strait
is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it." Matthew 7:13,14.
It was a constant word and warning of Jesus to people that
"living is choosing". We are always being faced
with decisions and often they have positive and negative alternatives.
To make one is to be wise, to go for the other is to be otherwise.
This straight talking of Jesus is the reminder to those who
can recall incidents in the lives of the great personalities
of Bible history when similarly strongly worded appeals to
people were made by their leaders who faced them with choices.
There was Moses, "See I have set before thee this day
life and good, death and evil, therefore choose life, that
thou and thy seed may live."; Joshua. "Choose you
this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house we will
serve the Lord"; and Jeremiah. "Behold I have set
before you the way of life and the way of death."
The poet, John Oxenham, underlines that thought:
"To every man there openeth
A way, and ways, and a way;
And the high soul treads the high way;
And the low soul gropes the low.
And in between is the misty flats
The rest drift to and fro.
And to every man their openeth
A high way and a low;
and everyman decideth
The way his soul shall go."
The young Jesus from the hill behind Nazareth on the plain
of Megiddo, could see the main road from Egypt to Babylon.
Off that main road there was a narrow path. It was the pilgrim's
way to Jerusalem. As He watched the travellers he could see
those who kept to the broad road to Babylon or the narrow
track to the city of God. He may have had that thought in
mind - the broad road which would take many into the temptations
and dangers of the big city; the narrow road with the promise
of a better way of life in a very different environment. The
travellers made their choices. The two roads, and they are
always there if the place, country and people are different,
and from another age and time.
The broad and much used road and the narrow one could represent
what is the easy and the hard ways to travel in life. Christians
have compared the one as the way of the world and the other
as the way of Christ. In what is of most importance to people
is the difference between the thoughtful and the thoughtless,
the wise and the foolish.
Jesus was emphasising, reiterating, what He said so often,
the way to God is narrow; the way of the world is broad. Narrow
because it has a recognisable destination and an objective,
faith in God and the fellowship of His people.
We decide to go one way or the other, for the question is
ours to answer and we do it person by person. They are our
very good friends, whether they be family, pals or preachers,
old or new friends, who encourage us to turn to Christ. That
decision is the one to make all the difference to our lives.
And it will affect for good all those who share their living
with us in whatever capacity.
Rev. Canon Dr. S.E. Long
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