The next picture of Jesus is one about wide roads and narrow gates.
“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.”
There are a couple observations about this teaching right off the bat. Jesus does not connect this teaching to salvation and there is no implication that Jesus is speaking of eternal destinies. On the contrary, the context of Jesus’s teaching (not to mention the tense He uses in His speech) in this sermon would demand the opposite assumption. This teaching speaks directly to how we find and experience both life and destruction TODAY, not later. The invitation is to find the narrow gate today, because it will be easy to find the road that leads to destruction. Furthermore, the point of Jesus’s teaching is not HOW MANY PEOPLE, but instead the ease at which these two options come. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this used to talk about how few people will make it to heaven and how many will be destined to hell. Please notice that Jesus’s point has nothing to do with this.
I once heard a teaching by Rob Bell at Mars Hill Bible Church that really helped me understand this better. While he connected it to a local interchange in Michigan, I immediately connected it in my mind to the interchange that exists in the Tri-Cities of Washington (Richmond, Kennewick, Pasco). There is one particular interchange that leads to a precarious — at times impossible — lane change a driver must make in order to connect with the appropriate highway. The onramp puts the driver on the left side of the interstate, needing to change three lanes to make the exit on the RIGHT side of the interstate, moving 50+ mph, all within a distance of a couple hundred yards.
You have to be fully engaged in your task. You have to be completely intentional about your decisions. You have to be resolutely set on making your exit.
For narrow is way that leads to Pendleton and few can find it, but wide is the road that leads to Portland, and many are driving it.
You get the idea. The way leading to life is difficult. You don’t just stumble upon it without trying. The way leading to life will require your intentional resolution to find peace in the midst of chaos.
The second teaching will be discussed in our next post, but Jesus’s final picture is of a fool who builds his house on sand and a wise man who builds his house on the rock.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
While most teachings I’ve heard focus on the material used for the building, I have been told by contractors that sand is a very useful building material. It’s easy to transport, it packs well, and is used in most building projects. This begins to point us to the fact that we may be missing the “big idea” in this teaching. There are two understandings of sand in Jesus’s day. There is the “sand of the seashore”; this is not the sand that is being referenced here. Then, there is the sand that settles in the bottom of a wadi after the floodwaters come.
Now, I’ll say that again. The sand settles at the bottom of the wadi.
Only a fool would build his house at the bottom of a wadi; it would be a ticking time bomb, just waiting for the next rainfall. However, the wise man would build his house on the “rock” — the word here refers to bedrock or a cliff face — where they would be far away from the dangers of desert floods. While the point of the teaching remains the same, the picture’s details now work correctly. The rains fell and the floodwaters rose. Jesus is saying that even though his teachings are at times counter-intuitive, you would be foolish not to put them into practice. For the way of Jesus is the best way to live.
It prompts the reader to reflect on just how seriously we take the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. Do we trust forgiveness? If we don’t, it’s like building your house at the bottom of a wadi. Do we love our enemies? If not, we are asking for the rains of destruction to dismantle our life.
It’s the continual invitation to trust the story.
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