“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Matthew 7:13-14 esv
When I was a kid, we watched a show called “Make a Deal.” Monty Hall would offer contestants dressed up like it was Halloween a choice between doors, and they never knew what was behind the one they chose until it opened. One door revealed a reward, yet another, the “booby prize.”
In today’s passage, Jesus tells us upfront what’s behind the doors (gates); it is a metaphor for a choice between the world and eternity. The former appears more desirable and leads to the easy path, but in the end, what awaits is the booby prize. The latter is narrow and appears less glamorous, and few will choose it. Yet in the end, that narrow gate is “the way” that leads life!
John the Evangelist tells us Jesus often referred to himself as “the way, the truth, and the life,” and he also called himself the “door for the sheep.” (John 14:6, 10:7,9) Put this together with our passage today, and you find comfort as his disciple that you chose the way less traveled even though it was not the most desirable of paths.
As for this HitchHiker, decades ago “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” (Robert Frost)
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