The Road Less Traveled
Matthew 7:13-14
I had just flown back home from attending a class for my Doctorate in Pasadena, CA. The week was filled with long days and short nights. I had an early morning flight and then flew most of the day. By the time I got home, I was exhausted. Yet I didn’t want to miss my workout so I headed to the gym. While driving down the main street in my neighborhood, I leaned over to pick something up that fell on the floor of the car. Little did I know that my hand moved on the steering wheel, guiding my Jeep Grand Cherokee head-on into a 4 foot tall brick mailbox stand. The resulting crash had the sound of an explosion. The airbags were deployed, bricks flew everywhere and the front end of my SUV was crushed. My front bumper settled in the middle of the road. I got out, called the police and started to clean up my mess. Word quickly spread through the neighborhood and a small crowd gathered. The worst part of it was when one of the youth in my church told me my bumper was on display at the high school party after the football game on Friday night and was paraded all around with everyone learning it was their pastor who had hit the mailbox. It took more than 2 months and $12,000 to fix my car. The moral of the story? There are consequences when we don’t look where we’re going. The reality is that there are lots of people living like that. They’re on the journey of life and are not really looking where they are going and the results can be just as drastic. We’re all on a journey somewhere, but to where and on what path?
There are all kinds of paths to choose from, aren’t there? Some are on the path to riches. Some are on the path to enlightenment. Some are looking for Easy Street. Some are on the Led Zeppelin path – The Stairway to Heaven. Some are on the AC/DC path, “the Hiway to Hell.” “What road are you on?” Perhaps there is no better time than the New Year to step back, reflect and look at the path of our lives, where you are and where you’re headed. In our Scripture today, Jesus talks about two paths when he speaks of the wide and the narrow gate. Gates say much about the path you’re on. Images of gates They’re ornate or simple, large or small, inviting or forbidding. In ancient Israel, cities were surrounded by walls and people entered them through gates. Large gates were very broad and permitted throngs of people to pass through at the same time, while others were quite narrow, permitting just one person at a time. Image and story of the gate of Church of Nativity. When the city was threatened or under siege, only the narrow gate was used. One usually had to bend down as you enter and take off any baggage you had. If we had our choice, we would always choose the wide gate. It’s just easier.
We’re starting a new series today called, “The Road Less Traveled”, as we head into the New Year. Our problem too often is we make the road and our journey all about us. But the journey of life is meant to be about joining Jesus on the road to the cross. For Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26 Jesus calls us to a different road, The Road Less Traveled, filled with continual sacrifice and self denial.
The wide gate is open and easy to get through. It is smooth and inviting. You don’t need to offload any baggage and you can bring anything you want through them. It can accommodate anyone without having to make any real sacrifices. There are no restrictions or prohibitions. You don’t have to change. You can live your way by your rules. It tolerates many and it is very, very attractive. This is the easy way. People choose the broad road because it is the way the majority seem to be traveling. After all, how could so many people be wrong? On the other hand, the narrow way is a much harder and more difficult to travel. It is unpaved, covered with rocks and gravel and filled with potholes. It requires commitment, determination, discipline, control, and self-denial. It takes a strong will, much determination, and a great deal of self-sacrifice to travel this way. Jesus invites us to take the narrow path but that takes a whole other level of effort and commitment on our part.
Dave Hood tells the story of training to run a 5K run. Every time his wife and he would go running on their favorite trail, they’d walk a little faster, and with a little more gusto. One day, a half mile in and a young lady came at them sprinting towards them. They jumped out of the way so she could pass, and she blew by them so fast, all they saw was Nike shoes and a pony tail. Dave thought to himself, “Man, she must be late for something. No sane person would run that fast for no reason.” But, when she ran by him, it engaged his competitive spirit. So, I said, “All right, honey, it’s time to pick up the pace a little.” So, they started walking a little faster down this road, and they got about a half hour into this trail, and here she comes again! He couldn’t believe it. He thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me! Not only has she lapped me once, she’s lapped me twice now! Well that was it. It’s on now.” Now, he’s dragging his wife behind me, “Come on, honey, keep up.” They were almost toward the end, and Dave’s feeling really good about himself when all of a sudden this lady passes him a third time! This time he was just mad. He threw his water bottle on the ground and screamed, “This is ridiculous.” And then he writes, “What she was showed me was that being on the path requires a whole other level of commitment. Up to that point, I hadn’t been willing to give that level of commitment.”
You have to choose the path. It isn’t a one-time decision. Every day, we’ve got to choose a path, whether consciously, out of habit or without thinking. Regardless, we choose a path. Sometimes, we choose the way of the crowd. Sometimes, we choose the road less traveled. Exodus 23 warns us, “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.” Isn’t that where we get ourselves in trouble – following the crowd? The narrow path is not a one-time thing. It’s not something you do on Sundays. It’s a life commitment and a lifestyle of discipleship. As we enter the New Year, which path are you on today?
Proverbs 14:12 says there’s a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death. Jesus put it this way, “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” I had a fraternity brother named William Nahkleh. William was extremely intelligent having gone to the most exclusive prep school in the Northeast and tested out of his entire freshman year. When Hurricane Elena was bearing down on MS, William decided since he had never seen a hurricane, he wanted to drive to it. So he headed East on I-10 and somewhere around Gulfport, he hit the eye wall of the storm. The winds gusted to 125 miles an hour, forcing William’s car off the road, down the ditch through a fence and striking and killing a cow. He was then stranded in his vehicle until the hurricane passed. What seemed like a good idea ended badly and could have been much worse. The wide road leads to destruction.
Jesus calls us to the narrow path. It’s the only path that leads to life. And, when Jesus talks about life, he doesn’t just mean “getting by” or just making it. He’s talking about abundant life … a life that overflows out of us, a life where you are living God’s dream for you. Where you are engaging all of your gifts and all of your resources in building the kingdom of God. Where you are influencing your oikos and changing your world. Where you sacrifice, work incredibly hard, face great difficulties and think it’s worth it because it’s exactly what God would have you do. That’s what an abundant life looks like, and it’s walking that narrow road that Jesus says leads to life as God intended it for us.
Despite all of the challenges and difficulties, we say like Paul, “I press on toward the goal, to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:13
There’s a prize and it’s abundant life. “I press on toward the goal, to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Abundant life is so much more than about our comfort and convenience. It’s about being faithful and obedient. It’s about self-sacrifice and service. It’s about hard work and determination. It’s making a difference in your world, your oikos and building the kingdom of God. It’s the call to the narrow path. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The narrow path is following in the footsteps of Jesus, all the way to the cross. That’s the way I want to go; that’s the direction I want to find myself in.
In Luke 9, Jesus is finishing his ministry here on earth and says, “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” Another version of the Bible says, “He set his face towards Jerusalem.” Jesus had this laser focus on Jerusalem and the cross. That’s right. Jesus set his focus on the cross, the road less traveled. For Jesus, it was the culmination of a lifestyle of the road less traveled. It was a lifelong commitment to it. So, when everyone else was ignoring the poor, the lame, and the marginalized, there was Jesus on that road. When the Pharisees and the religious leaders were telling everyone to follow the rules and “do the religion thing,” Jesus did the God thing. When they brought the woman caught in the act of adultery, Jesus stood up and said, “Let any of you who have not sinned cast the first stone.” Even as Jesus is standing there before Pilate, Pilate is saying, “Just compromise a little bit. Tell them you’re not who they think you are.” Jesus had his face set, didn’t he? He knew the path that he was on, and it was the road less traveled, but it was God’s road. That gave him the courage and the strength to continue to walk it. The call of a Jesus follower is not to go the way of the crowds, but to go the way of the cross, and to follow Jesus there. And we hear this and wonder whether we ever could or would choose that path.
Here’s the good news – Jesus has already blazed that trail. Jesus has already made that way, so all we have to do is follow him. And so the question is, do you really want to be like Jesus, who lives a lifestyle of walking the road less traveled, even if it means all the way to the cross? Psalm 37:5 says, “If you commit your way to the Lord, and trust in him, then he will do this.” Commit your way to the Lord – “OK God, I’m going to follow you, wherever you go, wherever you’re leading me. I’m going to trust you with my way.” Do you see what it says? Not you will do it, but he will do it. God has this incredible dream of a life for you – a life that’s going to change the world and make a difference. God has an abundant life for you to live but to attain it, you will you have to follow him on the narrow path. For that’s the way that leads to life! May that be the choice we make together in the New Year. Amen
