Jesus said, “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).
(A spontneous skit can be done here. Have a group of 6-10 large men march in one direction, and have a small person or child try to push their way through the group going the opposite direction.)
When we read this scripture, we often think of the two roads running in different directions, perhaps as a fork in the road — the narrow way going off at an angle from the broad way. But the narrow way does not run at right angles to the broad way, the narrow way is the same road as the broad way, except it is headed in the opposite direction against the opposing crowd.
Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck wrote his classic book The Road Less Traveled, and took the title from Robert Frost’s famous poem “The Road Not Taken.” The poem ends with these familiar words…
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Peck begins the book with a simple, yet profound, sentence: “Life is difficult.” It is the whole premise of his book. He cites Carl Jung, another psychiatrist, who says: “Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.” In other words, neuroses are psychological diseases like depression, anxiety, and obsessive behavior which are unhealthy attempts to avoid the hard work of facing and working at real life. Real life means accepting responsibility, facing our problems rather than avoiding them and doing the necessary hard work of life. Unhealthy people avoid these things. They take the broad way, and in the end actually experience more suffering than if they had taken the narrow way — the difficult way of the road less traveled.
Take the case of runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, the 32-year-old medical assistant. She did not want to face the pressure of a big wedding with 600 guests and 28 attendants, so instead of scaling it back, eloping or calling it off, she made up a story that she had been abducted by two people in a van. So now, instead of facing the pressure of a wedding, she has embarrassed herself in front of the whole nation, and facing fines and possible jail time for filing a false police report. Unhealthy people try to avoid pain, and in the end create a great deal more pain than if they had faced their problems and handled them.
Scott Peck says that, “what makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one.” And we do everything we can to avoid pain. He reminds us that, “Life is a series of problems,” and asks, “Do we want to moan about them or solve them? . . .Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solves life’s problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems.” Peck suggests four things that will, in his words, give us the “techniques of suffering, these means of experiencing the pain of problems constructively.” What he is talking about, and what Jesus is talking about, is maturity. Peck suggests we need four things in order to mature: 1. Delaying of gratification. 2. Acceptance of responsibility. 3. Dedication to truth. 4. Balancing.
These are spiritual principles as well as psychological and, essentially, this is the message of Jesus as well, since he was the original one who reminded us that life is difficult and the way to life hard. He spoke of the narrow gate, going through the eye of a needle, denying ourselves, taking up a cross. G. K. Chesterton said, “The Christian life has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and not tried.” If we are to find life; if we are to experience maturity; if we are going to become whole and healthy, we have to follow these principles. We have to stop whining that life is hard and begin the process of doing what is necessary in order for life to work. There is no easy way. Life is difficult. It is a series of problems and challenges. But God has given us the resources to become whole — if we are willing to do the hard work of facing and finding life. Moses spoke to the people saying, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. . . . This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:15&19).
Let’s consider the message of Jesus and how it applies to our life situation today. Think about the most difficult situation in your life. Continue to think about it as we learn from the words of Jesus how to be on top of the circumstances instead of under the circumstances. Let’s think about why the narrow way is less traveled. The first reason that so few follow the narrow way is: It is difficult. When I go hiking in the woods I notice that every living thing takes the easy way. Deer make trails and walk along the same trail over and over. They take the broad way, the easiest way — the road most traveled. Of course, humans do the same, and muskrats, mice and ants do also. They almost always walk in a path that has already been created. Even the water takes the easiest path. Rangers know where to build up hillsides to prevent erosion, because they know that water is going to go down the same path; it will find the easiest way down the hill.
We tend to do the same thing in life, don’t we? We take the easy way, the broad way. We take the way of least resistance. We avoid life rather than engage it. We avoid confrontation. We do what everybody else is doing. We don’t want to stand out. We don’t want to sacrifice or do without. We just want life to be comfortable. But that is fantasy, even though the American society has flooded us with messages that life should always be exciting, fun, adventurous, and most of all easy. “No Rules, Just Right,” is not just the slogan of Outback Steakhouse, it is the mantra of our culture. Rules are hard, and we want the easy way.
All kinds of people think they want to be followers of Jesus, but when reality sets in, it is a different story. The Gospel of Matthew tells the story: “Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’ Another disciple said to him, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus told him, ‘Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead’” (Matthew 8:18-22). When Jesus told them the way was difficult, they turned back.
But Jesus keeps reminding us that life is difficult, and that if we want to find life we have to put forth effort, do the difficult thing, be disciplined, take responsibility, delay gratification and work hard. A swamp is a river that has no rules. It does not want to stay within its banks. It just wants to lay there. It is relaxed, but it is also stagnant. It has no direction. A river gives people pleasure. You can swim in it, boat in it, fish in it. A river keeps the land dry and fills the ocean. A swamp does nothing.
We don’t want to do the difficult things that give our lives form and purpose, but without them we are a swamp. In the difficult thing that you are now facing, you will have to do difficult things in order to get out of the situation. You may have to make a decision that is painful. You have been avoiding it for a long time, but your life has become more difficult by avoiding it, not less. It is time to get up and do something.
You may remember the story of Aron Ralston, the 27-year-old from Colorado who had climbed 49 of Colorado’s major peaks — each measuring over 14,000 feet. On this particular day, he was rock climbing in Blue John Canyon in southern Utah. He was going up a 3-foot wide slot canyon, and as he was climbing, a 200-pound boulder fell in the slot and pinned his arm against the rock. He tried everything he knew to get his arm from under the rock, but nothing worked. After running out of water and being pinned for five long days and nights, he realized that if he was going to survive, he would have to take drastic action. Using a small pocketknife, he amputated his arm below the elbow and applied a tourniquet. After he was free, he rigged anchors, fixed a rope and rappelled to the canyon floor. He hiked downstream until he was spotted by a Utah Public Safety Helicopter and rescued. He has written about his experience in Between a Rock and a Hard Place. He was in a hard place and he had to do a hard thing.
You may be facing a difficult decision. It may be about your health. It may be financial. It may be about your family. It may be a decision about your moral and spiritual life. It may be that something drastic has to be done. It may be painful, but it must be done. Pray for strength and get out your pocketknife.
The second thing that makes the narrow road less traveled is because: It is against the majority. The problem is that most everyone else is going another way. They are on Broadway. And you are not just going another way away from them, you are going against them. You no longer fit in when you walk with God or talk about God. This was the case in the early church. Peter encouraged the followers of Jesus by saying, “As a result, [a Christian] does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do — living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you” (1 Peter 4:2-4).
The narrow and difficult way is always the best way, even if it is against what most everyone else is doing. The Bible lets us know that as difficult as it is to follow God, it is more difficult to not follow God. It says, “The way of the unfaithful is hard” (Proverbs 13:15). Most people don’t take music lessons, practice and keep at it because it is difficult. But they are the ones who have the freedom and pleasure of being able to play an instrument well. Most of us don’t eat well and get enough exercise because it is difficult. It is so much easier to eat anything you want and relax. I believe it was Mark Twain who said that when the urge to exercise came over him, he laid down until it went away. But the ones who do eat well and get enough exercise feel better, look better and have the freedom to do more things. Life belongs to those who are willing to do the difficult thing, to be disciplined, to those who make sacrifices, and suffer if necessary, in order to accomplish their goals. They are persistent and tenacious. They never take their eye off the goal. Successful people are those who are willing to do what the unsuccessful are unwilling to do. Paul knew this, and he was willing to go against the majority, for he said, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).
The third thing that makes the narrow road less traveled is because: It includes persecution. When Jesus said, “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life,” the word he used for narrow is related to the word for tribulation or persecution. Its root word is Thlibo, a word meaning “to press together, compress or afflict.” Walking the narrow way often includes tribulation and persecution. You feel pressed. You are not only not doing what others are doing, you are being misunderstood for not doing those things. You may be made fun of or rejected.
One day after Jesus was teaching, the Bible says, “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ . . .From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:60 & 66). They were not willing to hear the hard teaching and do the hard thing. There will be times that others who you thought were followers of Christ will turn back because of the difficulty of Jesus’ teaching and the life he demands. It may be former friends and former followers who become your worst persecutors.
Someone said, “There’s a lot of people who talk about doing good, and a lot of people who argue about what’s good and what’s not good, but there are other folks who just put their lives on the line for what’s right.” Christians are not to be shocked by being misunderstood and mocked. The Bible says, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:12-13).
In an article in Today’s Christian magazine (September / October 2004) entitled “China — Where God Is Behind Bars,” Chinese Christian leader Brother Zhong tells this story: “I was attending a training course for my house church network’s council members and youth leaders. The Public Security Bureau (PSB) raided us the first day. All the leaders were arrested. The prison authorities shaved our heads and interrogated us. We were warned that the hardened inmates would beat us. So with much trepidation, another brother and I entered our cell. We were greeted by the sight of 16 other inmates, lined up in two rows and thumping their fists. My heart beat rapidly as I sent prayers up to God. The leader of the gang asked, ‘Why are you here?’ ‘Because we are Christians,’ I replied. ‘You don’t beat people up?’ ‘No,’ I assured him. ‘Do you sing?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered. The leader ordered me to sing a song. I wept as I sang. The Holy Spirit moved in our midst, and by the time I finished singing, every prisoner was also in tears. To my shock, the gang leader then asked to hear the gospel. After that, my cellmates hungered to hear the gospel every day. One Sunday, we held a worship service. The prison guard demanded to know who was behind it. He threatened to punish everyone if no one spoke up. I stood up and confessed. I was forced to remove my clothes and stand at an inclined angle to the wall. The gang leader couldn’t bear it anymore. He asked to be punished with me. All the others volunteered to do the same. The infuriated guard stormed out. I was moved by my cellmates’ act. One of them, who had been there for three years, became a believer that day.”
Theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote: “When one preaches Christianity in such a way that the echo answers, ‘Away with that man, he does not deserve to live,’ know that this is the Christianity of the New Testament.”
Rodney J. Buchanan
May 29, 2005
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
