Jesus invites us to come walk through a narrow gate. His analogy does not work as well in 2020 as it did in when he first invited followers to this new way of living. Our cities are no longer surrounded with stone walls and gates that locked at night by the security personal. In Jesus’ time, the narrow gate was used after sunset, after the wide double hanging gates were closed. Due to the narrow, restrictive size of the gate, the late arriving traveler had to leave non-essentials outside the city walls. Perhaps it was a bit like our carry-on luggage, one is and was restricted as to what fits in the luggage and what fit through the narrow gate.
Have you noticed the transformational path has what feels like a “narrow gate?” As God invites us into more of our true self, our egoic luggage ought to feel cumbersome, awkward, and restrictive. What does not fit through the narrow gate? Pride. An attitude of spiritual capitalism. Fear. Maybe anything that is inadequate to answer the questions of love, death, suffering, God.[1]
Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be
tempted. The temptations centered around
power, provisions, and prestige. I
invite you to consider what God is inviting you to release so that your life
fits through the narrow gate. Where are
you trying to be powerful, have all the provisions, or garner some bit
of fleeting esteem? Where are you
pushing a river, rather than flowing in this ancient spiritual river of God? Come, leave behind that which does not fit
through your narrow gate.
[1] Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The search for our true self, (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013), p. 143.