The Road To Life

Day 33

The Road To Life

(Guest Post By Jenny Garvin)

Jesus came among the kingdoms of this world to found and establish a new Kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven – unique and separate and essentially spiritual, but also practical.

After teaching us how this Kingdom works throughout the Sermon on the Mount, He then showed us how to enter this new Kingdom.

“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

“Only a few find it?” Jesus is at great pains to help us understand the focused commitment necessary to get in by the narrow gate. Not many will choose to get in this way. He loves us? Surely he could ease the requirements just a bit?

But no! The cost of making this narrow gate possible will cause immense grief for both Jesus and His Father. The story of the Father throwing his arms around the returning prodigal who’d deserted him is just one of God’s many attempts to help us understand that His love and truth and commitment are not just nice ideas. They are values of the new Kingdom and the great battle for souls means there is a narrow gate and a wide gate.

The choice between the two is not God’s, it is ours. Jesus told us that if we choose the narrow gate and the narrow way, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:10

It was God’s love and His will to provide a way out of our deep darkness and isolation. The only possible way? The substitution of a perfect life for our deeply flawed one. There was no way for the Kingdom of light to be entered unless the weight of our darkness had been dealt with.

Darkness could not co-exist with light and love. So for Jesus came the dark and painful prospect of the crucifixion. Knowing the horror of what he faced – not just the crucifixion but the full weight of the horrific sins of the whole world – Jesus made a desperate plea to His Father to save Him from it.

To His disciples He said, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Three times He prayed – His friends had gone off to sleep. Meanwhile He endured anguish so profound that He suffered a deep physical reaction, including the sweating of great drops of blood.

Always His relationship with His Father remained one of deep respect and love, despite the agonising prospect of crucifixion: “Father, if you are willing take this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done.”

The hard won victory, the way of the new Kingdom – to accept the will of the Father – unfolds.

All who choose the narrow gate and the narrow way beyond it, share in the Kingdom life forged by the love of God and commitment to serve in love regardless of personal cost. As we walk the narrow way we will increasingly be given grace to face every life question with the heart response Jesus had: “Not my will Lord but yours be done.”

And for all the travellers on the narrow way it will be a life rich beyond measure and full of surprises.

To daily lay down our life as Jesus did means we are never without company and purpose. It is a rich life of responding to the will and purpose of God and it will take us who knows where? It is possible that only another follower of Jesus will really understand these rich aspects of life lived on the narrow way.

How can we explain the kind of challenge, yet the joy, of living in this new Kingdom? First there was the way that was made possible through the narrow gate: the only way that has the potential to lead to this eternal Kingdom life. God’s longing for us to find our way to Him was secured on that dark day that the sun refused to shine over the death of His Son on the middle of 3 crosses on a lonely hill.

The gift of life on the narrow way is that when we have chosen, crucially it is the only way we will find Jesus walking beside us.

Before we joined the narrow way, and while we were still rushing madly with the crowd, there was plenty to hold our attention. Remember the rich young man? He was living a good life. He admired Jesus but he wanted to hold on to his money, so in the end he went away sad.

Always the first step in becoming a Christian is leaving the majority and what they value, while we must go the other way.

You can’t take the crowd with you into the Christian life: it inevitably involves a break. To join the narrow way is intensely personal – between you and Jesus.

Despite the huge challenges of life on the narrow road, in time we will discover that this is the only road on which we will find the life for which we were born in the heart and mind of the Divine. And the narrow road is the only choice between the roads on which we will find Jesus walking beside us. The Christian who is born again is now ready to respond to every prompting of the Spirit of Jesus.

He will discover that becoming a Christian on the narrow way involves a person becoming unusual and exceptional, because he is alive to the message of Christ – the new Kingdom. Yet it will also involve opposition and unpopularity because this is the narrow way.

The fact is, in today’s world there are 50 countries in which it is dangerous to be a follower of Jesus. On average every day 13 Christians are killed for their faith and throughout Christian history 70 million Christians have been martyred for their faith.

Yet back in 1956 one young man – Jim Elliott, facing a dangerous mission to carry the message of Jesus to people who had never heard of him said this: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Those words impacted across the world and many joined the narrow road.

Many on the narrow way experience the joy of being able to serve in love regardless of age and strength – from children to the aged. Many would “rescue” them but one 84 year old who continues to serve in hospitality as well as collecting and circulating prayers notes has said: “You know, I think it keeps me young!”
The fact is, in this Kingdom there is always a way to serve. It was an unusual but very relevant choice for Jesus to show us the way to serve in love when He washed His disciples feet!

Following Jesus on the narrow way may bring joy, busyness, difficulty, and at times, danger. There is a special fellowship with others of narrow way and Jesus left this personal message for each of us…

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man“ to lose his own life to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self.”
Luke 9 :23 – 25

 

 

 

Journaling the Journey 

Comfort, ease and convenience are not usually the trademarks of the Kingdom path. After the fall, an authentic spiritual life is a constant choice and battle against our fleshly desires for comfort and ease.

What are the habits and patterns towards laziness and ease, “the wide gate and broad road” that you most often gravitate to?

What spiritual ‘soul’ work do you sense God is calling you to do in this season? What ‘narrow road’ is He calling you to walk?

Todays mountainside photograph was taken at Sugarloaf Mountain in Wales, UK