Choosing the Opposite: The Way of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mountഉദാഹരണം

Day 5: Costly Instead of Comfortable

As Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount, He summons people to enter through the narrow gate. This isn’t the only time Jesus uses this metaphor. John records these words of Jesus in his Gospel: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (John 10:9)

Jesus, himself, is the gate we are urged to enter. The Sermon challenges us to choose: Will we follow Jesus? Will we declare our allegiance to the King? Will we follow Him in the ways of His Kingdom?

According to Jesus, most people won’t. Most people will opt for the wide gate and the broad road. Why? Because the wide gate and the broad road is easier to travel. It’s less demanding. It’s comfortable. We can travel that road guided by our own will, driven by our own desires. We can make ourselves king on the broad road.

The narrow road is the way of discipleship. The narrow road requires us to surrender our will to God’s will, to make God’s desires our desires. New Testament scholar Scot McKnight explains: “...the [narrow] gate is not just a mild association with Jesus or some kind of general affiliation, but a radical commitment to Jesus as the one who is King and Lord who shapes all of life for us.”[1] The narrow road is costly.

In all the sections of the Sermon on the Mount that precede this conclusion, Jesus explained how life in the kingdom of God is meant to be lived. Now He puts before us a choice: Will we choose this costly way? Or will we go our own way?

Only one way leads to life.

The challenge in this passage is to look down at your feet and be honest about the road that you’re traveling.

Are you walking the narrow path of discipleship to Jesus?

Or are you on the wide path walking in the comfortable ways of this world?

The good news is that if you realize you’ve not really been following the King in the ways of His Kingdom, you’re never more than one step away from the narrow path. That step is repentance–a turning from the way you’ve been traveling to walk in a new, better way, the way of Jesus.

May we all choose the path to life. May we all choose the narrow way of Jesus.

Reflection: What part of your will is hardest for you to surrender to Jesus? In practical, real-life terms, what would it look like for you to choose the way of Jesus today?

Want more content like this? Connect with Tammy Melchien at tammymelchien.com.

[1] Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount, ed. Tremper Longman III and Scot McKnight, The Story of God Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013), 261.