What Do Christians Mean by Choosing the Narrow Way?

The word narrow has taken on an ugly cast in modern parlance. Its neutral usage is defined as “something that is considerably longer or higher than it is wide.” It describes parking spaces, the bridge on my road, and hipsters’ ties. Narrow is also used to refer to something limited or restricted—the worst possible evil in a culture that values individualism as the highest possible good!

As Jesus brings his Sermon on the Mount to a close, he presents his listeners with paired and contrasting choices: wise building vs. foolish building, true disciples vs. false disciples. He begins with travelers along two chosen pathways. We can enter the narrow gate, leading to a narrow road, or we can travel through a wide gate that leads to a broad road:

"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)

Life offers us two gates leading to two kinds of roads. Our choices lead to two different ways of travel.
We get to choose.

How Are the Two Ways Different?

Of course, the most obvious difference between the narrow road and the broad road is destination: choose destruction or choose life. Too, if you choose the broad road, Jesus says you’ll have plenty of company along the way. However, I think there’s more to the difference than mere destination and traveling companions.

The gate to the narrow road is Christ himself. In John's Gospel, he calls himself "the door" or "the gate" and describes himself as "the good shepherd" who positions himself as the gate to the sheepfold to provide both protection and boundary for his much-loved flock. Walking the narrow road is a choice to embrace the heart obedience Jesus laid out in his teaching, to bring Old Testament words into our 2024 life and declare, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

The sum total of our choices leads us to who we are becoming. The narrow path may not accommodate everything I’d like to bring along, meaning that I leave a few things behind, submit to a waiting process, or experience loss on some level. Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes Christ’s invitation to travel as a calling to “come and die.” Jen Wilkin challenges her readers that the two “I’s” believers need to gouge out in 2024 are Individualism and Instant gratification.

Walking the narrow way with Jesus is far more than a restrictive and claustrophobic journey that keeps us from “fun” today so we can enjoy pie in the sky bye ‘n’ bye. The narrow way forms our character, and we choose it because we want to walk with the Lord—not because we have to or because we’re afraid of losing his approval. We walk in obedience with the “few” and give thanks for the church, our traveling companions on the way that leads to life.

Praying Together

Lord, grow us up! Help us to walk your narrow path and to see it as wise and comforting as we travel the road that leads us to life. Thank you for making the way! How miraculous that you took on a body, joined us on this broken ground, and became the sacrifice for our sin so that we could enter by the narrow gate provided by your submission to death. Help us to be good traveling companions for your people as we walk in obedience together. Amen

Let’s continue this conversation:

• Do you tend to think of Jesus’ narrow path as reassuring or restrictive?
• Based on our reading of the Sermon on the Mount to this point, what kind of response do you think Jesus is looking for from his audience? Do you sense a tone of warning?
• Read John 10:1-10 for further insight on Jesus’s I AM statements.