The Narrow Gate

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 (Matt.7:13)

 

I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.  The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.....I am the gate for the sheep.  All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  He will come in and go out, and find pasture...I have come that they may have life and have it to the full (Jn.10:1-10).

 

"I am the gate...."  "I have come that they may have life..."

 

This morning, for some reason, I kept thinking about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the children's story written by C.S.Lewis. For the sake of argument, let us assume that the whole story is "real," -- what my 10th grade English teacher taught us as "the suspension of disbelief," the sine qua non demanded of one who reads a novel, for example.  Suppose they really did fall through the back of the cupboard and discover the world of Narnia, the world that no one else could see unless they too fell through the back of the cupboard.  The "real" world, the world of skeptics and scoffers, would look and say, "It's only a cupboard, and a rather shabby one at that," and "It's only children's fantasy, this world of which they speak."  No rational adult would willingly enter the world the children had discovered, though they might listen with polite amusement at the tales told by children.

 

Those of us who have stepped through the 'narrow gate' into another world tell tales of fantasy to those who cannot themselves step through the door to eternal life -- from bios to zoe.  "Zoe" is the Greek term, the one that Jesus used to indicate not biological, but eternal life ---energy, enthusiasm, overcoming the 'world' life.  Those who have tasted zoe have both lost their dependence on bios and at the same time embraced the physical world in a way they had never done before.  Everything in bios reveals the Creator, the Lover of the Universe, the Light of the world.  Because of the enthusiasm (literally, "God within") for life given to them by the Creator of life, everything tastes better, is more beautiful, more satisfying, richer than it was before they experienced the "eternal life" that Jesus came to give.  The life that Jesus gives raises every other experience to the fullness of God Himself.

 

My brother, who lived for many years in Utah, used to tell me that those who live in the desert see further, hear further, live more deeply than those who live in the city.  Having experienced both worlds, he knew that of which he spoke.  In fact, when he would return to New Orleans to visit me, he had a hard time driving because he no longer saw stoplights -- his "desert vision" took time to re-adjust to the 'real' world.

 

We can recognize the true shepherds of the sheep by their relationship to the Good Shepherd.  If they come to us from the world of "Narnia," the world given to them by Jesus Christ, we will listen to them.  If they come to us from this world, we will not recognize them, not listen to their voice.  If they themselves have entered through the 'narrow gate,' they are genuine.  But many are wolves in sheep's clothing; they come to us in their own name, in their own strength, and they want us to 'enter' through the door they describe to us.

 

Thanks be to God, the true sheep of Jesus Christ know the difference between the real shepherds and the 'thieves and robbers."  When I was in Medjugore in the 80's, I decided to take a short cut across the fields from the back of the church to the residence where we were staying -- about a half-mile.  During my walk, I came across a sheep fold with about a hundred sheep in it.  When they saw me coming from a distance, they all crowded forward near the gate and watched me intently to see if I was coming to let them out, I guess.  Because they stared at me so intensely, I felt it only "polite" to speak to them.  What a mistake!

 

As soon as they heard the sound of my voice, they all with one accord turned their backs on me.  I was astonished!  My first thought was, "Hey, I'm a good person!"  But I was not their shepherd, and they knew the difference the moment they heard my voice.  I took a picture of all those sheep with their backs turned to me, as a reminder off Jesus' words about the Good Shepherd -- but unfortunately, lost that picture in Katrina.

 

When we hear the Shepherd's Voice, we will know it.