The Eye of the Needle

Don: The idea of the narrowing of the Way is mentioned twice by Jesus:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. (John 10:1-2)

The second and most critical narrowing of the Way is told in the story of the Rich Young Ruler:

The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.
And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:21-26)

If taken literally, as the disciples seemed to do, this seems an impossibly narrow gate. Jesus said too that:

For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:14)

Yet:

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; (Revelation 7:9)

So a multitude of people too numerous to count get through the gate after all, it seems.  In that case, if it does not limit the number of people who get through it, then what is the purpose of the door, if it is not to limit entry? The point is that few people if any can get through it on their own, without help and guidance from the shepherd, whose voice will lead them:

Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. (Isaiah 30:21)

Ironically, the narrow way is the way of inclusion, not exclusion. Even a Roman could be included if he heeded the shepherd’s voice:

And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven;  (Matthew 28:4-11)

Remember that Jesus was teaching the disciples and the Jewish people and reminding them of something already in their scripture:

…indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” (Genesis 22:17-18)

So again, what is the importance of the narrow gate? One might surmise that it promotes an orderly passage, or is used for quality control to check the worthiness of people and sort them as they pass through, or check ID to ensure that they belong to this fold. It could be so that the shepherd can welcome everyone individually. In the judgment descriptions in Matthew 25 and Matthew 7, recognition of who are Jesus’ people seems critically important.

David: I posted a comment on the blog pointing out that the first words of the Dao De Jing, the Daoist “bible” of sorts, are to the effect that “The true way is not an ordinary way,” which suggests that the Way is supernatural, as does the Bible. Another potential function of the gate is to force the sheep into a sheep dip, to cleanse them before they enter heaven.

Don: Baptism, perhaps?

Charles: Another visual metaphor is the narrowing of a blood vessel—stenosis. At the other side of a stenosis the vessel tends to be dilated, wider. The narrow way is like a funnel in reverse: You enter with difficulty at the narrow end but emerge into widening freedom. The broad way, starting through the enticing and easy top of the funnel, leads to constriction and death. The gate is narrow and hard to get through because it is the way to salvation, but it requires obedience and an act of faith. It is difficult. It is much easier to choose disobedience and to not have faith.

God judges sin. We cannot escape that. But that is not inconsistent with a multitude of saved people. People of faith still continue to sin, but are granted salvation for their faith through the mercy of God. The opportunity to choose the way of faith and obedience is given to us again at the rapture and during the peace of the Millennium, and most will accept it. God allows sin by allowing free will. He gives us the choice to accept his will but we tend to choose to go it alone, therefore God provided atonement in the form of Christ. There are those whose sin was judged at the time of Christ’s death and resurrection; those who accepted the way of faith and obedience; and then the vast majority who still ultimately face judgment but perhaps in a different way, who may be saved by the grace of God as God chooses. Ultimately, God’s relationship with Man will be restored to what it was presumably before the Fall. So to me, the gate is narrow by virtue of the fact that few people choose it.

Chris: It seems to me the gate is narrow not because God wants to exclude anyone but because we choose to make it narrow through the exercise of our free will. It’s easier to do our will than do God’s will. We narrowed the gate for ourselves by abusing our free will, just as physical self-abuse causes stenoses to occur within the body. Our difficulty lies in putting aside our will in favor of God’s.

Don: Is there more than one way?

Charles: Ultimately, it was preordained from the moment of Creation that God’s grace and mercy would be needed for Mankind and would of course prevail. Just as there was one stipulation in the Garden (not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil) so too there is one stipulation for acceptance in the New Heaven, namely, that atonement be through Jesus Christ. If we reject Jesus in this life, will we still have a chance to change our mind later, or is that a sin for which there can be no mercy? We clearly cannot answer this question.

David: In the Rich Young Ruler story, Jesus offers us all the same opportunity: Give up everything we’ve got, and follow him. His point, though, was that none of us is capable of it. It is not a matter of “accepting” Jesus in name, of saying you have faith: Clearly, the Rich Young Ruler did accept him or he would not have asked him the question, and he evidently continued to have faith even after he walked away saddened by Jesus’ answer. He could believe in Jesus as the way to everlasting life but he could not live the way of Jesus. Faith won’t cut it. Nothing will cut it. We are fallen, period, and the only one who can pick us up is God. God is the only one who can cleanse us of our original sin. The sheep dip metaphor may be apt here: We are not going to build a sheep dip for ourselves—we don’t like the idea of being that clean, so God has to dip us. Sheep don’t like to go through the dip either: The shepherd has practically to throw them in.

To me, there is still a scriptural contradiction as regards inclusion and exclusion form the Kingdom. Scripture is clear that there are at least a few who won’t get in, and (to me) that just does not square with an all-gracious, all-merciful God.

Chris: We muddy things up when we try to define the Way. Sometimes, when flow is restricted through a blood vessel, collateral formation of blood vessels occurs to enable the tissue it serves to continue to function.

Charles: The metaphor is interesting but of course collateral circulation is never as good as the original.

We have a fundamental choice of choosing God or following our own hearts and intellects. Everything is codified in the Word. Christ is the Word made flesh. Since the Fall, since our separation from God, we have been prone to sin and evil. History shows it at all levels, individual and societal. Reuniting with God does involve, at some point, a choice—a leap—of faith in God over faith in our hearts and intellects. That is a direct reversal of the Fall. It means accepting that there is a Way to reunite even while knowing that we will still sin but that God will have mercy on us as long as we have faith in him. But I don’t and can’t know what happens if we refuse to accept it. Scripture seems pretty clear that it won’t be good but I too don’t see how to reconcile that with an all-gracious God. It would not be consistent if God looks away when we sin. If we willfully reject God’s authority, will God deal with us as he dealt with Lucifer? I struggle with these issues.

David: An act of faith can be nominal or practical. Jesus made clear to the Rich Young Ruler that he was looking for a practical act of faith. It is not a matter of going to church and proclaiming one’s surrender to Jesus having seen the light and switched allegiance from Mammon. That does not cut it. If you see a person in need, however undeserving that person might seem, and you have the means to help him (even if it’s your last dime) then you must do so, unfailingly. That is the ultimate act of faith and the Rich Young Ruler’s response is representative of most of us. Very few of us can act faithfully in this manner—Mother Theresa and Gandhi perhaps are exceptions to the rule. The few are not necessarily nominally Christian and may even have never heard of Christ; but by helping others they are helping Jesus, therefore they are, to all intents and purposes, practically Christian. An act of faith is an irrefutable act—not a mere fickle declaration—of love, and love is universal.

Charles: My sense from scripture is that God wants more. He wants us to believe, to trust, to accept the “I Am”. I agree wholeheartedly with the manifestation of that in outward acts of love, but God wants more than just good acts. The human heart is wicked and deceitful. Jesus said that the human heart produces many bad things when separated from God. Do we really know everything that was in Gandhi’s and Mother Theresa’s hearts? Acts of love may be God-like but they do not equate to choosing God, which is what I think God wants.

Don: It’s known that Mother Theresa left letters expressing her doubts about God. I’m not sure whether that supports Charles’ or David’s argument!

David: I agree that God wants more, but what that is—as I interpret the Rich Young Ruler story—is 100 percent. Mother Theresa may have given 99.999 percent of herself to God through her works, but even that is not enough: It has to be 100. That’s why we can’t get through the door on our own.

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