No Easy Way

 

 

Lk 13:22-30

 

 The Narrow Door

²² Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. ²³ Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”

He said to them, ²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. ²⁵ Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

²⁶ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

²⁸ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. ²⁹ People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

 

Something in our human nature leads us to seek the easy way, the path of least resistance, but Jesus firmly reminds us that this will get us nowhere.  Our back aches, our disappointments, our mistaken steps, even our failures are part if the winning mix, not the path of least resistance. May we not delude ourselves in choosing the easy way. I does not work. There's an old principle in the manuals of spiritual growth, called Agere Contra, To work against. We must work against the tendency to slough off whatever demands effort and seeks only the "good life." Well, the "good life" here, will not get us the "good life" there in the world to come. Or in contemporary terms, "No Pain No Gain."

 

Bro. Rene

 

Dear Jesus, help me to choose the narrow gate especially when my lazy spirit seeks the path of least resistance. Amen.