The High Road or Low Road
Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Do you remember that great old Scottish ballad, “Loch Lomond”?
… O ye’ll take the high road and I’ll take the low road
and I’ll be in Scotland afore ye …
There are always two paths to choose from in life. The high road and the low road. It seems that in everything we can either choose well, or choose badly. And most times, that choice is pretty clear. Good and bad, black and white – as much as people want to muddy the waters with all those shades of grey. All that wishy–washiness of compromise between right and wrong.
Jesus talked a bit about those two roads as well, but from quite a different perspective.
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)
It was a parable that He was telling and in this parable, He is the gate. He is the only way – no one comes to the Father except through Him.
Yet so many people reject Jesus. Not because He wasn’t a good Person. Not because He didn’t do good things or have powerful, amazing, life–changing things to say. But because frankly, following Jesus seems to be more trouble than it’s worth some days. Following Jesus is not the popular way to go. The high road goes up. That’s hard work and it’s often narrow, winding, dangerous.
The low road on the other hand, the road that gently slopes downward, is wide and easy. And after all, that’s where most people are going anyway. Why not go with the flow?
But you don’t have to be Einstein to figure out that those two roads are heading in wildly different directions, towards very different destinations.
So many people take the easy road, the low road, and then they kind of wonder: “Why is it that there’s no meaning to my life? Why is it that I’m not fulfilled and satisfied?”
Jesus had that choice. He had the choice of a nice, safe carpenter’s shop in Nazareth. That was His low road. Just hang around at home, potter around, do some woodwork and live a comfortable life. I’d imagine on some days, the low road looked pretty attractive to Him.
But instead, He chose the high road. The hard, tough journey to the Cross. Criticised. Misunderstood. Rejected. Beaten. Crucified. Oddly enough, that was His high road.
And imagine … just imagine where the likes of you and I would be now, if He’d chosen the low road.
Enter through the narrow gate, for that hard road is the one that leads to life.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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