THE IN CROWD

Everyone likes to be with the ‘in crowd,’ or rather is afraid not to be. The power of popular opinion is far-reaching. Many of us are afraid of it and easily become slaves to its dictates and demands. Few want the stigma of not being in the herd. There is probably no other place in the gospels, with the exception of Nicodemus, in which the distinction between life and existence is so sharply drawn. The idea that most people on earth just exist, rather than live, is the common assumption of the New Testament. It also assumes that this form of existence which so many share is nothing other than a common mass movement toward destruction and is rarely stated like it is in Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

The broad path is a picture of masses of people moving along a great and broad highway, neither knowing where they are going and not particularly caring where, but just moving along…trending… because everyone else is. It is the endless cycle of working in order to eat, in order to sleep, day after day, year after year and then we die. It is no wonder the scriptures constantly refer to us as sheep. This is broad path logic. We must go through the little gate for a big life.

“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” Jesus (New Life Translation)