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Jesus' Teachings
Two roads, two destinations — the choice the Sermon on the Mount refuses to let you avoid
Why would Jesus end his most famous sermon with a warning instead of a summary? As the Sermon on the Mount winds down, Jesus doesn't recap his main points — he draws a fork in the road and tells his listeners which way most people are actually walking.
Two gates, two roads, two destinations. One is wide, easy to find, and crowded. The other is narrow, harder to locate, and walked by comparatively few. Jesus doesn't soften this to make it more palatable — he states it as simple fact and moves on.
This isn't a threat aimed at outsiders. It's aimed directly at everyone who just spent three chapters listening to him teach, including people who assumed they were already on the right road.
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Translation note: Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV). The King James Version is in the public domain.
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