Jesus said, “I am the gate”
Out in the province of Alberta, in the national park, Banff, familiar to many of you—it is now a four-lane highway that goes through there—there are fences on either side of the road, to prevent animals from going across, and being killed.  However, because it is a park, and because animals have their habitat, there has been considerable effort taken to cohabit with the wild animals.  One of the approaches that has been taken is to design underpasses for the wild animals.  So the fence will lead in the direction of the underpass, and then the bears, the elk, will all go underneath the highway, and be able to go out to the other side.  In fact, some time ago, I saw a documentary on this; the camera on site showed up a bear ambling through the underpass, and then, at some point later, an elk.  So Parks Canada, with the help of the federal government and us Canadians, has done its part in helping out the animals, by providing a pathway—an opening, and then a pathway—under the highway, so that they can go on the other side to where they wish to go.
Now the same sort of thing is not found universally.  Certainly, if you drive through the province of Newfoundland, I don’t think that there are any animal fences on the side of the road.  You simply have to be aware of those moose.  And if you see a moose, brake, and duck.  That ‘s the advice that I have been given; I pass it on to you.
However, in the new Trans-Canada highway, going through New Brunswick, which is a four-lane highway, you do see high fences on portions of that highway, for extended periods of time.  But there are little gates in the fence, and with some sign to the animals where they are.  However, it is a one-way fence.  There is no underpass for the animals.
I mention this as a way of introducing our theme for today, in terms of “the gate” and Jesus’ saying, in particular,
“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.”
Now, there are some sayings of Jesus which immediately precede this passage in Matthew’s gospel, which, to my mind, if they are not the gate itself, they are at least a way of moving us to the gate, so that we can live our lives safely and find the salvation which God wishes for us.
The overall structure of the Sermon on the Mount is relatively clear.  (And, of course, the reading I gave you  is part of that Sermon on the Mount.)  The structure of the Sermon on the Mount is relatively clear.  It begins with the Beatitudes, has some sayings about being the light of the world, the salt of the earth, and having a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.  Then there are a series of sayings where Jesus is quoted as saying, “You have heard it said, to the people of old, ‘You shall not kill’, but I say to you, ‘You shall not be angry with your brother...’”  That’s one example of the “But I say to you”-type of sayings.  Then there follows in the Sermon on the Mount an answer to Jewish righteousness.  Jewish righteousness included alms-giving (giving to the poor), prayer, and fasting.  And so, there is a whole section in the Sermon on the Mount on giving alms, prayer and fasting.  Then the section which we will consider follows.  And then the whole sermon ends with sayings related to who is truly a follower of Jesus—people who are not just a semblance of such, people who do not simply say they are such, but people who actually follow the words and teaching of Jesus and do them.
So that’s a bit of a summary of the structure of the Sermon on the Mount.  But, in the context of our saying, concerning the “narrow gate”, there are a number of sayings, which, to my mind, help prepare us for the gate, move us in that direction.  And I think they can all be understood in simple terms—in terms of loving God, loving neighbour, loving self.  The great commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart... And the second is like it, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
Well, the passage, in the latter part of chapter six, which precedes Jesus’ saying on the gate, begins with sayings related to where your treasure is, because there will your heart be also.  You cannot serve God and Mammon.  That’s the major theme of the section.  In the midst of that, there is a brief saying on the “eye”—
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
But, following the sayings about Mammon and serving of God, there is a whole section which is familiar to all of us, I imagine—“Do not worry... You see the lilies of the field; they neither toil nor spin...  Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you, because your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”  “And let the trouble of each day be sufficient for that day.”
There is, then, a very practical indication in that whole sequence of sayings of Jesus.  And that is that we ought to trust God to look after us, to let the troubles of the day to be sufficient for the day—not to be anxious people, but to be confident in God.  And therefore, Mammon will not be such an enticing alternative, because Mammon or Money, we would think, provides a lot of the things that we would hope for.  But, if we put our trust in God, principally, then Mammon does not have that same appeal.  So we serve God rather than Mammon.   “Let the troubles of the day be sufficient for the day.”  “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness..”
Now, perhaps associated with that passage in Matthew 6, is another passage concerning prayer—“Ask, and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Jesus goes on to mention that, if we, as parents, who are merely human parents, can give good gifts to our children, how much more will our heavenly Father give good gifts to those who seek them from God.
Here again, something very practical—namely, making our requests known to God, and living in confidence that God wishes good things for us.  God wishes his blessing, his salvation, for us, through Christ.
So, I would say, these things, these teachings, are, in a way—not necessarily the gate itself, but they move us in the direction of the gate.  They tell us where to put the focus of our lives—not on money, not on simply being content with getting what we can, in terms of gifts, but being confident of God’s care of us.
In the context of the passage of the gate, or the verses in Matthew’s gospel, which precede the saying about the gate, we hear, “Do not judge, for the measure you give will be the measure you get.”  “Do not say, ‘I am going to take this speck out of your eye,’ and do not see the beam in your own eye.  Take the beam out of your own eye, before you try to take the speck out of another person’s eye.”  (All of this is now more on the theme of loving your neighbour.  The other passages I have mentioned really relate to loving the Lord our God, by trusting in God, being confident of the goodness God wishes for you.)
Do not judge.  But also “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  This is certainly the positive side of that “do not judge”.  And, by such means, we have a guide, moving us towards the gate, enabling us to move closer to the way which is salvation, because we make it a practice of our lives to think, “Are our approaches those of people who do to others as we would have them do to us”?  Or are we people who judge and condemn?
Well, there are a couple of other little sayings, which, to my mind, relate to loving self.  Now, “loving self” is the last in the list, because it shouldn’t be emphasized.  It should be right at the end of the list—“Love the Lord your God,” “love your neighbour as yourself”, as “you love yourself.”  That is the way some people translate, or interpret, those commandments.
In one of the verses which precedes the section about the “gate”, it says
“Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.”
Now, this is an unusual saying.  I would say that it is often interpreted in connection with other people.  Don’t give what is holy to people who are going to be totally unreceptive.  You could interpret it in that way.  But one could see this in a different light as being addressed to oneself.  You can, for example, give your life to anger and bitterness, or to fear and anxiety, which are like dogs or swine.  And, when you give your life that way, you have essentially wasted your life, when your life is dominated by fear or hatred or judgement of others.  So this is the counsel—God has given you this life; love God, by trusting God, rather than having fear; and serve your neighbour, rather than being governed by hate or condemnation of others.
There is also the little saying about the “eye”.  “The eye is the lamp of the body”. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, etc.  But if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.”  That could be interpreted in terms of self—care for self.  If we, for example, put our trust in something that is not God, then we can count on the light of our lives being extinguished.  And so, there is only darkness there, and we have given up on the life that God would have for us.
These sayings are also moving us towards the gate, the gate which is the way into eternal life, the gate which, according to John’s gospel, is Jesus himself.
Now, Jesus himself lived the way of faith and confidence in God.  As well as giving us the teaching about confidence in God, he lived that life.  And, as well as not being governed by judgement, Jesus lived a life of service of others.  “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.”  And Jesus also did not throw away his life, by cutting himself off from God, or being governed by hate, or anything like that.  Rather, he remained true to his calling, as the Son, right to the end, the end on the cross, followed by the triumph of the resurrection.
The sayings of Jesus are like the fence that moves us to the gate.  And the gate is Jesus himself.  As we enter that gate, we find the life of faith, of trust in God; we find that we are called into the life of service of neighbour; and we find, also, the life that God loves which is our very own, and which God wishes us to use for the service of God and of neighbour.
May we follow this fence, which Jesus’ sayings provide, to the gate, and enter it, into the life which God wishes for us, through Jesus Christ our Lord.