Pardon Me, But Can I Squeeze Through?

Luke 13:24

Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

This is one of the more well-known verses in the Bible, along with the 'camel through the eye of the needle' vs 'the rich man through the gates of heaven'. However, it may seem quite elementary with a quick glance, but it proposes some difficult things for those of us who are believers. One of the hardest parts is "for many...will seek to enter and will not be able." That's tough!

When I think of a narrow gate, I picture people in an almost single file line walking through a very cramped opening in a wall. The metal grate, used to seal the gate at night, is push back and those entering this gate bring nothing, but themselves in. Why? The gate is too small to accommodate anything outside of self. With that picture established, I feel that what the verse is saying is that the burdens of sin need to be thrown off and the heavy luggage of desires and wants need to be left behind. Jesus Christ wants us and only us. He will not contend with anything else. The narrow gate is a hard one to enter, for we don't want to lay down the things that we so foolishly and haphazardly cling to. We are infinite creatures stuck on the finite moments. Our biggest sin is that we fail to see that He has everything we need on the other side!