“Enter by the narrow gate,” Jesus said, “for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. … For the gate is narrow and the the way is hard that leads to life.”
Sometimes the gate of love and justice is a narrow gate, and we pray with Wendell Berry, “By thy wide grace show me thy narrow gate.”
But Jesus also shows us the broad way that leads to life: “Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Stephen Shoemaker
What is this broad way that leads to life? It is a singular way in the midst of so many churches casting out those less pure. Barbara Brown Taylor quipped that the “All Are Welcome” signs on churches generally have the truth in advertising value of the signs in supermarkets that say. “Vine Ripe Tomatoes.”
It is a singular way of life where cruelty seems the point in much of our politics. Maybe the broad way is a narrow way after all.
A couple of years ago, our church gave out more than 300 signs in our town that said in colorful lettering:
We Believe
Black Lives Matter
Love is Love
Feminism is for Everyone
No Human Being Is Illegal
Science Is Real
And
Be Kind To All.
You perhaps have seen variations of this sign. We put one on the church lawn too. It was signifying the broad way of Jesus we were trying to follow .
I remember the almost-trembling attraction I felt more than 20 years ago when I read the remarkable words of the 19th century French priest Abbey de Tourville in his little book, Letters of Direction: “Never follow any narrow way; on the contrary choose the broadest, most generous way. That is the only one for you, the only one which will lead you into the Truth.”
“Never follow any narrow way; on the contrary choose the broadest, most generous way.”
Could this be true, I asked, for one who was trying to follow Jesus?
Then he went on: “Go straight ahead then and reach for your true equilibrium through the tranquil and generous instinct which brings back nature as God has created it.”
The Abbey de Tourville so exhausted himself for eight years as a parish priest in Paris that he had a breakdown. He retired to the country for the rest of his life and became a spiritual director for many who came to him. He had found the Jesus whose heart was gentle and lowly, whose yoke was kindly and light, the one who would not “break a bruised reed or quench a flickering wick.”
Perhaps Jesus is saying to us: In a culture that suspects tenderness, that valorizes places where “woke goes to die,” where the most vulnerable including our children are used as political pawns, do not be afraid of the broad way, of love that is generous. When you get in touch with your most generous instinct, you are in sync with God.
We might begin with ourselves, with self-compassion, and let the kindness of Jesus enter into our deepest places.
“Never follow any narrow way; on the contrary, choose the broadest most generous way.” This way cuts against the grain of our nation today; it is out of season in America. But it just may be the broad way that leads to life.
Stephen Shoemaker serves as pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Statesville, N.C. He served previously as pastor of Myers Park Baptist in Charlotte, N.C.; Broadway Baptist in Fort Worth, Texas, and Crescent Hill Baptist in Louisville, Ky.