A Little Different Approach.
Broad and Narrow Way
Jesus seems to have lived in a very religious time and place. Those who did not practice the culturally embedded religious activities were often ostracized from “polite “society.
Religion had expected norms for behavior and practice that were accepted by most of society. Your place in society was heavily influenced by your place in religion.
Politics and religion were intertwined. The Messiah, the expected religious leader, was expected to make Israel great again and a world leader. The swamp of foreign-influenced government was to be drained ~~by force if needed. The Romans would be defeated, and Israel would be a free self-ruling nation respected by most nations.
Religious leadership was to be returned to those to whom it belonged. They would then keep everyone in line and enforce the rules, even making them the law of the land.
Holy Scripture would become the law. Religious leaders would again influence government. Government leaders would influence religion. It would be difficult to separate one from the other. History has shown that that seldom works.
This Kingdom would rule society, politics, culture, and religion. That was the popular view of The Messiah. The view most in that society accepted. A worldview that brought all of society within the Kingdom of God.
However, Jesus, The Messiah, came with a different approach. Just read The Sermon on the Mount. He said the Kingdom was within you. It was to be a Spiritual Kingdom. He rejected the Devil’s offers that coincided with the popular view and society’s offer when they wanted to make him King.
Jesus did not take “The Broad Way”, the popular way, the expected way, the religious way, or the political way, rather he took the “Narrow Way” of suffering and servanthood.
Sadly, his people, while proclaiming that they walk His narrow way, seem to keep trying to get back on the Broad Way. Christianity, The Church, and churches keep trying to go the way Jesus rejected and refuse the narrow way of suffering and servanthood he lived out and proclaimed to his followers.
The Broad Way may be the way of culture even the way of Church subculture.
If you are walking the Broadway, are you following Jesus? Only the way of suffering and servanthood. is the path of Jesus. It is the Narrow Way.