In the last part of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus focuses on how to enter the Kingdom of God. From a Buddhist perspective this question would be expressed as how to enter Nirvana or how to be enlightened. The Hindu might ask how to be liberated. Different spiritual traditions have different terms for this, but it is the same spiritual reality. Jesus addresses this topic elsewhere in his teachings as well.
For example in the Gospel of John Jesus says that to enter the Kingdom of God one has to be born again. Jesus is not talking about the evangelical experience. It has nothing to do with conversion to Christianity. Jesus is talking about spiritual sight. He says to Nicodemus in that famous conversation, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
This term “born again” Jesus also calls being “born from above” or “born anew” or “born of the Spirit.” His metaphor of rebirth is meant to convey that spiritual awakening is like entering a new world. Jesus experienced this at his baptism. To enter the Kingdom of God is to enter into an entirely new way of seeing. It is a shift in perspective.
The million dollar question is “How?” How does one enter the Kingdom of God, or the Realm of God, or the Spiritual Realm? Jesus answers, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” In other words it is as simple as asking. The best translation of the Jesus’ words is “keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.”
Jesus is stressing the quality of persistence or perseverance. He teaches this in other parables like the widow who won’t stop asking the unjust judge for justice. Or the woman who kept looking until she found the coin she had lost. Or the shepherd who kept looking for the sheep until he found it. The most important quality in the spiritual life is persistence or perseverance.
The spiritual quest is not a pastime or a game or a hobby. It consumes you. I can testify that this is true in my life. All my adult life I have had a hunger and thirst for truth. I did not stop until I found truth. We see that in the story of the Buddha. After years of seeking and trying different spiritual disciplines, Gautama decided to sit down under a tree and he would not get up until he was enlightened or dead. It was life or death determination that was the key.
I would also say that skepticism is very important part of that determination. Near the end of my search I was deconstructing my Christianity. Carefully investigating to see if what I had believed for decades was really true. I was relentless in my skepticism. I was persistent. This stage took two and a half years, but I did not stop. I was ruthless in my search. I would accept no easy answers.
The problem with most people is that they are not willing to look beyond the conventional solutions. They are too willing to accept pre-packaged religious answers. They get tired of looking, and they settle for a religion rather than truth. Truth is not in a religion or a theology or a philosophy. Those are substitutes for truth. If you persevere – no matter how long it takes or what the consequences – then you find.
Also Jesus is saying that we are to expect to find what we are looking for. This is not a hopeless search. In Christian language we should have faith that we will be given what we are asking for. That the door will open. Jesus says, “Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” The version of this verse in the Gospel of Luke says “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.” In other words if you are persistent, your prayers will be answered. You will find. Do not give up hope.
Persistence and faith. We ask, and seek, and knock in hope. Expecting to find if we do not give up. That hope is what keeps us asking, seeking, and knocking long after others have given up and settled. We have faith and hope because we trust what Jesus says about the Kingdom of God.
What does he say about the Kingdom? He says the Kingdom of God is within you. Pharisees came to Jesus asking where the Kingdom of God is and when it is going to come. Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” This can be translated “in your midst” meaning “you are in the middle of it, it is all around you.”
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father.” Jesus said, “Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
In other words what you are seeking is here now. The Truth you are seeking is all around you. You are in the Kingdom of God and it is in you. You are already enlightened. You already have eternal life. That is the paradox of spiritual truth. There is nowhere we have to go and nothing we have to do to enter the Kingdom of God. It is simply a matter of realizing what is here now. Realizing who we are here now. The Kingdom of God is at hand. All we have to do is reach our hands and see it is at our fingertips.
It is that simple. It is because it is so simple that it is missed. We keep knocking, and then one day we realize that the door is open, and it always was open. There is a famous painting of Christ knocking on a door. It represents the door of the human heart. When you look closely you see that there is no handle or latch on the door. That is because it can only be opened from the inside. There is no closed door except for the door that we have created. There is no bondage except self-bondage.
Duality puts up walls and locked doors to divide inside from outside, us from God. If God is omnipresent there can be no inside or outside. I recently heard a guy joking that his house was so small that the front door is the back door. We knock on the door of the Kingdom of God, and when it opens, it opens to where we already are. Inside is outside. We do not have to go anywhere. Here and now is the Kingdom of God.
It is so simple. Yet it seems so difficult. Jesus explores this paradox in his next words where he gives a further teaching on how to enter the Kingdom of God. How do we enter the Kingdom of God? Jesus says, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Enter by the narrow gate. The word “narrow” really does not sufficiently communicate what Jesus means. The old King James Version of the Bible translates it better, but it uses a world rarely used today. It says, “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.”
The gate is strait. Not straight as in a straight line, meaning not curvy. It is strait as in straitjacket. It is so strait that you can’t move. You certainly cannot bring anything with you through that strait gate. When a rich man asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life, Jesus said, “It is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” In truth you cannot bring anything with you. Not your possessions and certainly not the ego.
There is a cave system in New Hampshire called Polar Caves about an hour west of where we live. In those caves is a passage called the Lemon Squeeze. It is so tight that you have to squeeze through the passageway. Children can fit through, but people my size cannot fit through it.
That is what Jesus is saying about the gate to the Kingdom of God. You have to squeeze through. It is strait. You can’t take anything through it. Not your self identity. Not your racial or ethnic or sexual or religious identity. Not your religion. Not your doctrine. Not your church. Not your beliefs. Not your worldview. Not your politics. You have to leave all that behind. With every step you take through this strait gate, you need to leave something more behind until there is nothing left. That is why Jesus likens it to rebirth. It I like traveling through the birth canal. When you let go of all, and you are nothing, that is when you see the Kingdom of God and enter the Kingdom of God.
Most people do not do that. They can’t do it. They prefer the broad way, the way of religion, where millions can have their cake and eat it too. There are a lot of preachers who will sell you this cheap grace. But Jesus says that this the broad way – the megachurch way – that leads to destruction. But the narrow way is life. Historically only a few take this road less traveled. Religions or spiritual communities tend to form around them. But anyone can enter, if they are willing to pay the price. All it costs is everything.