The Way Into the Kingdom: Finding the Right Path

In the preceding passage Jesus highlighted the unilateral nature of the relationship between the sons of the kingdom and their heavenly Father: They ask, seek, and knock, and He provides. That unilateral dynamic is as true of their entrance into the kingdom of heaven as it is of their life within it. Jesus then followed that introduction with a call to enter His kingdom, and He framed His call with an explanation of the way in which a person does so. Most notable about this explanation is that it’s constructed as a series of pairs that focus on and describe the only two ways by which men can hope to enter into His kingdom: two gates, two paths, and two destinations. This pattern of pairs – reflecting two proposed ways into the kingdom of heaven – continues in the subsequent sections: two trees & two fruit, two claims, two houses. This pattern is both fundamental and crucial to the matter of entering the kingdom, and unless the reader grasps its contextual meaning and significance, the core message of the Sermon on the Mount will almost certainly be lost upon him.