Proverbs 4:25 instructs, “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.”
On a bright sunny day, I was riding along in a surrey with Gerald Zellmer, a good Christian friend and a good horse handler, when he handed the reins over to me. I did not know what to do. Gerald was sitting beside me and coached me. When we came to a little trail that headed down the bank to the right, he took the reins for a moment to keep the horse from going over the steep trail. Even with blinders, the horse knew where the trail was, and had often gone down it without the surrey behind him. The horse did begin to turn off, but Gerald guided it on past.
Our text directs us to look right on, straight ahead. In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus points us to choose the straight and narrow way that leads to life. He probably means everlasting life. I picture that as a road, only one road, that leads to Heaven. We may be tempted at times to take a little side trail—maybe one that we have taken many times before. Danger! Watch out! We must look straight ahead. Lord, put blinders on our eyes. If we choose the broad way we can wander all over the place and still be on the road.
This narrow way could also be called the way of the cross. This was the path Jesus chose. Luke 9:51 states, “And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem….” Jesus had avoided going to Jerusalem because the Jews sought to kill Him. It was not because He was afraid of them, but His time to die had not yet come. His path was from Heaven to Earth and back to Heaven. He stayed on the path, went to the cross, and purchased our salvation. Praise the Lord!
I love the hymn, “The Way of the Cross Leads Home,” by Jessie B. Pounds and Charles H. Gabriel. Verse 1 states that there is no other way to get to Heaven. Verse 2 says that it is the blood-sprinkled way. Verse 3 calls us to, “bid farewell to the ways of the world.” The Chorus: “The way of the cross leads home. The way of the cross leads home. It is sweet to know, as I onward go, the way of the cross leads home.”
Another great hymn, “Lead Me to Calvary,” by Jennie E. Hussy and William J. Kirkpatrick, speaks of the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus went on His journey to the cross. A gethsemane is actually an olive press that presses all the juice out of the olives. Jesus went to a garden where there was such a press. (I saw one in Israel and learned about it on an “Israel in Depth Seminar” trip with Ray VanderLaan.) It was in this garden that Jesus was pressed until He sweat as it were great drops of blood (Luke 22:44). The hymn calls us to remember the crown of thorns, the tomb, the empty tomb, and the cup or grief. The Chorus bids us to remember and follow the same path: “Lest I forget Gethsemane. Lest I forget Thine agony, Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary.”
The straight-ahead look, the look on Jesus’ face, is the only way. Many people choose the broad way. Going the way most people go may seem comforting. Don’t be fooled, it is the way of destruction.
Again, in Luke 9 verse 53, Jesus was not received, “…because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.” It is not popular to set your eyes on the cross. It is not easy, but it’s worth it. Look and live!
