What if the kingdom of heaven were the opposite of what we were expecting? What if we we were wrong about the guest list (Matthew 22)? What if our intuitions and expectations of heaven were ill-founded? What God’s life was a dim bulb that drew only the quiet and humble seekers, rather than a spotlight drawing all from across the valley?
Christ suggested this time and again, with the Kingdom of God being likened to counterintuitive analogies that are head scratchers to this day. Regardless of what the Kingdom is, Jesus seems to be saying again and again it what was we expect.
Mosiah warned us we would be uninterested in heaven if we are not interested in serving the undeserving (Mosiah 4:17-18).
Indian Jones understood in time that the Holy Grail was not inherently desireable, but humble and plain. What if heaven, and the kingdom of god on earth, was the same?
C.S. Lewis paints a similar image in the Divorce of Heaven, with the weak and flimsy souls of purgatory repulsed by heaven and its unwillingness to bend to their comfort and expectations.
Perhaps the gate is straight and the way narrow because it is unintuitive, not difficult in terms of tasks and obedience. In fact, what if the way to get there was to let go and submit?