The Two Gates

The following artwork and artwork description were created by Seth Coulter for the Being With Jesus in a Digital and Distracted Age series in the fall of 2026.

“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.”
(Matthew 7:13-14 ESV)

What is the power of choice? Is a particular choice an artifact of one past moment, or is it something that continues to live and shape us right into the present? This section of scripture and these questions prompted the art for this Digital and Distracted project.

Let’s delve into how those themes affected the images here. First, we have a figure in the foreground, an individual walking, as it were, distracted. Ahead arranged on the left and the right are two gates. The gate on the left is the Wide Gate. This gate is grand, high, impressive. It is also deceptive. I decided to portray the wide gate as being in the brutalist style. It is without ornamentation, detail, or flourish. It lacks a detailed beauty and instead opts for grand dimension. Through this gate we see its offering, what looks like a large country is actually a barren wilderness, a desert. The gate promises something impressive, but ultimately delivers something arid. The only life growing on the Wide Gate side is a little hard-bitten thistle. This gate looks from the front to be wholly majestic, but it is a facade, for around the edges are decay and erosion. The Wide Gate is a misleading invitation.

Now we turn to the Narrow Gate. This gate is diminutive, less impressive. It however looks ancient, and well used, and beautiful in its antiquity and craft. This is a gate created stone by stone. The arch is meant to replicate the “Eye of the Needle Gate” that is present in historical art, taken from the parable found in Matthew 19. It is also meant to look something like an old church door. The overall height of the gate entrance itself is just a little too low, as to have the entrant bow their heads as they enter. Within the narrow gate, despite its humble appearance, is all life. There are trees growing, figs and thick foliage present, a well with good water, and shade there. What looked from the outside of this gate like a smaller way to go, opens up within and greets those who enter with more life, not less, as the road continues before them.

Lastly, these two gates are situated in the illustration in a way where the Narrow Gate is on the right side, the right hand of the image, and towards the east—and the rising sun. The Wide Gate sits to the west, and the setting of the sun. All of this composition represents the idea of choice, the different ways, and the promises the ways offer.