Series on the Mount
Safety First?
Matthew 7:13-14
October 28, 2007
We live in a safety first culture. When I was a kid, we didn’t wear helmets when riding our bikes except on the BMX track. I turned out ok. Today we wear seatbelts, have car seats, and heaven forbid that the kids might actually get to ride in the back of a pick up truck. Not only that but cars now have airbags in the front, on the sides, in the back, on top, and on the bottom. We have disinfectants and sanitizers. I’m not saying that all this concern about safety is bad. What I am wondering about is maybe we have sterilized Jesus. Maybe we’ve sanitized the gospel.
Following Jesus is no longer dirty busy. We’re civilized after all. We pad our pews and our budgets. Our number one goal especially since 9/11 is to be safe and secure, which is why we now have a whole branch of government that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on Homeland Security. I just saw on CNN that New York City is going to be spending millions of dollars on security cameras all over the city so that people are safe from those that might want to harm us.
We have safety testing on prescription drugs as well as our children’s toys. Is it any wonder that extreme sports are so popular with emerging generations? Speaking of safe toys, I just saw another recall. This one is on a play set. I don’t remember the name of the company or the model but if you have a play set in your yard or at your school that has a slide that resembles the one in this picture then you should be warned that it is not entirely safe for your children and needs to be returned at once.
Our passage today is a reminder that following Jesus is not safe and we need to be wary of our readings of the Jesus’ teaching that might be more influenced by our safety conscious culture than on the wonderous danger of following Jesus. Turn to Matthew 7:13, which is the beginning of the conclusion of Jesus radical, life-changing, world-altering, culture-creating, community transforming teachings.
"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Here Jesus wants to give us a contrast between the life of a disciple and the life of the rest of the world. Matthew wants his persecuted community to remember that the life that they chose in following Jesus is the only way to be saved. Matthew is reminding his community that “whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Jesus will find it.” (Mt. 16:25).
The narrow gate. The narrow way. Matthew and Jesus’ communities would have been very familiar with this reference. First of all, two paths, one of life and the other of destruction were common pictures of the culture. Probably they referenced the roads that were traveled as well as the gates of a city. In Jesus’ day people walked. You walked from city to city and most of Israel could be walked from end to end in a few days if you walked diligently and purposefully with the goal to cross as much terrain as possible. But very few walked this way because when you traveled, you journeyed. You focused on those who were with you and those that you would meet along the way. This was life.
Not only that when you traveled, you usually traveled the well-worn paths. Those paths that were wide and have had many of the obstacles removed. Sure there were other paths, many of which were perhaps a little shorter and possibly a little quicker but these were the safest routes. Bandits, thieves, and murderers stayed out in the wilderness to prey on the weak and those foolish enough to try alternate routes or even foolish enough to travel alone. In fact, you never traveled alone. You traveled in groups as there is safety in numbers.
Additionally, cities were usually built on tels or hills. They would be surrounded by walls that had one broad gate. This gate was often the weak point in the city defenses so it was heavily fortified. But often strongholds would have at least one hidden and secret exit usually from somewhere deep inside the keep. Often it would be a tunnel that might extend for miles underground and emerge in a secluded and hidden area.
Jesus is telling us that following his ways is like the narrow gate into the city. It is in the wilderness. It is often a secret path. The main gate is the way to destruction. It is well guarded and heavily fortified. If you try to enter the enemy’s stronghold that way—you will die. Instead, his kingdom starts small. It begins with the people who live differently, radically but not in a way that makes themselves a spectacle as the hypocrites do. It is the slow, sure way of love that Jesus is teaching. It will not get you rich. It will not gain you recognition or fame. In fact, it most likely NOT provide you any earthly comfort or security instead leading to the loss of your life as you take up your cross. It is not the way of safety first. The narrow way is a contradiction to the broad and popular way that is found in the surrounding culture and surrounding religious systems.
In the context of the passage the narrow gate is for those who hear the words of Jesus and do them teaching others to do the same. The broad gate are those who may hear the words, agree with the words, and perhaps even teach the words but never really put them into practice. It is a choice to make. Who do you follow? Which Jesus do you serve?
Dangerous Kingdom
• Danger First or Safety First
The broad gate is going to be safe. But isn’t Jesus really asking us to take a chance? Trust in God’s goodness not in your own strength and in your own wisdom. Love others even when they may lie about you. Do good to them even if they persecute you for it. Forgive them even when they are unforgivable and may not forgive you.
Matthew is reminding his community that Jesus expects us to suffer as we follow him. If will not be easy. Putting these things into practice and allowing Jesus to guide all of our affairs will not win us a lot prestige. Trusting in God instead of the empire or the economy and teaching others to do the same is, well, un-American. Seeking to make peace instead of war is a hard and dangerous road that is not easily traveled. It is much easier to judge and condemn. It is much easier to bomb and blow-up.
• Well-Traveled or Leaps of Faith
The broad road is well-traveled. It is easy going. You pretty much don’t need God because all the major obstacles have been removed by those who have gone before you. It is pretty comfortable. You won’t stumble a whole lot. You won’t find any gullies that have to crossed. In fact you will probably find a whole lot of people who agree with you that are traveling the road.
But is that the journey Jesus calls us to? Where is the faith that is needed when we can plan and save and strategize to make ends meet? We don’t really want to hear about those who are dying from starvation. We stay in our suburb castles and never really have to experience the pain of those with broken, sin-filled lives and when it comes knocking on the gates of our house, we quickly usher it around back where our neighbors and our brothers and our sisters never see.
God calls us to a crisis of belief in which we join Him in what He is doing and have to trust in His provision not our own. Well-traveled or leaps of faith?
• The Weak or The Powerful
The weak are out on the edges. The poorest of the poor and the lepers of society aren’t allowed to walk on the broad road. The lepers are cast off. The tax collectors are written off and condemned. Like the Pharisee who came to worship and saw the tax collector and glorified God that he wasn’t like that tax collector. At least I’m not a murderer, or rapist, or child abuser, or a politician who has sold his or her soul to whoever will pay for their campaign, or the prostitute on Parade Street, or the homeless drug addict/alcoholic that would rather use their SSI or welfare funds to get wasted than buy food for their children (if they even know where they are at). At least I’m not like them.
Jesus said to be with the least of these… This is the narrow way. Few find it. Many people find the way that knows how to get what they want and knows that at least I’m not like…
• Civilization or The Wilderness
The narrow gate is in the wilderness. This is where God’s Spirit has already prepared the way. It is in the wilderness of society. It is in the wilderness of our lives. The wildness. The sin. The brokenness that God is already at work. There is no need for God to be where we have it all-together. There is no need to be where we have all the problems swept under the rug and have built our gates high and strong. There is no need for God to be where we have a tower that we have built with our own two hands and our own ingenuity that reaches to heaven itself.
I have spoken about the need for a moral inventory. If we are serious about our journey, then we must ask ourselves about our walk realizing that when we compare ourselves to God and God’s standard then we do fall short. When we compare ourselves to others, it is easy to judge and see how we are not really so bad after all. It is easy that way. Many find that path. But perhaps we should be more like the man that said, “I am a sinner. You are God and I am not. I don’t know how to love others like I should. Help me, Jesus. Help me love others as you do. Show me your will and your ways. Help to me to love others with your love in my heart.
Instead of the despair that I feel because I hate myself. Many of us murder not our brothers but ourselves because we hate who we are and who we’ve become and who we pretend to be. Sometimes the person that we need to forgive the most is ourselves. This hate of ourselves then spills out in anger onto others. We don’t compare ourselves and say, “At least I’m not as bad as that person.” But we still compare ourselves to others and say, “I will never be as good as him or her or pastor or…” We still are judging. We still want to hold this part of ourselves back from God. I’m too bad for God. He couldn’t possibly love all of me. He can and He does.
Above this passage reminds us that if we are comfortable and safe and secure then we better look out. We may need to question ourselves, which is a good thing. I’m not talking about doubting. At least not doubting God. Jesus said, “Only a few find the narrow way.” I think it is entirely healthy to ask oneself, “Am I really on the narrow way of Jesus? Do I really understand what it is that Jesus is calling me to do and how Jesus is calling me to live?” A life of loving.
But loving is hard. The way is narrow. Not many really love the way Jesus does. Even in churches. We are more consumers than lovers. We are more takers than givers. I’ve poured into people and given and given as I know many of you have. I’ve poured into groups of people in this way. And they keep taking and taking until you are sucked dry. Ever been there? You feel like a dried up raisin with nothing left. And yet they still expect more. And when you just don’t have it. What is their response? They get angry. They say things like, “You are never there for me. You are just selfish. You really don’t care about me.” Meanwhile Kendra has been saying, “Honey, are you ever going to come home? Who are you really married to?” You will never be happy and you will never be satisfied living that way. “If I can just get my needs met, then I can have something to give.” That’s the broad way. It leads to destruction because you never have enough. You will never be filled until you give yourself away as Jesus gave himself away. You will never be satisfied until you make it your entire lifestyle a life of giving, serving, and loving others.
Congregations are not places to have needs met. Congregations can meet needs but that is not the purpose for gathering together. We gather together to serve one another. I’ve met plenty of people who believe that they are repaying me or repaying the people by simply showing up. You paid my bill or put gas in my car or whatever so I’ll come a couple of Sundays. For centuries we have called our gathering a worship service.: a place to serve God and others in worshiping God’s great majesty. A sacrifice of praise. We’ve come here to sharpen one another, to encourage one another, to love one another and give each the mutual hope that God’s love never fails us and will endure whatever hardship, trial, or tribulation that we are facing.
It is a narrow way. It is a difficult road. We have to leave much behind: our wants, our needs, our baggage, and our misconceptions. One time when we were first married, Kendra and I planned a trip to Cedar Point. I like to save money so we stayed in a hotel about twenty minutes from the point. It was a Best Western so I thought it was pretty safe (this was before the Internet where you can now see the hotel before you stay). This was not a hotel. It was a motel. I will never understand how they had managed to get the Best Western name. It was one of those places that all the room entrances are on the outside like the city motel downtown on 6th St. As I brought in our luggage for the stay, I tried to make one trip and load three or four bags. But I could not get through the door. The doorway was so small and narrow there was no way to get through the door with all that baggage. I had to set down the bags and take them one at a time.
There are a lot of people that have grown comfortable with their baggage. Whether it is emotional baggage from their childhood or from messy relationships or the baggage of bad theological belief systems that they were taught (and perhaps misunderstood) but never closely examined. Sometimes we even carry baggage of emotional immaturity that weighs us down and causes us incredible discomfort and pain as well as becomes stumbling blocks for others. But we are used to them and don’t want to go through the trouble and pain of discarding them. It is easier to stay stuck in the past. It is a road well-traveled and familiar.
I wonder if there are some bags that we need to get rid. I wonder if God has been revealing things that you need to leave behind. They just won’t fit through the door. In order to get inside the kingdom of grace and mercy and love, we have to let them go. Maybe there are rocks that are weighing us down that we’ve been trying to carry on this narrow way but we are realizing that they just won’t go through the gate. Maybe you even been trying to carry somebody through but you know deep down in your heart the most loving thing you can do is let go and let God see them through. The broad road leads to destruction. It seems easier to carry our baggage and even our mistakes and sins. But it is a road that goes nowhere.
Seeking to get more than you give destroys you and others. Jesus’ narrow road was one in which his followers were called to give more than they receive. It is a narrow way. Only a few find that kind of life and that kind of community. I want to be there. The gate is Jesus himself: it is putting into practice his teachings and teaching others (that is giving) to do the same. Where do you want to be?
