Our text, this morning, is one that is more or less familiar to most of you.
And as such, it suffers the problem of those texts that are more or less
familiar. We think that we understand what they are about, so we don’t take
the time to meditate upon them to see what nuggets of gold there might be
hidden beneath the surface. And they are there. It is my hope that the
Spirit will unearth for you some of those nuggets this morning so that you
might serve Christ well.
Let’s start with this. The first thing that you need to decide is how to
hear Jesus here. The tone of a person’s voice explains much about what he is
saying. We do not have Jesus’ living voice, but we do know some things about
Him. So, should you hear this word from Jesus as a demand? Is Jesus laying
down the law and saying, ‘Do it My way – or else’? Some may be tempted to
hear it that way. But, Jesus wasn’t, and isn’t, a tyrant. These words to His
disciples were words not of demand but of concern. What we have in our text
is a plea. Jesus sees danger for His disciples. And so, concerned for their
well-being, He urges them to live wisely. He urges them to do what may seem
counter-intuitive. ‘Choose the hard way.’ And why does He say this? He says
this because the alternative, which will feel so appealing, ends in death.
Jesus speaks here as our compassionate Savior who wants us to flourish. Hear
His words with that tone in mind.
Now, if you are going to understand Jesus’ words you will need to see them
in their proper context. And the proper context here is more than the rest
of Matthew 7. The proper context goes back to Genesis 3. Satan has just
recruited Adam and Eve to his cause of rebellion against their Creator. But,
in His mercy, God ‘un-recruits’ them. In the place of this devilish
alliance, God substitutes enmity. And so He says to the serpent, ‘I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her
offspring…’ [Genesis 3:15] The rest of Scripture is the historical account
of this enmity – this war – between the faithful offspring of the woman and
the rebellious offspring of the serpent. Sometimes, this warfare shows as
quite physical. And so, we have Moses against Pharaoh or David against
Goliath or Elijah against the prophets of Baal, the faithful offspring
against the rebellious. But this warfare is not always a matter of physical
conflict. ‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armor of God…’ [Ephesians 6:12-13]
One implication of this is obvious. You are standing on a battlefield. The
faithful offspring of the woman, you, the Church, is still battling against
the rebellious offspring of the serpent, them, the world. The outward
appearance of the battle has changed. It is no longer a matter of five
stones versus a sword and javelin. Now, it shows in the daily decisions you
make. Will it be the broad way or the narrow way? The easy or the hard?
There have been many who have been fooled: Judas, Demas, Peter, Ananias and
Sapphira, King David. And so, Jesus, our faithful Savior, calls to His
disciples and warns them to be careful. The battle still rages and the evil
one is still a schemer. Be careful. Be wise.
But Jesus doesn’t merely warn and then move on to the next topic on His
agenda. He gives you things to look for so that you can avoid falling into
the traps. What good is a warning without identifying what to look out for?
And so, Jesus tells us what to watch for. The first thing is this. Is the
way easy? If your journey is easy that is a telltale sign that you’re on the
wrong road. Now, that doesn’t mean that if you think your life is hard then
all is well. Who would be excluded if that’s what Jesus were talking about?
People are always complaining about how hard life is. Jesus is talking about
the war. Are you finding the warfare easy? Remember, you are on a
battlefield. And normal for a battlefield is battle. So, how are you doing
in your battle with Satan and his schemes? If it’s a piece of cake,
something is wrong; something needs to be examined more carefully. If there
is no sense of battle, a warning light better be flashing in your soul
somewhere. Something is wrong when being on a battlefield is easy. Now, this
isn’t a defense of any ‘doom and gloom’ theory of Christian living. Even
soldiers on the front line get some ‘r and r’ at times. And there isn’t
shooting at the front all the time. But when a soldier is at the front he is
always vigilant. It is the front, after all. And there is shooting going on;
and even times of intense hand-to-hand fighting. No soldier at the front
thinks that being there is easy. So, Jesus tells us that, if the way seems
easy, something is wrong.
The other warning sign is this. Is it popular? Few choose the hard way while
many choose the easy. Here, again, there is need to see the nuance. ‘Popular
’ does not automatically mean ‘wrong’. But it does mean you had better
investigate carefully what the Scriptures say on that issue. There should be
a little yellow flag waving in your conscience – not red, but yellow –
telling you that you might have a problem here. Having a house to live in is
rather popular. But Scripture is pretty clear that providing shelter for
your family is a priority. But does it have to be a big house that costs
lots of time and money? Yellow flag? Maybe there are other Scriptures that
also need to be considered. Popular should at least mean ‘yellow flag’.
The key point here is that your goal is not to fit in. In fact, the goal,
according to this teaching of Jesus, is to be a little bit of an oddball.
You are to be pursuing a course that isn’t popular and isn’t common. People
who get to know you should view you as a little bit off. You’re a good
neighbor. You’re friendly and all the rest. But there are these things that
just don’t fit. Remember from Romans 12: ‘Do not be conformed to this world…
’ If you look like so many other Americans, you need to ask yourself if you
really are like so many other Americans. Do your goals and expectations
follow the popular mold? Jesus is warning you. Be careful. Be wise.
This leads to a question. What’s at stake in all of this? Why is this
important? That really is the right question. And Jesus tells us what’s at
stake. It’s a matter of life and death. The easy and popular way will lead
to death and destruction. Jesus is talking about hell, a taste of it now and
the full experience later. Now, I can imagine some person saying, ‘Well,
that can’t apply to me. I believe in Jesus.’ Ah, but wait a minute. Did you
notice that Jesus doesn’t say anything here about believing or faith? Jesus
defines the eternal difference between life and death in terms of what some
call ‘lifestyle choices’. It all boils down to which gate you choose to walk
through and which way that you choose to follow. Will it be the hard way of
real battle or some easy counterfeit; being a bit of an oddball or walking
with the crowd? Life or death, eternal life or eternal death is what is at
stake. So, you see why Jesus is eager to warn. Be careful. Be wise.
None of this is just theory to Jesus. He isn’t one of those ‘leaders’ who
lead from behind. ‘You all go and attack. I’ll wait here for you.’ Consider
His life. Did He choose the easy way or the hard? Did He join the crowd or
choose to be considered a little odd? Jesus isn’t telling you to do anything
that He hasn’t done. We can summarize Jesus’ teaching here with this: ‘Come,
follow Me.’
I would make a special application to you teens. You are in the midst of
trying to make sense of life, including what it means to be a faithful
disciple in this confusing world. Jesus calls you to follow Him. That means
choosing what will be difficult and, at times, rather lonely. Being a
Christian is hard. Don’t expect a lot of people to go along the same route
you choose. They will think you odd. And, sadly, that includes many who say
that they are Christians. Your attitudes, goals, and expectations need to be
different. Remember the dangers of ‘The Plan’. Be careful. Be wise. You
parents and others need to help them with these things. I doubt that many of
you handled it very well when you were teens. I sure didn’t. Let’s try to
help them to be wiser than we were.
Let me close with two last points. First, hard means hard and not ‘a bit
challenging’. There are many who found it too hard and opted out. That doesn
’t mean that they decided to give up on being religious. They just redefined
faithful Christian living. They compromised at the edges. But it can never
stop there. If not repented of, compromising at the edges will inevitably
become compromising the whole thing. When it feels as if it’s getting too
hard – and there will be times when it will! – remember the goal. The goal
is life, the life of the age to come. So, if you would endure faithful to
the end you need to develop lively thoughts of heaven. Only those who are
truly heavenly-minded will be able to do any earthly good. Also, if you are
having a hard time of it, tell someone. Ask for help. We were never intended
to do this alone.
Then let me say this. Be realistic which means think biblically about this.
You are going to stumble. You will be fooled at times. You’re going to
shrink from the ‘oddball’ label and the difficulty of the journey. Remember
Peter. It’s going to happen to you. But then remember grace. Jesus has come
to deal with your sin so don’t adopt the expectation that you won’t have any
sin for Him to deal with. You are going to sin in these things. And the
Spirit is going to point that out to you. When He does, don’t dilly-dally.
Run to Christ for the grace that you need, grace to forgive and grace to
change. He will never turn you away. In fact, don’t wait to pray until you’
ve sinned. Each day will have its own hardships and difficulties. So, each
day pray for the grace that you know you will need to deal with them
faithfully. Be careful. Be wise. Believe the Gospel.
