AUGUST 31st, 2025 PASTOR DON PIEPER
Jesus' Kingdom Message John 10:1-10 / Matthew 7:13-20
“DON'T DELAY! IT'S A NARROW WAY!”
Our reading from Matthew 7 brings us to the climax in Jesus' sermon on the mount. My dictionary defines such a moment as “a decisive point in the narrative of a dramatic or literary work”. Throughout his sermon Jesus has unpacked what he's looking for in those who accept his invite to become his disciples and follow The Way, the Truth and the Life that he offers and embodies.
In short, the sermon on the mount describes what a Christian should look like in terms of one's character, conduct and sense of calling. Now, as his sermon draws to a close, we come to a decisive, climatic moment. It's reminscent of a court case when the judge turns to the jury and asks that crucial, pressing question: “Have you reached a verdict yet?” Or as Aragorn asked: “What say you?”
Life is full of climatic moments. We just celebrated one of ours – the day Claudia and I said to one another: “I do! I will be faithful to you for as long as life endures!” That's a big one! For Claudia it was more climatic than for most as her decision involved moving away from her family & homeland.
Getting to the altar was complicated. We hadn't yet figured out how to bridge the ocean separating us when I took her out to an expensive restaurant and arranged with our waiter to have an engagement ring brought out in the fancy box they customarily served their exquisite desserts. As she popped open the little box expecting chocolate, I popped the question: “Claudia, will you marry me?”
Her jaw dropped open, she looked at me, and stammered, “I'm not sure!”
It was a lot to ask of her, admittedly. When considering what Jesus is asking, one would have to admit the same. It's a lot to ask, Jesus. We perceive freedom as doing whatever we want. We don't like being told what to do or not to do, and many perceive that that's what being Christian is all about. I remember one guest on the Alpha Course telling me that he sensed that if he said yes to Jesus that he'd have to give up gambling and drinking... I assured him that what Jesus was offering was so much better than what he'd have to give up, that Jesus was offering a life of profound purpose, using us to be a blessing to others, to bring healing where we're hurting and to know and experience the power-ful reality that we are never alone , that having resurrected from the dead, His Spirit fills and guides us.
His response? “Mmm, I'm not sure!” The last I heard of him he'd been in and out of three broken relationships and was struggling mightily with addiction. He thought he'd chosen a life of free-dom but was he really free? Choosing the narrow path may seem restrictive but it actually leads to true freedom. As Jesus put it: “If you hold to my teaching, you are truly my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. And if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!” (John 8:31-32, 36)
Nowhere does he lay out his teaching and his vision for living counter-cultural, uninhibited lives more clearly than here in his sermon on the mount. In his book, Practicing the Way, Pastor Mark Comer points out that Jesus operated with “a very different definition of freedom than that of the modern world. His is an invitation to embrace the constraints that, if you give yourself to them, will eventually set you free. At some point you have to grapple with the fact that your free choices aren't delivering the life you want. Your 'freedom' is what got you into this mess, not your constraint.”
(from John Mark Comer's Practicing The Way)
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So it is that in the climax to his sermon Jesus repeatedly lays out this new way of living as a choice we must choose between two options – a wide or narrow gate or path, a tree with good fruit or a tree with bad fruit, and that of building one's house on a foundation built on rock or on sifting sand. It brings to mind a climatic scene in the Indiana Jones movie: The Last Crusade. Our hero stands in a room with all manner of cups and chalices. Drinking from the one Jesus used at the last supper brings eternal youth or life, the knight informs him, all others bring death. After Indi's adversary chooses incorrectly and dies in front of him, the knight turns to Indi and solemnly says, “Choose wisely!”
Uh – yeah! Jesus has made it clear, throughout his sermon, that choosing to follow him, to be his disciple, that is to do as he did and does, will not be easy. Nicky Gumbel, in reflecting on our text, makes this observation: “Not only is it a more difficult road, it is virtually impossible to keep Jesus' standards. It is certainly impossible to keep them without him. But on this road Jesus goes with us and that's what makes it a much more exciting path. We do not walk alone. He sends us the Helper!”
(from Nicky Gumbel's Challenging Lifestyle)
As Christian songwriter David Haas put it in one of his beloved songs: “Christ before us, Christ behind us, Christ under our feet. Christ within us, Christ over us, let all around us be Christ!”
There is a way of life – modeled personally by Jesus himself – that is far beyond anything else on offer in this world. It can open you up to God's presence and power in ways most people only dream of, but it reequires you to follow a path marked out for you by Jesus himself. Most Christians interpret Jesus' words here to mean that Jesus is talking about who gets to go to heaven and who goes to hell. The NLT even changes the word from destruction to hell, but the Greek word here Jesus uses isn't Ghenna, his preferred word for hell, but rather that of apo'leia, which means destruction, utter ruin or hopelessly lost. When Jesus preached and told stories about the Kingdom of heaven he most often was talking about transformed lives in this life as he's been doing throughout his sermon. Listen again.
“Enter in (to this Kingdom life I've been talking about) through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road (way) that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road (way) that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
In referring to this text Mark Comer makes this observation: “One interpretation of this teach-ing is that only a few people are going to heaven when they die and that everyone elsee is on the train to the eternal torture chamber. But what if Jesus was once again talking about this life, as in the Way of Jesus is 'narrow', meaning, it is a very specific way to live, and if you follow it, it will lead you to life, both in this age and in the age to come.
The broad way is that of the majority culture, which is as simple as it is crass: 'Follow the crowd and do whatever you want.' Billions of people live this way, but it does not lead them to living rich, fulfilling lives but instead tends to lead to destruction. It leads to broken relationships, addiction, narciccism and all manner of social disease. It leads to people living lives far shy of their potential.”
(From Mark Comer's Practicing The Way)
Jesus follows up his gate/way metaphor with it's warning about self-destructive livestyles with a warning about false prophets. At the beginning of his sermon he warned about those outside Christian community who presented a threat, those who persecute the followers of Jesus, but here at his sermon's climax he warns of people within Christian community who present a threat. Why might that be?
Could it be that Jesus perceives how deep our hunger for meaning, affirmation and love is that we might wind up being fooled by wolves in sheep's clothing, by sour grapes pretending to be good?
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Jesus suggests that when we look for individuals to lead us, our criteria should not be so much what they stand for or against but the nature of their character. As the Beautitudes make clear, there should be humility, a thirst for justicc, a merciful attitude, sexual purity and a Christlike demeanor.
Nicky Gumbel notes that “with many cult leaders there is a disturbing arrogance which should put us on our guard. We should always be wary of those who, in their arrogance, exclude others.”
(from Nicky Gumbel's Challenging Lifestyle)
Those words, published back in 1996, seem all the more timely today than when he wrote them. Be wary, beloved church, Jesus warns of those who rise to leadership who may look good in contrast to others but who seriously lack the kind of spiritual fruit Jesus celebrates here and Paul writes of later.
This week I watched a documentary about the submarine that imploded two years ago, called, Titan: The Oceangate Submersible Disaster. It focuses on the history of Oceangate's founder and CEO, Stockton Rush. Stockton was a man of privelege and prestige who had a vision for bringing people down to see the Titanic with their own eyes. Many were captitivated by that vision, and drawn in by his initial charisma and confidence, but his confidence quickly was unveiled as arrogance.
The documentary shows how increasingly anyone who questioned his decisions, or the questionable safety of his experiemental submersible, was fired as fast as they'd been hired. His former employees consistently described him as a narcicisst, motivated by sheer arrogance.
When one employee refused to sign off on the disputed safety of Titan, mere weeks before the disaster, Stockton, in a recorded meeting, angrily retorted: “I don't want anyone in this company who is uncomfortable with what we're doing. I'm going to continue to do things the way I'm doing and I'm not going to force people to join my religion if they don't want to.” (Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush)
Stockton Rush was on the broad path. It was all about doing things his way. He lived by the worldly motto, made famous by Frank Sinatra's hit song, “I did things my way!” And as Jesus' teaching warned, that way, our way, ultimately leads to destruction, both in this life and in the next, because by it we do irrereparable harm to the only thing that we bring to the next life – our character!
But Jesus invited us to another path, another road, that leads to living life as it was intended, as God meant for us to live, to the fullest, rich in our relationships, loved to be loving and giving to others. To get there, we need to break from our past self-serving ways, and step out on to the less traveled way.
This week Chicago Cubs leftfielder, Ian Happ, made a decision that modeled that path. Ian was offered 10 millions dollars to be a spokeman for Luxury Housing Firm in Chicago. As a follower of Jesus, Ian turned it down, saying, “I've met some of the kids being forced to leave their neighborhoods because of Luxury Housing. I won't pretend it's okay just because there's money involved. I'm not about to back anyone displacing needy families in Chicago.” (MVP Cubs leftfielder, Ian Happ)
Jesus informs us that “Few find the small gate and the narrow road/way that leads to life.” (Matthew 7:14)and yet he's inviting each of us to seek it and find it and decide to walk on it, day by day for the rest of our lives. Yes, there's an initial move required of us, to decide, yes I'm in, totally in - but that decision will be followed by many more difficult ones to follow, in which we'll be called to step out in faith, even if we're all alone in doing so, though in truth we never are, and choose to follow Jesus even if it costs us financially, physically or relationally because what we gain far outshines what ever God may be asking us to let go of. As Jesus prayed: “For this is eternal life: that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ (His Son), whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)