A Matter Of Life And Death
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
MATTHEW 7:13-29
There is a note of urgency, even sternness, about these verses which is overlooked by those who make facile remarks about the Sermon on the Mount as an ethical ideal.
By insisting on the two gates, the two ways, the two destinies (7:13-14), the two kinds of tree and fruit (7:15-20) and the two foundations (7:24-27), Jesus presents his way as the path of life, and the refusal to follow it as the straight road to disaster. The either-or of his words is inescapable. In the day when all things are shaken, stability and salvation, for individuals and communities alike, can be secured only by accepting the way laid down in his teaching and exemplified in his life. Those who teach otherwise, however fair their approach and plausible their reasoning, are “false prophets,” wolves in sheep’s clothing (7:15). The repeated “you will know them by their fruits” (7:16-20) is a principle of universal application—“by their fruits,” commented William James, “not by their roots.”
To claim the status of disciples, to call Jesus “Lord” by way of lip-service only, to preach, exorcize and even do mighty works in his name will not avail unless there is genuine inward obedience to the Father’s will as he made it known. Only those who are thus obedient will gain entrance to his kingdom (7:21-23). The obstacle to such obedience is not outrageous wickedness but some of the most familiar human tendencies. “It will simplify the discussion if we admit the truth at the outset: that the teaching of Jesus is difficult and unacceptable because it runs counter to those elements in human nature which the twentieth century has in common with the first—such things as laziness, greed, the love of pleasure, the instinct to hit back and the like. The teaching as a whole shows that Jesus was well aware of this and recognized that here and nowhere else lay the obstacle that had to be surmounted” (T.W. Manson). The fulfillment of the righteous requirements of the Sermon, as of the older Law, is possible only to those who “walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4)—the Spirit of Christ himself.
The crowds might well be “astonished at his teaching” and recognize the authority of his words (7:28-29), but that is not the same thing as accepting his teaching or submitting to his authority. There is rarely an inconvenient throng around the narrow gate.
Consider the following statements in the light of the Sermon on the Mount:
• “The moral standard set up by Jesus is a standard of example rather than precept” (T.W. Manson).
• “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried” (G.K. Chesterton).