Strait and narrow
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“He used to be a junky, now he’s on the straight and narrow” we say. And by that we mean that he’s cleaned up his act. Now he’s behaving.
When Jesus coined the phrase “strait and narrow” He didn’t quite mean it like that.
This is what He said:
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
It’s a saying that brings the sermon on the mount into its concluding phase. We have been introduced to the kingdom through the beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). We’ve been told of our counter-cultural identity as disciples (Matthew 5:13-16). In the longest section of the sermon, we’ve been taught the way of Christ as the fulfilment of the law (Matthew 5:17-7:12). Now Jesus will conclude by laying before us two ways for the listener to respond.
There are two gates (v13)
There are two paths (v14)
There are two trees (v17)
There are two houses (v24-27)
In each pair there is one that represents the pathway of life, the other is the way of destruction.
At this point it would be easy to conclude that the right way is the way of doing good and the wrong way is the way of doing bad. Yet when we consider the rest of the sermon, that cannot be the teaching. The rejected way of life throughout the sermon has not simply been unrighteousness. Far more it has been self-righteousness. It is the scribes and Pharisees who Jesus has had in His sights ever since Matthew 5:20. Such people give and pray and fast – and love to do so (Matthew 6:1-18). Jesus’ hearers would have identified them as the best of the best. But in the context we need to see that Jesus puts them on the broad road to destruction.
Thus the “strait and narrow” is not about cleaning up our acts and behaving better. Jesus is calling us to a whole new path. Not unrighteousness and not self-righteousness. The narrow road is a way of Christ-righteousness.
It is the path that Jesus trod – whose righteousness surpassed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). Ultimately only Jesus can walk this road. Later in Matthew He would make that point very memorably. Our chance of travelling this path is as likely as getting a camel through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24). ”Who then can be saved?” ask the disciples. Jesus answers, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:25)
In Jesus, God makes the impossible possible. Jesus walks the path and then Jesus becomes the path for us. He is the Door (John 10:7) and He is the Way (John 14:6). And He invites the unrighteous and the self-righteous to renounce their own way and to join Him.
The “strait and narrow” is not about moving from immorality to morality. It’s about moving from self-sufficiency to Christ-dependence. And few there be that find it!
As a postmil, my only quibble with this post is your comment “few there be that find it!” Really? Really really?? Well how does that fit then with what Jesus says in the next chapter that “many will come from east and west and take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” Answer? The few talked of in Matthew 7:13-14 are the few talked of in Matthew 8:12.
K
Hi Kip, yes that link is even stronger in Luke’s version – Luke 13:22-30. The narrow gate is not intended to rule out the nations streaming to the feast from east and west. In my defence I was using the present tense (as is Jesus in the parable). There are few who are finding it (compared to the broad road anyway).
When you say “The few talked of in Matthew 7:13-14 are the few talked of in Matthew 8:12″ – do you mean that the kingdom will reverse all religious expectations (since the few in Matt 7 are saved but the few of Matt 8:12 are lost)? I suppose that this would get well with how the Lukan version ends: “the first shall be last”.
I suppose my approach is to see the road as narrowing to a single Man, who then becomes salvation for the world.
Is your approach different? I’d love to hear more…
Your comment in the opening paragraph re the present tense gets to the issue brilliantly – Jesus’ comment that a few are [currently] finding the gate, is a comment about the Jews of his day rather than a description of the world in all ages. Once that particular generation is destroyed (in AD70) then it is time for the Gospel to begin it’s slow but unstoppable advance to permeate the world as the waters covers the sea (hence the kingdom parables like the yeast working through the whole batch, and the smallest seed growing to be the big tree).
In very simple terms Matthew 7:13-14 is occasional rather normative. Does all that help explain my view?
K
Yes indeed, very helpful. I guess on that view we’re still in the period when “And few there be that find it” applies?
No no not all. On that view, Matthew 7:13-14 ceased to apply after AD70.
K
Thanks Glen… I appreciated your take on this.
“Rob Bell came to mind as the American who recently published a book that leaned toward “Universalism” and effectively diminished this teaching.
I recalled Paul’s letter to the Romans where he said in verse 5 of the viii chapter: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
I remind our Anglican readers of Article XVIII. Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ.
“They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law, and the light of Nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.”
There is but one way to salvation, and that on the one path; this is the catholic faith… “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.”
msc