Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” RSV

I think that, sometimes, living in a so-called Christian country is more difficult than living in a country, in a society that is openly adverse to God. For we come to expect that things will go our way, and that the way that things go is the Christian way. We become lazy in our efforts to walk the walk and talk the talk, believing that as goes our country, so goes Christianity.

But I think it goes deeper than that.

I think that it is easy to become discouraged living the Christian life when one lives in a “Christian” country. Because we set ourselves up with our own expectations. We believe that our country should reflect our own morals. And when it doesn’t, we are more willing to lower those morals than to buck the flow.

However, scripture tells us that there is no Christian country, no Christian society, no way of the majority to heaven. Christianity is a hard way, a narrow way, but more importantly, a way followed by the few. We should expect as Christians to find that our lives (1) are difficult, (2) are apart from the norm of our society, and (3) are going to be different than most around us.

In other words, the Christian walk is a lonely one. It isn’t something that’s necessarily going to be morally enhanced by the society around us. Rather, we should walk, always suspicious of that which appears Christian unless we know that it comes directly from the Spirit.

There is a true account in scripture about a young man who lived an extremely moral life:

“ . . . a man ran up and knelt before [Jesus], and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he (the young man) said to Him, ‘Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.’”

Notice that this man had observed all the commandments from his youth. He was a good person. He followed the moral precepts of his society and his religion. Compared to those around him, he was an extremely moral person. And yet, Jesus responds to him this way:

“And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing . . .’”(Mark 10:17b-21a RSV).

The fact is, as Christians, it is easy for us to “lack one thing.” Particularly if we look to our family, to our church, to our neighbors, to our society to guide us. The way of the Christian isn’t the way of the majority. It is the way of the narrow path, the way of the few. And more than that, because of the constraints upon us to live humbly, to live simply, to live as servants, it is also the way of the mostly-invisible. We should not be those that thrust ourselves upon the world’s stage crying, “Look at me! Look at me!” Rather, we should be those few who are in the sidelines, quietly ministering to those around us, deliberately refusing to speak out for our own needs, but rather trusting the Father while we pour ourselves out for His sake.

The gate is narrow. The way is hard. Few find it. But the promise is . . . it leads to life! And that should be all that matters.