Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Luke 10:25-37 (The Message)
25 Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”
26 He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”
27 He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbour as well as you do yourself.”
28 “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”
29 Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbour’?”
30-32 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead.
Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side.
Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
33-35 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him.
He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable.
In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’
36 “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbour to the man attacked by robbers?”
37 “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Luke 10:25-37 (The Message)
25 Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”
26 He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”
27 He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbour as well as you do yourself.”
28 “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”
29 Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbour’?”
30-32 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead.
Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side.
Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
33-35 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him.
He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable.
In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’
36 “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbour to the man attacked by robbers?”
37 “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
Reflection
So I have two quick stories to tell that got me thinking about todays message. The first one happened while I was sitting in the church during office hours in the summer. So the door is open and I hear a young man with a young boy going by. And the boy, being curious, asked the man what this building was, to which the man replied “It’s a church” So the boy says: “What do they do there?” and the man replied “People pray” Then they were out of earshot, so I don’t know if the conversation went further.
And it struck me at the time that there are people who don’t know what churches are, and I am going to guess by extension that some people can’t identify mosques, synagogues, or temples. We can no longer take for granted that places of worship are known by their architecture, shape or symbols.
The second story arises out of a recent discussion where I brought up the idea of redemption, which was immediately dismissed and ignored.
These two incidents helped me to see two things:
I must admit that I never really thought about it before, I never really thought that being a Christian made much difference at all. I would identify myself as a Christian, but I, like many people, think it is important to be a good human being. And good people come in all shapes, sizes and religions or no religion at all.
Ideas like grace, love, redemption, forgiveness, mercy and justice while not exclusively Christian are part and parcel of Christianity, they are part of our vocabulary for a Christian these terms are linchpins of our faith.
We believe in grace for ourselves and others, we believe grace and love changes a person, we believe that forgiveness and redemption are possible. We believe all this is possible because we believe in a God of love and grace, who has been revealed to us in the person of Jesus. We may not put it into words but underneath it all, we believe being a Christian makes a difference in our lives and in the world.
But that doesn’t mean it is easy, hence the story of the narrow gate. Now that is a story that we have never had to take seriously before because, I guess, like most people we just take it for granted that Christian or religious values and ideals were shared by the vast majority of our friends and neighbours. Now, I realize that we can no longer do that. We are living in a society vastly different from the one I grew up in, very different from the one most of us grew up in.
From what I can see, the narrow gate just got harder, because the wide road got wider and easier. It’s easy to just go along, it’s a wide road and everyone is making this human journey together. See it’s not bad or wrong to be on the wide road, it’s where we live in the community. But the narrow gate; it’s a choice we make, it’s a commitment we make although for many Christians it’s just where we are – just who we are.
So this movement toward a more secular society is not a negative movement per se, at least, for me it has become a point of illumination.
Remember the story of the rich, young man, who comes to Jesus asking what he has to do to have eternal life. Jesus replies he should follow the commandments, which the rich, young man claims he has done. He seems to be a committed and zealous Jew, striving to be perfect in God’s eyes; a great candidate for entering the Kingdom of God.
He just wants Jesus’ reassurance. He wants Jesus to pat him on the back and say “Of course, look at your life, God has blessed you with so much, an abundance of riches, God must be well pleased with you” (according to Jewish tradition that is).
But the rich, young man, walking on the wide road, is suddenly confronted with the narrow gate when Jesus says “Sell all you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me” (Mark 10:21)
In another version of the story in Luke 18:23-24 the story ends with the rich ruler walking away and Jesus saying:
“How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!
Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
This narrow gate, it’s not for everyone, some of us go sadly away like the rich young man, some of us linger by the gate wondering what our riches are? what are we clutching onto so tightly that our way through the gate is hampered?. Because there is Jesus inviting us; just like he invited the disciples, just like he invited the rich young man: “Come, follow me.”
There is an extracanonical gospel – just means it is not in the authorized New Testament called the Gospel of the Nazarenes and it is also lost which means we have mention of it in other writing but do not have a an authentic text.
Origen, of Alexandria ( c. 184 – c. 253), was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian and in his Commentary on Matthew, he records there having been two rich men who approached Jesus along the way. Origen records that the second rich man asked Jesus, "Rabbi, what good thing can I do that I may live?" He (Jesus) said to him, "Man, fulfill the Law and the Prophets." He answered him, "I have done (so)." Jesus said, "Go, sell all that you have, and distribute to the poor; and come, follow me." But the rich man began to fidget (some copies read, 'began to scratch his head'), for it did not please him. And the Lord said to him, "How can you say, 'I have fulfilled the Law and the Prophets', when it is written in the Law: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself', and many of your brothers, sons of Abraham, are covered with filth, dying of hunger, and your house is full of many good things, none of which goes out to them?" And he (Jesus) turned and said to Simon his disciple, who was sitting by him, "Simon son of John, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Gospel of the Nazarenes 16)
So it’s not the riches that creates the problem for the person but rather this young man not seeing the connection between his way of life and the life of the people who lived right on his doorstep.
It is through scriptures like these that we begin to understand what Jesus was really talking about. Not that we are camels trying to squeeze through but that we are faithful people trying to discern what it is to be a Christian in our own unique situations.
The rich young man chooses to continue on the wide road, it is easier, perhaps it’s more enjoyable because it doesn’t require him to change. He is after all still a good Jew, a righteous man, following the commandments, but he is not a disciple, he is not a follower of Jesus. The rich young man goes sadly away, he has not entered the narrow gate.
So we have kind of established that being a Christian means saying yes, choosing the narrow gate, so we are going to say that being a Christian makes a difference in our lives. So we chosen the direction we want to take but wait there’s more – does our being Christian make a difference in the world?
Our second scripture reading this morning is what we usually call the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It begins with a lawyer, someone who knows scripture inside out and who interprets it to defend a client or position, and his concern is – you guessed it – Eternal life! Since this is our second question about eternal life, it leads us to suspect that they are asking a bigger question than just about life after death. We can guess that they are probably more concerned with their life in the present tense, that their daily lives were missing something. After all, we had the rich young man asking it and he had years to go, so I doubt he was very concerned about dying. But he could have been searching for something that would make his present life more meaningful. And the lawyer, did he think there was something missing from his earthly existence, this life before death, this Kingdom of God; here and now?
Jesus had a different answer for this scripture expert (I think the lawyer should have seen it coming) “Love your God with all your heart and soul and strength and love your neighbour as yourself”
The lawyer wants to make sure he gets it right and so he asks: “ Who is my neighbour?” And Jesus tells him the story of a guy lying beat up in a ditch and three people go by: two super religious guys who basically ignore him and a Samaritan- someone quite looked down on by the Jews for intermarrying and worshipping other gods. So, this Samaritan sees him lying there, helps him up, drops him off at an inn, pays his tab and saves his life.
At the end of the story Jesus asks the lawyer “Who was the neighbour?” And the lawyer answers: “The one who showed mercy, the one who showed compassion.” And Jesus says “Yes, go and do likewise.”
So you have to ask go and do what? It’s not like we find beaten strangers in the ditch everyday! It’s not like the lawyer was going to scour the road between Jerusalem and Jericho on the look out for mugging victims! Yet, at the same time, we know that Jesus was telling the lawyer something important, something the lawyer was missing even though he knew all about scripture in his head.
It’s like Jesus was saying: “You have to do more than walk down the road oblivious to everything else (like the priest), you have to do more than go over and take a look (like the Levite). You want to know who your neighbour is, get in the ditch, bind up his wounds, put his arm around your shoulder and hobble down the road together to the inn; and yes the poor guy has been robbed, so pay the inn keeper and only when he is in good hands can you go on your way- only then have you done what you could do.”
We’re back to the wide road and the narrow gate. In John 10:9-10 Jesus describes himself as the gate:
9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
That is our promise as followers of Jesus, as people of The Way, we will have life in full, we will find pasture and be nourished and nurtured, through worship, through scripture, through communion and community. We are not alone on this journey. We are not alone in seeking a meaningful life, a life that bears witness to a world in which we are connected to all creation. We are not alone in our quest to go and do likewise.
We are called by Jesus, we are invited by God, sometimes over and over again, to open our eyes and watch out for the broken and broken hearted, to soften our hearts and say yes to the opportunities that present themselves in our lives.
We, as Christians, are to embody Christ in the world today, to live with grace, mercy, justice, love, redemption, hope and forgiveness as part and parcel of our lives and our faith. Jesus’ life and stories help guide us on the way.
And if we even just attempt to live in such a gracious, life-giving, healing manner we do make a difference. Not only do we, as Christians, make a difference in the world but when everyone we meet is our neighbour, we make a world of difference in their lives as well.
May it be so
Amen
So I have two quick stories to tell that got me thinking about todays message. The first one happened while I was sitting in the church during office hours in the summer. So the door is open and I hear a young man with a young boy going by. And the boy, being curious, asked the man what this building was, to which the man replied “It’s a church” So the boy says: “What do they do there?” and the man replied “People pray” Then they were out of earshot, so I don’t know if the conversation went further.
And it struck me at the time that there are people who don’t know what churches are, and I am going to guess by extension that some people can’t identify mosques, synagogues, or temples. We can no longer take for granted that places of worship are known by their architecture, shape or symbols.
The second story arises out of a recent discussion where I brought up the idea of redemption, which was immediately dismissed and ignored.
These two incidents helped me to see two things:
- they indicate a level of secularization in society and
- that being a Christian makes us different because it influences our thinking and our being, in ways we probably don’t even notice.
I must admit that I never really thought about it before, I never really thought that being a Christian made much difference at all. I would identify myself as a Christian, but I, like many people, think it is important to be a good human being. And good people come in all shapes, sizes and religions or no religion at all.
Ideas like grace, love, redemption, forgiveness, mercy and justice while not exclusively Christian are part and parcel of Christianity, they are part of our vocabulary for a Christian these terms are linchpins of our faith.
We believe in grace for ourselves and others, we believe grace and love changes a person, we believe that forgiveness and redemption are possible. We believe all this is possible because we believe in a God of love and grace, who has been revealed to us in the person of Jesus. We may not put it into words but underneath it all, we believe being a Christian makes a difference in our lives and in the world.
But that doesn’t mean it is easy, hence the story of the narrow gate. Now that is a story that we have never had to take seriously before because, I guess, like most people we just take it for granted that Christian or religious values and ideals were shared by the vast majority of our friends and neighbours. Now, I realize that we can no longer do that. We are living in a society vastly different from the one I grew up in, very different from the one most of us grew up in.
From what I can see, the narrow gate just got harder, because the wide road got wider and easier. It’s easy to just go along, it’s a wide road and everyone is making this human journey together. See it’s not bad or wrong to be on the wide road, it’s where we live in the community. But the narrow gate; it’s a choice we make, it’s a commitment we make although for many Christians it’s just where we are – just who we are.
So this movement toward a more secular society is not a negative movement per se, at least, for me it has become a point of illumination.
Remember the story of the rich, young man, who comes to Jesus asking what he has to do to have eternal life. Jesus replies he should follow the commandments, which the rich, young man claims he has done. He seems to be a committed and zealous Jew, striving to be perfect in God’s eyes; a great candidate for entering the Kingdom of God.
He just wants Jesus’ reassurance. He wants Jesus to pat him on the back and say “Of course, look at your life, God has blessed you with so much, an abundance of riches, God must be well pleased with you” (according to Jewish tradition that is).
But the rich, young man, walking on the wide road, is suddenly confronted with the narrow gate when Jesus says “Sell all you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me” (Mark 10:21)
In another version of the story in Luke 18:23-24 the story ends with the rich ruler walking away and Jesus saying:
“How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!
Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
This narrow gate, it’s not for everyone, some of us go sadly away like the rich young man, some of us linger by the gate wondering what our riches are? what are we clutching onto so tightly that our way through the gate is hampered?. Because there is Jesus inviting us; just like he invited the disciples, just like he invited the rich young man: “Come, follow me.”
There is an extracanonical gospel – just means it is not in the authorized New Testament called the Gospel of the Nazarenes and it is also lost which means we have mention of it in other writing but do not have a an authentic text.
Origen, of Alexandria ( c. 184 – c. 253), was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian and in his Commentary on Matthew, he records there having been two rich men who approached Jesus along the way. Origen records that the second rich man asked Jesus, "Rabbi, what good thing can I do that I may live?" He (Jesus) said to him, "Man, fulfill the Law and the Prophets." He answered him, "I have done (so)." Jesus said, "Go, sell all that you have, and distribute to the poor; and come, follow me." But the rich man began to fidget (some copies read, 'began to scratch his head'), for it did not please him. And the Lord said to him, "How can you say, 'I have fulfilled the Law and the Prophets', when it is written in the Law: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself', and many of your brothers, sons of Abraham, are covered with filth, dying of hunger, and your house is full of many good things, none of which goes out to them?" And he (Jesus) turned and said to Simon his disciple, who was sitting by him, "Simon son of John, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Gospel of the Nazarenes 16)
So it’s not the riches that creates the problem for the person but rather this young man not seeing the connection between his way of life and the life of the people who lived right on his doorstep.
It is through scriptures like these that we begin to understand what Jesus was really talking about. Not that we are camels trying to squeeze through but that we are faithful people trying to discern what it is to be a Christian in our own unique situations.
The rich young man chooses to continue on the wide road, it is easier, perhaps it’s more enjoyable because it doesn’t require him to change. He is after all still a good Jew, a righteous man, following the commandments, but he is not a disciple, he is not a follower of Jesus. The rich young man goes sadly away, he has not entered the narrow gate.
So we have kind of established that being a Christian means saying yes, choosing the narrow gate, so we are going to say that being a Christian makes a difference in our lives. So we chosen the direction we want to take but wait there’s more – does our being Christian make a difference in the world?
Our second scripture reading this morning is what we usually call the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It begins with a lawyer, someone who knows scripture inside out and who interprets it to defend a client or position, and his concern is – you guessed it – Eternal life! Since this is our second question about eternal life, it leads us to suspect that they are asking a bigger question than just about life after death. We can guess that they are probably more concerned with their life in the present tense, that their daily lives were missing something. After all, we had the rich young man asking it and he had years to go, so I doubt he was very concerned about dying. But he could have been searching for something that would make his present life more meaningful. And the lawyer, did he think there was something missing from his earthly existence, this life before death, this Kingdom of God; here and now?
Jesus had a different answer for this scripture expert (I think the lawyer should have seen it coming) “Love your God with all your heart and soul and strength and love your neighbour as yourself”
The lawyer wants to make sure he gets it right and so he asks: “ Who is my neighbour?” And Jesus tells him the story of a guy lying beat up in a ditch and three people go by: two super religious guys who basically ignore him and a Samaritan- someone quite looked down on by the Jews for intermarrying and worshipping other gods. So, this Samaritan sees him lying there, helps him up, drops him off at an inn, pays his tab and saves his life.
At the end of the story Jesus asks the lawyer “Who was the neighbour?” And the lawyer answers: “The one who showed mercy, the one who showed compassion.” And Jesus says “Yes, go and do likewise.”
So you have to ask go and do what? It’s not like we find beaten strangers in the ditch everyday! It’s not like the lawyer was going to scour the road between Jerusalem and Jericho on the look out for mugging victims! Yet, at the same time, we know that Jesus was telling the lawyer something important, something the lawyer was missing even though he knew all about scripture in his head.
It’s like Jesus was saying: “You have to do more than walk down the road oblivious to everything else (like the priest), you have to do more than go over and take a look (like the Levite). You want to know who your neighbour is, get in the ditch, bind up his wounds, put his arm around your shoulder and hobble down the road together to the inn; and yes the poor guy has been robbed, so pay the inn keeper and only when he is in good hands can you go on your way- only then have you done what you could do.”
We’re back to the wide road and the narrow gate. In John 10:9-10 Jesus describes himself as the gate:
9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
That is our promise as followers of Jesus, as people of The Way, we will have life in full, we will find pasture and be nourished and nurtured, through worship, through scripture, through communion and community. We are not alone on this journey. We are not alone in seeking a meaningful life, a life that bears witness to a world in which we are connected to all creation. We are not alone in our quest to go and do likewise.
We are called by Jesus, we are invited by God, sometimes over and over again, to open our eyes and watch out for the broken and broken hearted, to soften our hearts and say yes to the opportunities that present themselves in our lives.
We, as Christians, are to embody Christ in the world today, to live with grace, mercy, justice, love, redemption, hope and forgiveness as part and parcel of our lives and our faith. Jesus’ life and stories help guide us on the way.
And if we even just attempt to live in such a gracious, life-giving, healing manner we do make a difference. Not only do we, as Christians, make a difference in the world but when everyone we meet is our neighbour, we make a world of difference in their lives as well.
May it be so
Amen
