So what is Jesus
thinking about when He speaks of the narrow gate and difficult way that leads
to life, with few who find it? Is this indeed a vague, amorphous, and ambiguous
statement, lacking in content and coherence, with no concrete point of
reference, which thereby lends itself to completely random and subjective
interpretation? Not at all. What do we find Jesus saying before
this? He says, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For by
the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will
be the measure you receive. Why do you see the speck in your brother’s
eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? Or how can you say
to your brothers, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is
a beam in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your
own eye, and then you can see clearly t remove the speck from your brother’s
eye” (7:1-5).
Can we not hear Jesus
scolding His people for their failure to be a light to the Gentiles, but
instead, judging them from their lofty perch. Israel looked down upon the
Gentiles but as far as Jesus was concerned, Israel held the greater sin, having
been given the light of the Creator God’s covenant and the knowledge of
Him. It was a wide gate and easy way to sit in judgment upon the
Gentiles, and far more difficult and narrow way, in light of the Gentile
occupation of the land of Israel, to show them compassion and love according to
the intentions of God’s covenant.
Following that, Jesus
goes on to speak of asking, seeking, and knocking” (7:7), and also of
faithfully meeting the requests and needs of a son when asked (7:9-10). In the context of Israel being under God’s
curse (occupied by a foreign power), this would hearken back to the words from
the second books of the Kings and the Chronicles, as well as the popular (in
that day) and ever-so-determinative story of Daniel, in which prayer of
repentance, by the nation, from their fallen position, would lead to their restoration. Their God would certainly meet the needs of
the nation referred to as the son of God, if Israel would but embark upon the path of His purposes.
In the verse
immediately preceding our text, Jesus says, “In everything, treat others as you
would want them to treat you, for this fulfills the law and the prophets”
(7:12). When we keep the words and ministry of Jesus in the context of
His pronouncement of the kingdom of God, and the breaking in of that kingdom,
and of His implicit inclusion of Gentiles as beneficiaries of that kingdom, we
can only wonder how difficult such a thing would be for the common member of
the nation of Israel in that day.
Israel sought to
throw off the Roman yoke and to drive the Gentiles out of their God-given
land. By and large, Israel wanted nothing to do with Gentiles, unless
those Gentiles adopted the marks of the covenant (circumcision,
Sabbath-keeping, food laws), thus becoming Jews (in effect admitting that, as
Gentiles, they were less than human). Members of the nation would not
enter the house of a Gentile. They would not break bread with a
Gentile. Jesus, on the other hand, did all of these things, and did them
quite openly. In many ways, Jesus did not live up to what had become the
standards of righteousness that would have been imposed in His day for a member
of Israel to be recognized as being a covenant member in good standing. In the eyes of many, with the way the Gospels
present Him, Jesus would have been dishonoring Himself, constantly bringing
Himself into a state of impurity, and generally showing ingratitude to Israel’s
God by His actions. As far as many were concerned, He was traveling down
the wide way to destruction (associating with Gentiles and those outside the
accepted covenant boundaries), and deliberately by-passing the narrow way to
life (not stepping outside of the boundaries).
Israel wanted God to
break into history and provide them with His mercy, and for them, this would
look very much like judgment on all Gentile nations. We must ask how all of
these things may fit with treating others as you would want them to treat
you? Israel consistently looked to the law and the prophets for
vindication in these anti-Gentile, pro-national-Israel desires, but Jesus
(remembering His kingdom context) reminds the people of their unfortunate and
misguided biases, of their God-given mission to be a light to the Gentiles, and
their failure in that regard. Israel being a light is what would fulfill
the law and the prophets, which repeatedly point to their God’s plan for the
people of all nations coming to Israel because of their reflection of the glory
of their God (through their faithfulness to God’s covenant with them), with
Israel and all peoples (and indeed the entirety of the created order) being
blessed in the process.
If Israel wanted
God’s vindication and its exaltation to its place above all nations, they were
going to have to treat the Gentiles, and especially their despised rulers (the
Romans), as they wanted to be treated by God. Truly, this was a difficult
path to the life that their God intended for them, and it seems that there were
few in that day that wished to travel that path. The road of animosity
towards the Gentiles was far easier to travel and far more popular, and it’s
the one that the people wanted Jesus to travel as well. Ultimately and
unfortunately, this was the one that Israel traveled, and it ended with the
destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem.
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