If Christ’s Your Squeeze

“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:14)

Oh, dear brothers and sisters, do we really understand these words? How do we take their meaning? Do we understand what Jesus said in this place? Were His words only a slight caution? Did He wink when He spoke them to His disciples? Or did He speak them authoritatively and use them plainly? Strait. Narrow. Few? One of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, was not among the few; although he went with them. When his time came, he betrayed Jesus and for what? Thirty pieces of silver? Then again, he did hold the purse, which appeared to be closer to his heart than his Master. Growing up, my mother occasionally told me she didn’t want a ‘Judas’ kiss when I pathetically approached her in feigned sorrow after disobeying her. I knew what she meant, but then, she winked… or rather, she playfully pushed me away before my lips touched her cheek. Mothers are like that, and we love them for it, but I’m not sure her handling of it helped my understanding of the seriousness of Jesus’ words in this place. His would not be a playful push away when He said that He never knew me.

I was one of the few, the proud, the Marines, and I knew what it meant to march the strait and narrow. I trained, was at times beaten during boot camp, and I did what was lawfully ordered. It was 1969, and after Infantry Training at Camp Lejeune, I could have received orders that led to my immediate transport to Okinawa; next Saigon and yes, to my death. However, by the grace of God that wasn’t the case, but still, I would have gone as many of my brothers had gone. And I fear, in their going, many of them fell to the wayside.

When I was a boy, I was also cautioned to walk the strait and narrow, which meant to obey those in authority over me, which included law enforcement officers and clergy.  The preachers, I remember, pounded their pulpits and ranted hellfire and brimstone; assailing all sinners as if they were on a ship of fools. If they had banged their shoe on the podium, one would have thought that hundreds; if not more, Nikita Khrushchev’s had been saved and gone to Bible college. Looking back now, I think I understand… sometimes folks feel they must scream to get the attention of their hearers. In their passion, screaming was believed necessary to any demonstration of authority, but when that same behavior carried over to church business meetings? Oh, my… Please don’t misunderstand, I believe God will definitely use authoritative and loud, boisterous speech… even an occasional shoe pounding to deliver a soul by arousing men from their slumber.  However, as I recall, the subjects of sin, hell, tithing, and church attendance were the most common Sunday morning staples, and that, when applied with a gun, spoke nothing of the doctrines of grace, justification by faith alone, the sovereignty of God and a heavenly host of other meritorious subjects.

No, as I imagine Jesus sitting in the shade of a fruitful fig tree, He said what He did with all seriousness… sobriety… authority… reality… only as God Himself knew eternity to exist and the consequences for those who didn’t find that narrow gate. How many times throughout the Scriptures do we have that same image? The door that the men of Sodom and Gomorrah couldn’t find to enter into Lot’s home and were left for destruction. What about the entrance to the Ark? The interesting thing is that there was no indication that anyone ‘squeezed’ in at the last. No, if you enter, you will enter by the strait and narrow, and as Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7) However, when and if we enter, we will enter as welcomed family; the bride of Christ. No one will just squeeze or sneak in, and I write this without a rant in my heart… just a sincere supplication that through this, God will call His few more to enter, and if you happen to be the last? Listen for the trumpet.