FEW THERE BE THAT FIND IT?

There is something that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 that has terrorized many in the past including the author. Near the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says this.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Mt 7:13-14).

At first glance Jesus is saying that it’s hard to get to heaven and not many of you are going to make it.

Naturally a grip of fear would have run through the crowd.

But is this what Jesus meant?

It is important to remember that this is the Sermon on the Mount, not a gospel presentation. Jesus is talking to Jews well before the cross. No part of this sermon is about believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. This makes for an interesting paradox. Though we call Matthew, Mark, Luke and John the ‘gospels,’ they are in essence books more about law than gospel. They lay the foundation for the gospel by chronicling the events that comprise the gospel but the books themselves are largely about Jesus heralding a new age to come to those who live under the former age. In these four gospels Jesus is laboring under the law in order to fulfill the law (Gal 4:4) which marks the very end of the law. He consummates all the demands of the law which has then lost all its power. With His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, He then inaugurates a new age called the New Covenant. Then fifty days after he rises the very energy to empower the New Covenant arrives from heaven in the person of the Holy Spirit. The church is born and with her comes the authority to spread the good news of Christ crucified, buried and raised again.

But here in the early chapters of Matthew Jesus is speaking to the Old Covenant Jews as an Old Covenant prophet. He is not coming to them as the Savior of sinners but as voice that tells the nation what God expects. He is the “prophet greater than Moses” (Deut 18:15). As He stands upon a mountain as Moses did, Jesus recapitulates the law and deepens it. He says in effect, ‘this is the law Moses gave you and it was all good, however I have come to show you what the law really meant, and I assure you it is much deeper than you thought. So let me outline for you the demands of the law that you might see how impossible it is to keep.’ So Jesus goes through this long litany of statements that teach God’s expectations and demands in the law. He never says that they are to be largely kept or sincerely kept but that they must be perfectly kept. “Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

In this section Jesus confirms His point by saying that finding life through the law is a narrow gate (no wiggle room). When he says ‘enter by the narrow gate’ He is not talking about entering heaven, for that idea of a heavenly home for God’s people has not been introduced. When Jesus speaks of the gate He is talking in terms they understand. He is speaking of entrance into the Kingdom of God, an earthly realm reestablished under Messiah. Hence Jesus’ use use of the word gate. And how does one enter the narrow gate? By keeping the law. This idea of keeping the law to enter life is found in the Old Covenant.

For example we read in Deuteronomy 30:19,

 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.”

Jeremiah 21:8 speaks this way to his own generation who refused to obey God’s voice to go to Babylon,

“And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.’”

Life in the Old Covenant comes from obeying the Lord and death comes through disobeying the Lord. To the Jews obedience to God was the way to life. So Jesus exhorts the crowd to walk the way of the law to find life. And then He adds, “and few there be that find it.”

The Sermon on the Mount, therefore, is not some quasi gospel message about entering a world called heaven. The message is, if you want to be blessed and find life, then obey God. Again, Jesus is the prophet greater than Moses giving the Jewish nation the true nature of the Law. In doing this, however, Jesus is not presenting this obedience as a doable enterprise. Rather He raises the bar of obedience to new heights. External conformity to the Ten Commandments is not obedience to the law. One must enter by obeying perfectly, the narrow way that few (i.e. none) can find. By saying “few there be that find it” Jesus is merely employing a figure of speech as if to say, ‘no one can do this,’ except as we shall discover, the One who is speaking.

So by pulling back from the Sermon on the Mount and looking at it through the eyes of the Jewish audience we see that Jesus is speaking from the seat of Moses and confirming to the crowd what they already knew from their own history. God expects obedience, but no one can obey.

This presents a huge problem.

In taking away their hope in the Old Covenant, however, Jesus is actually preparing them for something wholly new; a covenant where life comes through grace. He is preparing them for the gospel.

As He always does, Jesus is heralding the end of the Old Covenant that saves no one, and setting the stage for the truth that He will be the foundation of a New Covenant where many will be saved not by law but by His work on behalf of sinners, Jews and Gentiles. That covenant was inaugurated after He died and rose again. How did that New Covenant come into being? We fast forward to a scene at the Temple. A man stands up before a crowd of Jews and declares them guilty for perpetrating the most heinous crime ever. “You wickedly killed the Lord Jesus, your Messiah!” They had committed the sin of all sins, killing God, deicide. And now these Jews have no place to hide. They are cooked bacon! Then Peter announces the best message ever told. He tells them full forgiveness is available by trusting in the One they had killed…. who was now very much alive. Not through the narrow and impossible way of keeping the law, in the narrow way of casting oneself at the mercy of God through their risen Messiah. This preacher, Peter, who holds the keys of the kingdom, is opening up the one door that leads to life…. eternal life. And he offers it to them free of charge. No works required except belief. They must merely trust in Jesus Christ as their Messiah. Nothing can be added to that, no law, no good works, no holy feelings, no effort of any kind. They must simply rest and trust. That now becomes the ‘narrow way’ to life…. but it requires no entrance fee.

There is a stark contrast here which must be noted. In the Mosaic system of law the verdict is disheartening: “few there be that find it.” But under this New Covenant the way is open to all people. Consider how this contrast is clearly pictured in the Bible. In the Old Covenant Mosaic dispensation, the Tabernacle had one gate that was only accessible to the priests. The Temple had concentric gates surrounding the sanctuaries. Gentiles could only get through the first door, Hebrew women only through the second door, and on and on it went to the final door that only the priesthood could access. The message was clear, ‘Few there be to access the place of God’s dwelling.’ When we turn to the end of the Bible to the New Jerusalem, we again have a city and the presence of God. But now every resident may go the through gates at any time. John notes, “Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there)” (Revelation 21:25). What a contrast! In the New Jerusalem there is still one way, but now everyone is invited to come… yes and that includes Gentiles. So what happens when Peter preaches? He opens up that gate and the crowd enters in, receiving the free gift of salvation. And so we read, “There were added that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). Yes, you heard rightly. Three thousand souls in one day. Not “few there be that find it” but a “multitude that no man can number.” Jesus, not the law, has become the only way to God - but it is the sure way, the safe way, the wonderful way, and …… a very inviting way. And that’s God’s way. In this new dispensation, Christians need not walk around believing that only a few people will be saved. Rather they can go to a world and offer them the free way to God that required nothing but believing the report. So Christian, go out boldly and preach Christ crucified to the entire world. Plead with sinners to enter through this narrow, yet easily accessible way. And then believe that because God is gracious that many will bow the knee and enter the way of eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.