A synopsis of the sermon delivered by the Rev. David L. Hicks at St. Paul’s Reformed Episcopal Church at the 10:30am service on Trinity I, May 29, 2005. Please read St. Matthew 7:13-14.

Many times the Gospels record some difficult words on the part of Jesus. Today’s lesson from St. Matthew is just such a case. “Enter through the narrow gate,” our Savior says, “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” We may ask why the gate to eternal life is narrow and the way to destruction broad? If God extends the invitation of salvation through Jesus Christ to the whole world why must one enter through a “narrow gate”? Do only a few find the right path because God has made it too difficult to do otherwise?

The Scriptures tell us elsewhere that if the way of salvation is found by only a few, it is not because God is making things difficult. The prophet Micah indicates that God’s requirements are not obscure but are put forth in a simple way. “He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you – to act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Similarly, when Moses is preparing the ancient people of Israel to enter the Promised Land, he rehearses God’s commandments and asserts that the path to life with God is not hidden. “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it” (Deuteronomy 30:11-14). Saint Paul connects Moses words with the Christian context as it relates to the simplicity of faith in Jesus Christ: “that is the word of faith we are proclaiming” (Romans 10:8). God’s way, the narrow gate, is not too difficult. Rather, the difficulty lies with the human heart which does not want to do things God’s way, but it prefers to live its own way. The narrowness of the gate comes from the stubbornness of the will and not indifference on the part of God. Through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is able to change our hearts so that the narrow way is easily found; for as St. John says, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (I John 5:3).