Difficult Road

Matthew 7:14 The gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life: few find it.

Acts chapter one reports that there were merely 120 believers gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem. Obviously, the Son of God, the miracle worker who healed the lame, the blind, the lepers, and even raised people from the dead, was not a great church organizer. Jesus often insulted the leaders who could have been promoting His ministry. John recorded that rather than alter His difficult message, Jesus sent a crowd of willing followers back home. If He was trying to start a movement, He really fumbled the ball. On the other hand, if His mission was to present the true kingdom of God and call people to enter, then He would have been false to alter the truth in any way just to get loyal fans.

Many people want to join the church that Peter imagined before the death of Jesus: a church in which we are radical, passionate fighters for God engaged in a holy war, dying for Christ with a sword in hand as we stand for justice. Peter faltered and denied Christ when he actually saw Jesus laying down His life without a complaint, falsely accused with no defense, and becoming a doormat for those who would mock Him. Some look at this picture of Christianity and say it is weak and pathetic. They want to overcome by the power of debate, by the wit of our minds, and the savvy of our social media skills. Like Peter, when I see the calling of Christ to every follower, I am confronted with the words of my Master: the way is difficult.

The Church is not a mission sending organization. It is a sent Body, propelled into a world of darkness as examples of His nature to this generation. When Peter saw Jesus lay down His life, it shocked him to his core. If he chose to follow, he would be required to do the same – beyond difficult. The great challenge for those 120 believers in Jerusalem was not how to present God’s love to the world, rather it was how to convince the 3000 new converts (who joined the Church on Pentecost) that they were to become examples of His selfless love. Paul would write that we are to be living sacrifices, burnt on the altar of service. With that in mind, it is amazing that there were even 120 in the upper room. If we agree to truly follow, to lay down our lives as doormats and to be crushed, we would have to believe that Jesus is God and able to use the sacrifice of our pride, our will, our rights – our lives – to bring others to Him. That kind of faith is indeed difficult.