Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruc- tion, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few that fi nd it (Matthew 7:13-14).
R
ead the above teaching slowly. Jesus reminds me of a profound tension that exists for people who claim to be members of Christ’s church and live in the U.S.
at the same time. In our country we rightly pride ourselves on being a
people who are “free.” Free to move about and think as we please. Free to worship God however and wherever we wish. Free to live where we choose, work in a job of our own selection, and vote for candidates who seem to be in concert with our political convictions. T ese are all wonderful and underappreciated giſt s. I love my personal
SHUTTERSTOCK
Freedom just another word for not following Jesus
A tough, narrow path to
travel in me-focused culture By Frank G. Honeycutt
30
www.thelutheran.org
“Strangely,” writes Roman Catholic au- thor Richard Rohr, “your life is not about ‘you.’ It is part of a much larger stream called God.”
freedoms. But if I’m read- ing Jesus correctly in the passage above, the man seems to ask me to surren- der personal freedom in order to fi nd true life. T at is, I can’t take just any old path of my own choosing
and expect Jesus to bless it with insight and growth. Instead, I’m invited down a “narrow way,” a particular
path down which many will balk, even aſt er they become members of a church. Can you guess why that might be? Why church
people might resist such a narrow way? I’m convinced it’s because we’ve been sold a bill of “freedom” goods telling us that we are the ones who know most about how to live our lives. We don’t like anyone showing us how to structure our days. Even Jesus. It’s going to be hard for a Christian to live faithfully in
the U.S. because Christianity is largely a relinquishment of personal freedom. Many times in his letters Paul describes himself as a
“slave” of Christ. What does this mean? Instead of living life the way I want to, making choices that are best for my personal situation, I instead choose (there is indeed freedom here—no arm-twisting) to surrender control over my life and sign on as a student of Jesus. (T e word “disciple,” by the way, literally means “student.”) I decide to learn how to live life from Jesus rather than relying (if I’m not careful) on a host of inner wisdom resources,
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