“ENTER THROUGH THE narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
15“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
24“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Original Meaning
THE DISCIPLES HAVE been the primary object of Jesus’ teaching in the SM (cf. 5:1–2), but throughout he has had an eye on the crowds and religious leaders. He has extended an invitation to the crowds to enter the kingdom of heaven and cautioned both his disciples and the crowds about the erroneous leadership of the religious establishment, especially the teachers of the law and the Pharisees (cf. 5:20).
Jesus now concludes the SM with warnings directed to all three groups because eternal destiny is at stake. He warns his disciples to examine themselves to be sure that they are truly members of the kingdom of heaven, not simply those who profess allegiance. He warns the crowds to consider carefully the alternative of following him or following the popular religious leadership. And he warns the religious establishment about their culpability for leading the people in the wrong direction. In each of the four basic warnings—two gates and roads (7:13–14), two kinds of prophets (7:15–20), two kinds of disciples (7:21–23), and two foundations (7:24–27)—a choice must be made: Are you with Jesus or against him? There is no middle ground, no other choice, and a decision must be made—a decision with eternal consequences.
Narrow and Broad Gates and Roads (7:13–14)
“ENTER THROUGH THE narrow gate” initiates the final section of the SM. The image of two paths in life was common in Judaism, whether speaking of separate paths that lead to paradise or to Gehenna (b. Ber. 28b), or of a narrow path of life’s hardships that ultimately lead to a broad path of eternal blessing (e.g., 2 Esd. 7:3–9). Jesus’ use of the imagery is specific and straightforward. Those who enter the wide gate will find themselves on a broad road that leads to destruction, but those who enter the narrow “gate” will find themselves on a narrow road that leads to life.
The broad gate and road is inviting, offering plenty of room for those who would follow the cultural and pious norm of the religious leaders. The terms “wide” and “broad” are spatial, but they also evoke a sense of ease and comfort. One can enter and travel comfortably and unmolested on this roomy road.1 However, the comfort is deceiving, because it ends in “destruction” (apoleia), a common word for eternal punishment (cf. 2 Peter 3:7; Rev. 17:8).
The narrow gate and road is much more restrictive, because it is limited to Jesus and his manner of discipleship. His is the minority way insofar as few will dare abandon the popular opinion of people and the religious establishment. The terms “small” and “narrow” are also spatial, but they balance the metaphor by evoking images of difficulty. This is especially the case in the latter word, which can indicate trouble and affliction (e.g., 2 Cor. 1:6; 4:8).2 Those traveling this narrow road will experience difficulty, especially because the challenge of Jesus’ way of discipleship will prompt oppression, even persecution, from those of the majority way.
There are two important and related interpretative distinctions to be made of the metaphorical intention. (1) Which comes first, the road or the gate? (2) Is entrance through the gate, whether wide or narrow, something that occurs in this life or at the end of this life? The answers to both of those questions have important related implications. Some contend that the road is first, leading to the gate, and that with this metaphor Jesus challenges his audience to embark on the way of righteousness set forth in his teaching in the SM so that they may enter the gate to the kingdom at the end of their life’s journey.3 But the majority of interpreters contend, I think rightly, that Jesus intended the order as it is actually found in the text, the gate first and then the road, and that it speaks of a decision that is made in this life.4
Jesus himself is the narrow gate through which people pass as they respond to his invitation to the kingdom of heaven. The way of discipleship then stretches throughout one’s years on earth, ultimately leading to life eternal. The false prophets and religious opposition offer the people what is on the surface a more appealing invitation, for theirs is the easier way to fit into conventional wisdom. But those who choose to enter the gate to popular opinion by rejecting Jesus’ invitation will find that it opens onto a road that leads to eternal destruction.
True and False Prophets (7:15–20)
ON THAT NARROW road disciples are to “watch out for false prophets.” Jesus has already warned against religious leaders who lead the people astray with their false form of righteousness (5:20; 6:1–18), but now he warns further against revolutionary leaders who lead the people astray with their false form of prophecy. Warnings of false prophets form an important theme in Matthew’s Gospel (e.g., 7:21–23; 24:11–12, 24), similar to how the Old Testament gave analogous warnings (e.g., Jer. 6:13–15; 8:10–12; Ezek. 13:1–23; 22:27–29; Zeph. 3:1–4). These were warnings against those who attempted to lead God’s people by falsely speaking for God. Josephus tells of a variety of popular prophets who led the people to insurrection: “Deceivers and imposters, under the pretense of divine inspiration fostering revolutionary changes, they persuaded the multitude to act like madmen, and led them out into the desert under the belief that God would there give them tokens of deliverance.”5
False prophets first seem to be genuine members of God’s flock by their talk and association with the group, but their intentions are evil, like a wolf who ravages a flock for its own gratification: “They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” This expression draws on the natural enmity of sheep and wolves (e.g., Isa. 11:6; 65:25) and is the basis of the apostle Paul’s later warning to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:29) and the early church father Ignatius’s warning to the church at Philadelphia (Ign. Phil. 2:1–2).6
Maintaining the earlier balance of not judging another brother or sister (7:1–5), yet not being naively accepting either (7:6), Jesus tells his disciples to be wisely discerning when prophets come into their midst. “By their fruit you will recognize them.” “Fruit” is the product of a person’s essential life. All that a person says and does reveals who he or she is (James 3:9–12). John the Baptist earlier rebuked the Sadducees and Pharisees for coming for baptism, telling them to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt. 3:8). Repentance in their heart will produce a repentant life that rejects sin.
In a similar vein, Paul later tells the church at Galatia to examine their own lives and the lives of the false teachers, because those who truly belong to Christ will bear the fruit of the Spirit, not the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:16–24). The mark of a church that is growing in Christ is the fruit of righteousness and good works (Phil. 1:11; Col. 1:10). And the apostle John calls the church to test the spirit of prophets to see whether they are led by the Spirit to confess that Jesus indeed has come in the flesh (1 John 4:1–3).
So Jesus calls his disciples to evaluate carefully any prophets who come into their community, not only to look at their message to see if it is consistent with the narrow way advocated by Jesus in the SM, but also to look at their works and lives to see if they are consistent with the kingdom life of righteousness he has advocated in the SM. “Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” Grapes and figs were the staple diet in Palestine, and thornbushes and thistles were hurtful weeds. The latter choke off nutrients from the soil from other plants and are harmful also to humans because of their sharp thorns. A harmful weed cannot produce healthful fruit. Without the moving of God in their lives, false prophets cannot speak God’s message and cannot display the kingdom righteousness he produces.
A vine or tree will only produce fruit that is consistent with its nature—good to good, and bad to bad—so as before (cf. 7:6), Jesus admonishes his disciples to be “fruit inspectors” of those passing themselves off as prophets. False prophets will produce bad fruit, which from an Old Testament perspective includes leading the people away from God to follow false gods (Deut. 13:1–18) or speaking prophecies that are not fulfilled (18:21–22). Bad trees are good for nothing except to be used for firewood (Matt. 7:19), a striking metaphor of the judgment to come for false prophets. Jesus then repeat. 7:16, “Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them” (7:20), another example of an inclusio to bracket off this important warning (cf. 5:3, 10).
True and False Disciples (7:21–23)
NOT ONLY WILL false prophets enter the community, but some within the community itself will be false disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is an individual who has confessed Jesus as Lord but whom Jesus knows has not truly repented as a condition for entering the kingdom of heaven. At this stage of the Jesus movement, it is doubtful that calling Jesus “Lord” (kyrios) implied the full divine significance that the title carried in the postresurrection period (e.g., John 20:28). During Jesus’ ministry the term is used by people mostly as a title of respect (e.g., Matt. 18:21; 26:22).
But we must notice that the use of kyrios in Matthew’s Gospel also has much more significance. “Lord” is the title that is regularly used by people who approach Jesus in search of divine aid (e.g., 8:2, 5; 9:28; 15:22, 25; 17:15; 20:30, 31, 33), including his own disciples when they need divine assistance (e.g., 8:25; 14:30).7 As Jesus’ ministry unfolds, his disciples use the title with increasing deference, for he is turning out to be more than they had originally understood him to be. He is connected with God’s power and has a relationship with God as the Son that can only be addressed with a title normally reserved for God, “Lord” (e.g., 14:28; 16:25; 17:4). This is particularly momentous when they see his miraculous deeds, call on him as “Lord,” and then worship him (14:33), an activity reserved solely for deity.
“Lord” is also one of the titles, like “Son of Man” (see comments on 8:20), that Jesus uses to refer to himself in a way that increasingly reveals his divine identity.8 As the only one who refers to God in heaven as “my Father” (used here for the first time in Matthew9) and the one who has authority to banish false prophets to eternal judgment (7:22–23), Jesus is indeed more than any mere respected master.
So this false disciple who calls on Jesus as “Lord, Lord” has said more than he knows, but those reading the account in Matthew’s community will catch the full significance. An oral confession of Jesus as Lord can mask an unrepentant heart, so Jesus says that entrance to the kingdom of heaven is reserved for those who do “the will of my Father who is in heaven” (7:21). The same basic phrase occurs later to indicate the qualification for entrance to Jesus’ family community (12:50; cf. 6:10; 21:31; 26:42). This does not mean simply to obey the Old Testament law as God’s will. The will of the Father means obedience to the call to the kingdom of heaven that will result in true righteousness. Since Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament (5:17), he is the ultimate example of the Father’s will obeyed (26:42). To follow his example in discipleship and become like him will enable his disciples to do God’s will on a daily basis.
These false disciples claim prophetic status and point to their charismatic activity as a sign of their discipleship: “Did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Exorcism and performance of miracles regularly accompany the gospel proclamation of Jesus (e.g., 4:24; 8:3, 16) and the Twelve (cf. 10:1, 7–8); such activities confirm the authenticity of the message. False disciples are able to gain power “in Jesus’ name,” but their activities are meaningless for their own eternal destiny. They do not come to Jesus as the true gate to the kingdom and so do not engage in these activities according to Father’s will (7:21).
Jesus never emphasizes the external as being the highest sign of authenticity. He demands our inward allegiance to God’s will, which will produce the fruit of a changed life. In accomplishing his goals, God may use a person (even “many” persons) who professes the name of Jesus, even if the person has deceived himself or herself and others. However, the ultimate revelation of the authenticity of one’s life will come at the time of judgment.
So Jesus evokes an eschatological scene of eternal judgment and banishes them from him. “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ”10 This is a stark, straightforward rejection of a person who does not have a true relationship with Jesus as his disciple (cf. 25:13). For Jesus to place himself as the One who has the authority to determine who enters the kingdom and who is banished to eternal punishment is to accrue to himself the highest Christological claim. Throughout the Old Testament God is said to “know” those whom he has chosen to be his people (Jer. 1:5; Hos. 13:5; Amos 3:2), a theme reiterated throughout the New Testament to speak of a saving relationship found with God through Jesus Christ (cf. Gal. 4:8–9; 2 Tim. 2:19). Here Jesus claims that divine prerogative to know the inner recesses of a person’s heart.
Wise and Foolish Builders (7:24–27)
JESUS GIVES THE parable of the wise and foolish builders as an illustrative challenge and conclusion to the SM (cf. also Luke 6:47–49): “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice. . . .” “Everyone” includes the disciples, who are the primary recipients of the teaching of the SM, but also the crowds, to whom Jesus has consistently extended an invitation to the kingdom of heaven (see comments on 5:1–2, 20). Most likely in attendance also, probably surreptitiously, are representatives of the religious establishment whom Jesus has consistently held up as negative examples of those who are leading the people away from God’s righteousness to their own self-righteous hypocrisy (cf. comments on 5:20; 6:1–2).11
The delightful little Sunday school song (“the wise man built his house upon the rock . . .”) might soften the stark historical contrast in the parable. Jesus calls for a decision between himself and the religious establishment. This is the same theme to which he returns over and over: “You are either with me or against me.” He calls on those who have heard the words of the SM to put them into practice, drawing a dividing line between him and any other foundation of life. The allusion to rising water is typical Jewish figurative language, as is reflected in Qumran literature (1QH 6.26; 7.8–9) and in an early second century Tannaitic saying: “A man of good deeds who has studied much Torah, to what may he be likened? To someone who first lays stones and then bricks. Even when much water rises and lies against them, it does not dislodge them. . . .”12 But Jesus’ saying reflects a more specific reference to his surroundings and the object of his criticism.
Jesus demonstrates familiarity with current building techniques in this parable, perhaps a reflection of his own training in his father’s trade as a carpenter (13:55): “like a wise man who built his house on the rock . . . like a foolish man who built his house on sand” (7:24–25).The locale of the sermon near the Sea of Galilee finds a natural setting for this parable. The alluvial sand ringing the seashore was hard on the surface during the hot summer months. But a wise builder would not be fooled by surface conditions. He would dig down sometimes ten feet below the surface sand to the bedrock and there establish the foundation for his house. When the winter rains came, causing the Jordan River pouring into the sea to overflow its banks, houses built on the alluvial sand surface would have an unstable foundation. But houses built on bedrock would be able to withstand the floods. Excavations in the late 1970s in the region uncovered basalt stone bedrock that was apparently used for the foundation of a building in antiquity.13
The audience of the SM would readily understand the surface meaning intended in the parable, because they would know how foolish a person was who would choose the easy way and did not build on bedrock. “The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” But would they see beyond the parable to Jesus’ point? Would they reject the present secure but shallow sifting sands of the religious leadership of the scribes and Pharisees and choose instead Jesus’ words as the foundation for their lives? The religious establishment was advocating a form of surface righteousness that masked an unstable foundation of religious hypocrisy. Eventually its instability would be revealed as not having the answers to the deepest needs of the people. In this parable Jesus continues to give an invitation to the bedrock of true life in the kingdom of heaven, but it is the unpopular way, even the troubled way, because those who follow him leave behind the way of comfort found in identifying with the popular religious establishment.
The wise person shows that he or she has carefully viewed the shifting sands of life’s teachings and understands that Jesus is the only secure truth of life (cf. 1 Cor. 3:10–11). The wise person thinks ahead to when there will be storms and sacrifices and builds his or her life on the rock of Jesus’ words. The choice is no less stark in our own day. Wise men and women build their lives on Jesus, regardless of the cultural or religious weather.
The Reaction of the Crowds (7:28–29)
THE WORDS MATTHEW uses to signal the conclusion of the SM recur as an identical formula after each of the five major discourses in his Gospel: “when Jesus had finished . . .” (7:28; cf. 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1). This formula is part of a pattern that marks off these discourses, since they will be used as the primary content that his disciples will use throughout history to teach new disciples to obey everything Jesus has commanded in his earthly ministry (28:20).
Although Jesus intended the SM primarily as teaching for his disciples, “the crowds” have been in the background listening (cf. 5:1–2). In fact, Jesus directed some of his challenges to the crowds as an invitation to enter the kingdom of heaven (5:20), especially toward the end (e.g., 7:24).14 So Matthew records their reaction here: “The crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (7:28–29). This is eloquent testimony to the authority of Jesus’ teaching, which accentuates Matthew’s primary intention. The teachers of the law were the legal experts of the Old Testament in Jesus’ day (see comments on 5:20; 8:19). Their authority among the people came from their expertise in citing earlier authorities and in formulating new interpretations. But ironically, their practices had muted the authority of the Old Testament because they added so many traditions and legal requirements that the power of Scripture was defeated (e.g., 15:1–9). Thus, they could not speak with authority, for they had muted the only source of authority.
But Jesus has inherent authority. This is seen not only in his repeated declaration in the antitheses, “but I say to you,” showing how he fulfills the Old Testament (see 5:21–48), but also in his dramatic declaration as the judge of a human’s eternal destiny, “I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (7:23). From Moses (Ex. 11:4) to Elijah (1 Kings 21:23) to Isaiah (Isa. 3:16) to Zechariah (Zech. 8:3), prophets and writers of the Old Testament did not speak of their own authority; instead, they declared, “This is what the LORD says.” Jesus’ teaching is so forceful that it clearly indicates he bears God’s own authority.
But Matthew’s conclusion is ironic. Amazement at Jesus’ teachings does not indicate acceptance. The term “amazed” is the passive form of ekplesso, which in Matthew is not a description of faith. It indicates a variety of emotional responses but not a commitment to Jesus’ messianic ministry. The word is used to describe Jesus’ hometown’s unbelieving reaction to his ministry (13:58), his own disciples’ astonished response at the difficulty of a rich man being saved (19:25), and the crowds’ astonishment at Jesus’ teaching on marriage at the resurrection (22:33). Amazement is not the same as a commitment of faith. Only when a person accepts Jesus’ invitation and enters the kingdom of heaven does he or she become a disciple.15
On the one hand, Matthew applauds the crowds who have exalted Jesus, for they have recognized Jesus’ authority in contrast to the religious establishment of that day. On the other hand, he expresses a warning to the crowds. Jesus does not want people simply to listen and go away amazed. He wants them to listen and to make a decision for him. To make a decision is to come out of the crowd and become Jesus’ disciple.16
This is the remarkable impact of the SM. It is intensely life-challenging. It is a profoundly disturbing indictment of the religious establishment, those who have attempted to establish their own pious enterprise that has supplanted God’s original intention. It is also an amazing challenge to the crowds, those attracted to Jesus’ uniquely authoritative pronouncement about life’s realities but not yet placing their faith in him. And it is the highest aspiration, the most realistic guideline of life, for Jesus’ disciples, who will find that Jesus’ words in the SM are a continual fount of God’s guidance as they live out the wondrous reality of life in the kingdom of heaven.
Bridging Contexts
“IT FELL WITH a great crash” (7:27). Jesus’ final words of his magnificent SM end on a tragic note. This may not be the way that many modern preachers choose to conclude a sermon. It sounds a bit like too much “fire and brimstone.” We would rather to end with more of a note of encouragement. Obviously, Jesus didn’t always conclude his messages in this way. In the final recorded message of his earthly ministry, the Upper Room discourse given to his disciples the night before his crucifixion, he ended on a very different note: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
But the mixed audience of the SM calls for a different challenge. At this early stage of the Jesus movement, Jesus challenges his disciples to examine themselves carefully so that they do not deceive themselves about the authenticity of their commitment to him, for someday they will be called to an eternal accounting for their profession. He challenges the crowds to take up his invitation to the kingdom of heaven, because their choice either for or against him has eternal consequences. And he challenges the religious leaders to consider carefully their pious hypocrisy, which may lead them and the crowds to eternal destruction. So the note of doom with which Jesus concludes the SM is urgently appropriate to the time and audience and draws attention not so much to the judgment but to Jesus as the One who will dispense that judgment.
The amazement of the crowds at his teaching underscores the authority with which he has spoken throughout the SM; thus, the final spotlight is on Jesus himself. Matthew wants his readers to see that Jesus’ words have authority because of who he is. In chapters 1–4, Jesus was introduced as the Messiah of Israel through the genealogy and infancy narrative, in the thunderous preaching and ministry of John the Baptist, in the skirmish with the devil in the desert, in the arrival of Jesus in Galilee to announce the arrival of the kingdom of heaven, and in the calling of his first coworkers to become fishers of men. In chapters 5–7, Jesus is presented as the Messiah in word, in the matchless SM, and in chapters 8–9 to follow, Jesus will be presented as the Messiah at work in a collection of miracle stories. The spotlight shines fully on Jesus as the authoritative Messiah of Israel’s hopes.
But as Messiah, Jesus is also highlighted as the authoritative adjudicator of humanity’s destiny. In these four brief scenes that conclude the SM, all of humanity stands before Jesus, and he asks each, “What will you do with me?”
• 7:13–14: Will you enter the gate to life in the kingdom of heaven and embark on a life of following me? Or will you reject me for the popular road that leads to destruction?
• 7:15–20: Will you find in me the inner source of transformation that will produce the good fruit of life? Or will you follow the prophetic voices of this world that hype a promise of life but will only take you into the fires of hell?
• 7:21–23: Will you obey my Father’s will and come to me as your only Lord? Or will you chase after false manifestations of spirituality that result in eternal banishment?
• 7:24–27: Will you build your life on me as your solid rock? Or will the pleasant ease of your life cause you to be unprepared for the storms that will come in this life and that will ultimately wash you away into the desolation of the afterlife?
These pictures of eternal punishment are not pretty, but they are urgently necessary for Jesus’ audience and for Matthew’s readers, including us. The years that we have been allotted on this earth have eternal significance. They may end sooner than we think, so we must be prepared at all times for what lies beyond. What’s more, the way we live these years is important, because what we sow here is what we reap there. This should cause us to live with an eternal perspective, which will influence our priorities in our work and play, in our relationships and commitments, and in our stewardship and service.
Thus, Jesus’ concluding tragic note is instructive for our own preaching and teaching and for our own personal lives and ministries. I doubt that I will go to the other extreme and become a complete “hellfire and damnation” preacher, but I have a responsibility in my ministry and leadership to call people to consider their eternal responsibility to what they have done with Jesus. As Jesus did, I must ask: “Are you with Jesus or against him? Are you clear about the consequences either way, both for this life and the afterlife?”
Contemporary Significance
“A BAD PERSON cannot perform good works, nor can a good person perform bad works.”17 These are striking words from the ancient church father and theologian Augustine in his commentary on Jesus’ metaphor of the good and bad trees (7:15–20). For over two thousand years the SM has been studied, preached, memorized, and used as a pattern for life by devout disciples of Jesus Christ. We in the twenty-first century are often all the poorer because we have not had our studies informed by their experience. With the advent of the printing press, more recent studies of the SM, such as those by the Reformers, have been available for modern students, but those of earlier centuries were often inaccessible. However, in recent years the church has been enriched by affordable translations and collections of earlier church father’s commentaries and homilies on Scripture.18
As we might expect, we find a mixed bag of good and poor among these ancient expositions, not too dissimilar to what we find when surveying commentaries written today. And we can find some theological quirks in these writings that centuries of theological reflection and modern archaeological discoveries have helped to settle. Nonetheless, I find it rewarding to survey the views of the church fathers when looking at the four warnings that conclude the SM. The problems Jesus first addressed here are similar to those of the early church and of today. The perspectives of the ancient fathers are helpful when compared with modern writers to show us how Jesus’ words have been guidelines throughout church history. We are wiser when we learn from both ancient and modern reflections on Jesus’ stark warnings here.
Narrow and wide gates and roads (7:13–14). A perpetual problem of those who consider Jesus’ invitation to the kingdom is that it is not the popular way. “Few find it” (7:14). We cannot always discover God’s will by appealing to the majority, because our ways are not always God’s ways. “ ‘Everybody does it’ will not be a very helpful criterion in Christian ethics,”19 quirks modern scholar and pastor Dale Bruner. When we are motivated by a desire to please people, we will find that it might not at all please God. Reformer John Calvin writes:
How is it that men knowingly and willingly rush on, carefree, except that they cannot believe that they are perishing, when the whole crowd goes down at the same time. Contrarily, the small numbers of the faithful make many cowards, for it is hard to induce us to renounce the world, and to pattern our life upon the ways of a few.20
So Jesus calls us to a courageous commitment to him as the entrance to the road of life in the kingdom of heaven. There we will find the community of disciples with whom we will share a common appreciation for kingdom values and fellowship.
But another problem of those who consider Jesus’ invitation to the kingdom is that it is not the easy way. The words “wide” and “broad” not only clue us to the numbers of those who will take the highway to hell, but they also imply an easy way, without the troubles and oppression and rigor of the “small” gate and “narrow” way of discipleship to Jesus. Jesus will say later that “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (11:30)—a reassurance that he will be yoked together with us as we walk the road of discipleship and that we will receive strength to endure. But he calls us to count the cost of what this narrow road will mean in our daily lives. Bruner goes on:
There is no need to fool ourselves by saying that Jesus’ ethic is not difficult. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount requires red blood and moral investment. It is a tough way. . . . The successism of both secularity and superspirituality lacks the moral fiber and intellectual meaning found in life lived in obedience to Jesus’ demands.21
But the early church father Chrysostom finds encouragement in the difficulty of the road as he looks ahead to the crowns of eternal reward.
For this road ends in life! The result is that both the temporary nature of the toils and the eternal nature of the victor’s crowns, combined with the fact that these toils come first and victor’s crowns come afterward, become a hearty encouragement.22
So Jesus calls would-be disciples to consider carefully the alternative of life in the kingdom of heaven, as narrow and as difficult as it may be, with the popular road that leads to destruction.
An additional problem that can surface from Jesus’ challenge of the gates and roads is that if we don’t get the order right, we may think Jesus is implying a system of works. In the theologically liberal churches where I went to Sunday school as a little boy, I remember clearly the teacher saying that the road came first, then the gate. That is, we had to choose one road, either the narrow road, which was synonymous with living a good life, or the wide road, which was synonymous with an immoral life. At the end of our years on earth, if we didn’t stray from the narrow road, we were promised that we would go through the narrow gate and enter heaven. This teacher was advocating that we work our way to heaven.
But by looking closely at Jesus’ saying, we have seen that the gate comes first. Jesus offers by grace this invitation to life. He is the narrow gate through whom we must enter the kingdom of heaven and eternal life. Like the gate, the road is as narrow as Jesus himself, indicating the life of discipleship on which one embarks after entering the gate. The wide gate and road indicate the decision to choose the world’s path over Jesus. The decision either for or against him comes in this life, and it is the most important decision any of us will ever make. Jesus offers by grace the invitation to salvation and a life of walking with him.
Good and bad fruit (7:15–20). When warning against deceptive prophets, Jesus implies by the metaphor of the wolf in sheep’s clothing that they are within the community. The only way of telling them from true disciples is by the fruit of their lives. Early in church history Augustine wrote against a group of wolves in sheep’s clothing, the Manichaeans, a dualistic group that advocated two opposing natures inherent in every person—one good and one evil, the supreme God and the Power of Darkness. They used the saying of Jesus about the two trees to support their claim, so Augustine comments to combat their error: “The tree, of course, is the soul itself—that is, the person—and the fruits are the person’s works. So a bad person cannot perform good works, nor can a good person perform bad works.”23 Augustine is not implying that an evil soul cannot be changed into a good soul. He contends that the soul itself in its goodness or badness produces either good or bad fruit. The soul will bear fruit in keeping with its nature, good or bad.24
Two important implications draw our attention. (1) Real transformation is the test of the reality of the impact of the kingdom of heaven in a person’s life. The virtuous life of the kingdom of heaven that Jesus taught in the SM cannot be produced by a person who has not experienced the kingdom’s transforming power. Ancient father Chrysostom says, “As long as a person is living in a degenerate way, he will not be able to generate good fruit. For he may indeed change to virtue, being evil, but while continuing in wickedness, he will not bear good fruit.”25
(2) We are called to examine the fruit of those who profess a message from God, for they may be impostors. If there is any lesson of history from which we should learn, it is that churches, denominations, schools, and mission groups have been, and are, susceptible to false teaching.26 It is our responsibility to guard the flock from vicious wolves who attempt to draw disciples away from the faith through their perversion of the gospel (cf. Acts 20:28–30).
The popular twentieth-century expositor William Barclay tells of a thornbush called the buckthorn, which has little blackberries that resemble little grapes, and a thistle bush that has a flower that from a distance can be mistaken for a fig. He uses these examples to illustrate the way that we might see a superficial resemblance between a true and false teacher, but the nature of his or her life will eventually reveal the veracity of the message. Barclay suggests that the basic fault of the false teacher is self-interest:
The true shepherd cares for the flock more than he cares for his life; the wolf cares for nothing but to satisfy his own gluttony and his own greed. The false prophet is in the business of teaching, not for what he can give to others, but for what he can get to himself.27
Barclay then cautions those of us who are in the ministry of the gospel about three ways in which a teacher can be dominated by self-interest: He may teach solely for gain; she may teach solely for prestige; or he may teach solely to transmit his own ideas, not God’s truth.28 Jesus’ warning of false prophetic voices is as relevant today as it has been throughout church history. A multitude of false messengers hype a promise of life, but it will only take them and their followers into the fires of hell.
Hearers and doers of the Father’s will (7:21–23). In the third warning, Jesus addresses those who make profession of faith in him, who even perform miraculous deeds in his name, but who are really not his own. Ancient father Cyril of Alexandria instructs his church:
There may be some who, in the beginning, believed rightly and assiduously labored at virtue. They may have even worked miracles and prophesied and cast out demons. And yet later they are found turning aside to evil, to self-assertive deception and desire. Of these Jesus remarks that he “never knew them.”29
Cyril rightly emphasizes that self-assertive deception and desire characterize false disciples, because they deceive themselves and other believers and desire the attention they will receive for the spectacular displays. It is no different today. It is discouraging to see how many are attracted to preachers who assert the authenticity of their message by dramatic exhibitions of “spiritual” power. Jesus warns us that signs and wonders are not proof of his Father’s will since they can come from sources other than God, including the demonic world and human creation (cf. Acts 19:13–16; 2 Thess. 2:9–12; Rev. 13:13–14). As Craig Blomberg notes, charismatic activity has a tendency “to substitute enthusiasm and the spectacular for more unglamorous obedience in the midst of suffering. But these external demonstrations prove nothing.”30
The final proof of any ministry is whether it promotes obedience to the Father’s will. Modern pastor John Stott remarks, “We recite the creed in church, and sing hymns expressive of devotion to Christ. We even exercise a variety of ministries in his name. But he is not impressed by our pious and orthodox words. He still asks for evidence of our sincerity in good works of obedience.”31 Anything else is the product of “evildoers” (7:23), which will result in eternal banishment. Cyril continues, “Even if they at the outset had lived virtuously, they ended up condemned. God knows those whom he loves, and he loves those who single-mindedly believe in him and do the things that please him.”32
Wise and foolish builders (7:24–27). Jesus’ fourth warning compares the wisdom of finding one’s righteousness in Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of heaven with the foolishness of pursuing the self-righteousness of the religious establishment. Chrysostom refers to the foolish person who labors to build a house on sand as “brainless,” because that effort will gain immediate benefit but eternal destruction.33 “Brainless” is an apt expression today as well when we consider the choice between building our lives on Jesus as our life’s foundation or any other way.
The popular pastor and expositor James Montgomery Boice suggests that there are two mistakes that a person can make with respect to this choice. One error is to say, as many young people might, that they need no foundation. The other error is to say, as many of an older generation may, that any foundation will do.34 The former we see in the postmodern skepticism about finding absolute truth. The latter we see in the politically correct pluralism of modern culture. But the solid rock that has provided true stability, security, and hope throughout church history is none other than Jesus, and him alone, and the life of kingdom righteousness that he has announced in the SM. This is expressed so beautifully in the old, yet not so old, hymn, “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less.”
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.35
My prayer is that our study of this Sermon will have caused us to be more than “amazed” at Jesus’ teaching—that we are not simply giving an emotional response but that we respond as disciples who have left all to follow Jesus’ way. It will cause us truly to exalt Jesus as the One who has all authority, the One whose teaching is the true foundation and fountain of life.