This Sunday I’m going to be speaking on the closing section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Each week in this series Jesus has challenged my concept of what it means to be good, and has shown me how far I fall short of that. The close of this passage makes clear that these words were not merely suggestions, but the dividing line of life: are you going to live Jesus’ way or not?
I came across this quote from Dietrich Bonhoffer this week, and thought it was worth sharing in full:
To give witness to and confess the truth of Jesus, but to love the enemy of this truth, who is his enemy and our enemy, with the unconditional love of Jesus Christ – that is the narrow road. To believe in Jesus’ promise that those who follow shall possess the earth, but to encounter the enemy unarmed, to prefer suffering injustice to doing ill – that is the narrow road. To perceive other people as being weak and wrong, but to never judge them; to proclaim the good news to them, but never to throw pearls before swine – that is the narrow road. It is an unbearable road. We are only able to walk such a road because we can see Jesus walking ahead of us and with us.
Bob Wriedt 