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Christianity is Difficult and Easy
Brian Mashburn
April 8, 2018
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Following Jesus: Easy or Difficult?
If and when you ever get to go to a mountain in order to snow ski, you figure out pretty quickly that not all ski slopes are created equal. They are designed with various levels of difficulty in mind. The easiest ones are called "greens" and the most difficult are called "blacks".
If we were to grade the way of life that Jesus wants for us according to its degree of difficulty, what would we say? Would he say it’s difficult? Or would we say it’s easy?
If we asked Jesus, we would have to conclude that...
Following Jesus is difficult. He says so in Matthew 7:14 - "Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." It’s a black.
But not so fast. We would also have to conclude that...
Following Jesus is easy. He says so in Matthew 11:30 - "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." It’s a green.
Welcome to the wonderful world of paradox. A paradox is a seemingly self-contradictory declaration that is in fact true. So buckle in, friends, because in the pursuit of spiritual maturity, there is no avoiding the reality of paradox. You must find the truth in contradictions.
Just like God himself, truth is too large, too gloriously complex, to be contained in simplistic, dualistic, 2-dimensional, and either-or thinking. As Paul said, "Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness in great."
In this series, we exercise our ability to "think Christianly". I challenge you to grow and mature by loving God with all of your mind. And we'll start by wrestling with this paradoxical declaration: The way of Christ is difficult AND easy.