On the road again!

THE NARROW PATH:
How the subversive way of Jesus satis-fies our souls
By Rich Villodas
Hodder. 187 pages. £16.99
ISBN 978 0 593 444 276

There are many great books on the Sermon on the Mount, by Augustine, Lloyd-Jones, Stott, Bonhoeffer and, more recently, Pennington, who brilliantly renders the word blessed as ‘flourishing’. Do we need another book?

New York-based pastor Rich Villodas provides an interesting contemporary take on this ancient sermon that still has a remarkable ability to talk to our times.

Villodas describes the Sermon on the Mount as ‘essentially the greatest TED Talk ever given … the best message ever preached by the wisest human who ever lived.’ It certainly only takes about 17 minutes to read Matthew’s version of Jesus’ best-known sermon, but those who have read it carefully know that it takes a lifetime to begin to understand and live it out.

This book tackles all of the Sermon on the Mount, but he does not do so in the order of the sermon, and does not navigate the tricky but pivotal bit in Matthew 5:17-20.

The 12 chapters of the book are divided up into two main sections: Understanding the Narrow Path; and Walking the Narrow Path.

There is an interlude: Prayer and the Narrow Path, and an Afterword: Practicing Obedience.

The book is well-written, fresh and practical. I appreciated the way that the author makes it plain that the narrow path is not oppressive and restricted but the way to true freedom and flourishing. I also valued the way that Villodas distinguishes between taking the narrow path and walking in what he calls moralism, success-ism, and individualism. He also makes it plain that taking the narrow path means not merely the possession of Jesus’ teaching but the active practicing of that teaching.

‘The broad path is full of people who have a lot of Scriptures.’

The book would benefit from having questions for reflection. Yet it is an honest and refreshing 21st-century engagement with this timeless text that is well worth reading.