When I was growing up and when my kids were growing up in the church, we sang a song about a wise man building his house. The little kids’ ditty says “The wise man built his house upon a rock…the rains came down and the floods came up…and the house on the rock stood firm”. The second verse tells the opposite wisdom. “The foolish man built his house upon the sand…the rains came down and the floods came up…and the house on the sand went splat.” The third verse of this little kids’ song says that “the blessings fall down when the prayers go up….so build your house on the Lord”.
This song is based on a portion of a famous sermon by Jesus found in Matthew 7:24-29 and Luke 6:46-49. It is interesting to read this parable as an adult. I know that, contrary to an allegorical story like the Tortoise and the Hare where each character symbolically represents a moral truth or element in the story, a parable has one focused meaning, one central truth to teach. The one central truth of the story of a wise and foolish builder is not that we should believe in Jesus and pray for the blessings to rain down. As I began to look at it again to see what it is about, I was surprised.
The parable begins in Mathew 7:24, which is part of a much larger sermon called the Sermon on the Mount. But look how Jesus begins the story. “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them is like a sensible man who built his house on the rock” (Mathew 7:24 HCSB). The verse begins with the word “Therefore”. This means that the parable is tied to the thoughts of the sermon that came before it. In Luke, the verse immediately before the parable says, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord if you do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). In Matthew, the verses immediately before the parable say things like: “Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 7:21), “beware of false prophets (wolves in sheep’s clothing)” (Mt 7:15), “enter the hard, narrow way because the path of the wicked is wide and easy” (Mat 7:13).
The second part of the parable reads “Everyone who hears these word of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand” (Mat 7:26). In the broader context, when Jesus says, “hears these words of mine”, which words is he talking about? Just the parable itself or the whole sermon? The sermon ends with the note that the collapse of the foolish man’s house was great in vs. 7:27. The following verse (7:28) says that Jesus had finished teaching. The parable of the wise and foolish builders is the end of the sermon. Jesus was saying to the people listening to the sermon, “if you hear this sermon (these words of mine) and do what I am saying in this sermon, you will be a wise man”.
But what are the other elements of the sermon that people should act on to be wise?
The Beattitudes of Mathew 5:1-13 is the beginning of this sermon. The Beattitudes say things like you are blessed when you are hurting and poor and weak because God will be with you. You are blessed when you are gentle and a peacemaker because God will honor you. You are blessed when you are hated and mistreated because you believe in Jesus because God’s kingdom that is coming is yours.
The Sermon on the Mount also contains basic instruction like:
Do not hate. Mt 5:21
Do not lust for what is not yours. Mt 5:27
Tell the truth. Mt 5:33
Don’t take revenge but go the extra mile. Mt 5:38
Don’t hold resentment. Forgive your enemy. Mt 5:43
Love people who mistreat you. Mt 5:48
Pray. Mt 6:5
Don’t be self-absorbed or do good things just to get attention. Mt 5:16
Don’t be greedy and always need more stuff. Mt 6:19
Don’t be anxious about everything in life. Mt 6: 25
Do not judge others. Mt 7:1
Ask. Seek. Knock. Mt 7:7
Know that the way of Christ is hard. Not everyone you meet on the way is genuine and sincere. A good tree does not bear bad fruit. Beware of the ones who bear bad fruit. Not everyone who claims to know Jesus actually knows Jesus. Mt 7:13-23
These are the teachings, that if you make them part of your life- actually do them, make you wise. It’s a brief synopsis that fails to encompass everything Jesus put into the Sermon on the Mount. The idea is that building your life on the solid rock (being wise) is about the action you take to actually do what Jesus says. Building a life of wisdom is about making good decisions that are followed by good actions.
May God grant us all obedient and discipled hearts of wisdom.
“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock” (Mt 7:24-25 NIV).
Amen! It is cool to discover just how powerful and how clear God's Word is when we see it in its full context. Thank you for that reminder. I honestly did not think about that outside of how Sunday School taught us the parable. :)