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This week we look at what may be a familiar text:

‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.’ (Matthew 7:24-27)

What is this parable about?

One great danger we face when reading the Bible is that we read a verse and then pick a meaning. While we can often get very good truths this way we ought to be careful that we begin by looking at what the original intention was. Jesus’ intention for this parable relates to ‘everyone…who hears these words of mine’. So this counts for pretty much anyone who has ever attended a church (or at least a decent one), anyone who has read a Bible, or anyone who has had some conversation with a Christian who quoted the Bible…at least, if you are reading this article I think we can conclude that this parable applies to us!

The wise man

Those who know their Bibles well will know where wisdom begins: with ‘fear of the Lord’ (Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 1:7, etc). And this is where Jesus begins too. He suggests in the first sentence that following his words is being ‘like a wise man’. In building his house the wise man chose a strong foundation that he knew would never change, and the same is true when we hear the words of Jesus and do what he says, because ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8).

The foolish man

Here we have one example of Jesus’ dry humour. Because of the language used it is often that we read the Bible and completely miss the intended humour, but Jesus is, in fact, a very funny guy. I’m looking forward to laughing with him in heaven. And here Jesus uses this ridiculous example – who on earth would try to build an actual house on sand? When I go to the seaside I have difficulty even building the simplest of sandcastles, yet here Jesus is telling us about a man who is trying to support his entire house just on dry sand. What a fool!

Yet Jesus says that this is exactly what we are like when we take the words of Jesus but do not do what he says. How often do we hear something in the Bible and think: ‘that doesn’t apply to me’, ‘that’s not relevant in today’s society’, ‘times have changed’, or ‘if only he knew what my life was like…’. Jesus tells us to do all sorts of radical things, from selling our possessions and giving the money to the poor, to gouging our eye out if it causes it to sin. Am I suggesting that we all go out and have a mass blinding? No, but I am saying that we sometimes take Jesus’ words too lightly. Are you that fool? Am I?

The consequences

Now as they say the proof is in the pudding, and in Jesus’ parable the actions of the wise and foolish men are tested in a wild storm. When the storms of life began to attack this wise man, whether they were financial, relational, emotional, physical or spiritual, the fact that the man had a firm foundation in Jesus meant that his house stood firm. The foolish man, on the other hand, had no such success. His foundations were ever-changing, and so when the storm hit the house collapsed, ‘and great was the fall of it’.

I would ask us a question today: what is the foundation of your life? Is it the unchanging Jesus? Or is it something else? It is easy to allow our security to come from our income, our relationships, or our own self-esteem, yet we can see today more than ever before in our lifetimes that jobs can sometimes not be as secure as we would like, that relationships can fall apart as soon as an idiot with a gun happens to be in the same place as our husband or wife, and that even having the ‘perfect’ celebrity lifestyle leads couples to separate, minds to go out of control and lives to be lost.

Are you doing what you hear Jesus saying? Let’s together be radical and unashamed in following Jesus, the awesome God incarnate.

"Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life" from Tom Kelley

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