Matthew 7.24 (NIV)
“The wise man built his house upon the rock”. That
song brings back memories. At the age of four or five, I remember singing this
chorus in a little back room in a Salvation Army hall in
So we would sing. Here was the door, and you could hear the band playing in the service on the other side of it. Behind us, a window looked straight on to the embankment of the Liverpool-Holyhead line. The line was about 20 feet away. And when the Holyhead express came thundering past, you could see the carriage wheels flashing by, the whole building shook, including the room we were in - shook to its foundations. This was most appropriate, I now realise, for the chorus we were singing – about secure foundations on rock.
So, here we have a parable, a
picture, drawn by Jesus,
that can be sung by four year olds as a chorus, and yet has
depth, and truth and reach enough to challenge us this morning, for it holds
deep meaning for our Christian life. And
it’s that deeper meaning we are interested in this morning.
In chapter 7 of Matthew’s
gospel, Jesus, we are told, surrounded by the crowds on the hillside, closed
the wonderful words he had spoken about the kingdom of God, by telling this
short parable, or picture. He who hears
these words and does them, says Jesus, is
like a man who built his house on the rock, and when the rain came, the
house stood solid, unshakeable, secure. He who hears these
words and does not do them, is like a man who built on sand – and the house
was swept away. For the casual listener, or reader of the Gospel - this sounds like a
kind of advertisement. In which the Lord gives good advice to round off all
that He has said, as if the Lord is saying – don’t just listen – but do what I say.
But if you look carefully at
Matthew’s gospel, you will discover that these words of Jesus about building on
the rock, are part of a much longer teaching. And in
this longer teaching Jesus warns His hearers of wolves in sheep’s clothing who
will come to disturb His people, He speaks of the good fruit that only a good
tree will produce, He warns that not all those who cry Lord, Lord ! will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but only those who do the will of the Father in heaven, and then He
teaches about the two houses, the one built on rock, the other on sand.
And when you take the whole of
Jesus’ teaching here together, you can see that there is a clear pattern. Jesus
speaks of how we are to hear the word of the Lord, and do what He says. How our inward and outward lives as
believers are to hold together. So, the word of the Gospel in Matthew belongs
together with the Word of the Lord in Jeremiah in which the prophet stands at
the Temple Gate and declares to the worshippers going in: Do not say “This is the Temple, This is the Temple, This is the Temple”
reform your ways and your actions, really change your ways and your actions,
and deal with each other justly… then, the Lord says, I will let you live! Or,
as James says: do not merely listen to
the word… Do what it says…
These words of Jesus, in the
Gospel, then, are sifting, searching, probing words. On the one hand Jesus
points to the hypocrisy of men and women, the failure of men and women to hold
life together. He speaks searching sifting words about the way in which we fail
to hold life together – how what we say and what we do are so often two
different things, that’s on the one hand. And on the other, Jesus speaks of the
integrity, wholeness and completeness of our lives when we are called to follow
Him. This is a life in which our inward lives and outward lives hold together
and are one. So – just like the flood that tested the foundations, of the wise
man’s house and the foolish man’s house, these words of Jesus test our
foundations too. Do our lives hold together ? Inwardly
and outwardly ? Do we do what we believe
? Do we live in wholeness and completeness in following Jesus Christ ? Are we bad trees producing little fruit ? Or good trees producing good fruit
? These are sifting words of Jesus.
And if we are honest with
ourselves, in the moment of truth we have to confess this: that often you and I are much more like the bad tree that produces
little fruit. That often there are very many things we will do before we do
the will of our Father in heaven. That often we are much more ready just to
listen to the words of Jesus than to do what He says. This is what men and women are like. This is what we are like.
If we would live in completeness, in wholeness of life we need first to be healed of the brokenness within ourselves. The wolf that lurks in our hearts, the rotten tree trunk of our lives, the empty talk, the empty deeds, the sin, in other words, that makes us put on such a pretence for others, needs to be dealt with. And then we can begin to live as our loving Father means us to - in wholeness.
And this is what we find in
Christ Jesus.
The only One we see living human life in wholeness and completeness is
Jesus Himself. He has lived in wholeness of life, in the Father’s sight. In
loving communion with the Father, Jesus does nothing by Himself, He does only what
He sees His Father doing. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He
does. And Jesus has taken the rotten tree trunk of our lives, to the Father,
has confessed all that we are to our Father in heaven. He has taken our old,
split, fragmented, human self to the cross, and so dealt with our sinfulness, and
has completed all by bringing us into the Father’s presence. So – if we are
looking for wholeness and integrity of life, it is only to be found in the life
of Jesus Christ, crucified, risen and ascended.
Earl Palmer is a Christian
writer and he writes about an earthquake in Coalinga in
The houses built
after the 1930s, the modern ones, however, were bolted to their foundation, and
didn’t collapse. They withstood the stress and strain of 8.2-on-the-Richter-Scale quake. He
writes, we know now, that Houses should be bolted to their foundation. Sort of a living relationship with the foundation--into it as well
as on it.
A living
relationship with the foundation--into it as well as on it.
That’s exactly what we find
when we turn to the Gospel of John: that we have a living relationship with
Jesus Christ now, as the foundation of life
The Lord says, no branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. Apart from me you can do nothing.
It is in Him that we become
the good tree,
producing good fruit. It is from Him that we draw life, rooted in
Him, the true Vine. It is in Him that we grow, as His life works in us. And
this was all along His purpose for us: For, says the Lord, I chose you, and appointed you to go and bear much fruit.
For, says the Lord, I chose
you, and appointed you to go and bear much fruit.
May our foundations be found
in Him, may the root of our lives be in Him, may our fruitfulness be to His glory.
AMEN.