ON SOLID GROUND

Quite often Matthew’s gospel makes us uncomfortable when we read it. This is because so often in Matthew, Jesus’ words and teachings appear quite harsh and unrelenting. Today’s passage is just such a case in point. Jesus is speaking to the gathered faithful about the nature of discipleship, and in all honesty his words are not easy for us in the church today to hear.

In these verses Jesus speaks about judgment, not judgment against those who have not heard the gospel message, not judgment against those who have heard and ignored the gospel message, he speaks of judgment against those who have received the truth and at least to some degree have responded positively to it.

It is this aspect of these verses that make them so hard for us in the church to hear Jesus’ words. In this passage Jesus mentions those who preach, those who teach, those who invoke the healing power of God, all in the name of the gospel. Indeed, Jesus is not addressing those outside the church, he is talking to those of us on the inside. Moreover, the troubling part of this passage is that Jesus makes it clear that not all who profess him as Lord will be recognized as disciples.

In context, these verse bring to a close the Sermon-On-The-Mount and Jesus is defining what genuine discipleship really is as it is lived out in everyday life. Genuine discipleship consists of two distinct parts. The first part is hearing God’s Word. That is to say hearing and receiving God’s claim upon our lives. It is to be open to God’s truth. The second part is of equal importance and cannot be divorced from the first part in genuine discipleship. It is to tangibly obey God’s Word in our lives. The second part of discipleship is to implement what we have received.

Based on Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount discipleship is defined as both hearing God’s Word AND acting on it. To illustrate his point, Jesus drew an analogy his audience would understand immediately: Selecting a home site. As is true all over the world, choosing where one builds a home in Palestine is important.

In Galilee, as in most of Palestine, the climate most of the year is very dry and arid. While it might prove easier to build a house on a flat and sandy plot of land, when the rains come, a house built in such a location would likely be destroyed by the swollen flood waters of a nearby wadi (a wadi is a stream bed that is bone dry except during the rainy season).

During much of the year such a building site would appear to prove quite attractive and would appear to offer many advantages. It is easier to lay a foundation on flat sandy land than hilly rocky land. It is easier to haul the needed building materials along a flat sandy trail than to drag timbers and bricks up along a craggy and winding hilly path. Traveling to and from your home carrying water and food would be much easier on flat sandy land. However, when the storms arrived, and when the rains poured down, and when the wadi would swell with flood waters, such a home and all its contents would likely be washed away.

In contrast, choosing to build your home on elevated bedrock, on solid ground above the flat and sandy topography of the flood plain would mean increased challenges and much more effort. Initially, it would mean much more effort to drag building materials to the home site. Then, on a daily basis it would mean more effort and energy to get to and from your home carrying water and food supplies. However, your home would be safe during the stormy rainy season. As the flood waters from the swollen wadi washed away your neighbors and their homes, you would be riding out the storm secure on solid ground.

As we hear God’s Word preached and taught, as we read and study God’s Word from scripture in our personal devotions, it is tempting to focus in on the words of grace and forgiveness. To apply Jesus’ illustration from scripture, it is tempting to overlook the craggy and hilly message of demand for change and judgment in favor of focusing in on the flat and sandy message of love and forgiveness.

In verses 24 & 25 it reads, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock”. The key word in the preceding verses is “acts”. It is one thing to hear God’s Word. It is something more and different to act upon it in our lives.

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus repeatedly outlined the moral and ethical demands of following him, addressing topics as diverse as adultery and divorce and religious almsgiving and fasting. In doing so, Jesus sought to explicate what the life of one of his followers would tangibly look like.

While it is impossible in the time we have this morning to accurately summarize the Sermon on the Mount, it is possible to say that fundamentally behind every specific moral and ethical issue Jesus raised lies just one basic issue and question; In every particular situation, whatever the specifics may in fact be, what is God’s will for our lives? Moreover, in every particular situation Jesus addressed he emphasized that what is in our hearts is of equal importance to what we say. In other words, pious religious acts and words are of little value if there is not a conversion of the heart. Conversely, if we feel our hearts have been transformed, yet there is not tangible change in how we live, then we must ask a further question; what type of transformation have we really experienced?

In every specific moral, ethical, and religious instance, Jesus mentioned he raised the bar of what is expected by God. For example, adultery is not simply a physical sexual action; it is equally a matter of the heart. Genuine disciples must ask the question, of what value is the marriage covenant to us if we adhere to it legally yet both figuratively and literally covertly disregard it?

Or take for example the matter of loving one another. Where is the challenge of loving only those who love you in return, the challenge is to love those who could care less whether you loved them.

If we love only those who love us, have we not chosen to build our lives on the easy sandy flood plain of a dry wadi bed? Only when we choose to love those who despise us, or ignore us, have we chosen to travel the hilly and craggy path of building our lives on the bedrock of God’s will.

Jesus’ words here in Matthew 7:21-29 serve as warning for us to build our lives on the solid ground of God’s will for us. We are called to build our lives on the bedrock of the gospel in order that we may stand and survive the storms of our lives; storms which will surely come in one form or another. We are called to seek God’s will for our living each and every day.

In a way that makes even the most devout among us take notice, Jesus’ words challenge us to evaluate our choices in life. For example, even if we have been called to visible leadership roles in the church through ministries of compassion, or ministries of teaching, and yes, even if we are called to the ministry of preaching, such callings do not serve as an insurance policy against those forces which seek to destroy us. The only insurance policy which can protect us is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The only way we can put that policy into effect is by seeking God’s will and seeking to obey it in all areas of our lives.

Some years ago the Prudential insurance company began a marketing campaign encouraging potential customers to “own a piece of the rock. With Prudential, as with all insurance companies, we enter into a relationship with them. On sunny days when the wind is calm, we pay them a premium. Then, on days when the floods rise, the wind blows, and the lightening strikes, we are protected against catastrophic financial and property loss.

Jesus’ words in this passage carry a similar message for us. Only as we enter into a relationship with God by seeking to hear and act upon his will are we protected from loss.

However, there is at least one significant distinction between entering into a relationship with Prudential and entering into a relationship with God. With Prudential, it is at our initiative that the relationship begins, and it continues only as long as we pay the premiums.

With God, it is exactly the reverse. In Jesus Christ God has taken the initiative to be in relationship with us. Moreover, through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, God has paid all the premiums necessary for this relationship to continue for all eternity.

The question we then face is whether we will choose to live in this relationship which God has created. As Jesus’ words in this passage reveal, the way we choose to live in this relationship is by seeking to hear and obey God’s will for us.

Let us choose to live in relationship with God. Let us accept a piece of the rock, if you will, by choosing obedience and seeking God’s will for our lives. Let us build our lives on the solid ground of a relationship with Jesus Christ. So may it be for us. Amen.

Reverend Marc V. Mason

May 29, 2005

Trinity Presbyterian Church

Travelers Rest, SC