Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock

"Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

- Matthew 7:22-29

We are reading the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew's Gospel. We began with The Beatitudes (Part 1), and then we went on to You are the salt of the earth - You are the light of the world, Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift, You have heard that it was said to those of old . . . , Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect, Your Father who sees in secret, who is in the secret place, Our Father in heaven - The Lord's Prayer, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you and Judge not, that you be not judged. In yesterday's reading, Jesus taught that we must enter by the narrow gate -- that the way is broad that leads to destruction. We are also to beware of false prophets, He warned. He taught that by their fruits, we will know them. Finally, He spoke of Himself and the Judgment. See Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

In today's reading, Jesus continues His statement from yesterday. He began, in yesterday's reading: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven."

"Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'" This scathing warning goes very deep. Not only has Jesus just warned His disciples about the wolves in sheep's clothing that may be among them, but here He insists that even those who prophesy in His name, and who cast out demons in His name -- even who perform wonders or mighty works of great power -- all these may also be false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing. It's a continuation of the warning to all that the way is narrow to enter into this kingdom: it must be through the will of the Father. We must take His teachings to heart. Therefore, it seems in at least one sense of this warning, we mustn't be dazzled by any act of power or show, but look to the fruits of what we see. Furthermore, there is no substitute for a true relationship to Christ and to the Father, and that is through the doing of the will of the Father. Finally, as we pointed out in yesterday's reading, Jesus here is testifying to His own divinity: He calls Himself Lord, He speaks of the "will of My Father" which He fully knows and shares, and He reveals Himself as Judge and therefore God -- for, as my study bible says, "only God can execute judgment." Those who do not do the "will of My Father in heaven" are the lawless, those who practice, in effect, lawlessness in Jesus' gospel that He preaches in the Sermon on the Mount. So, the personal relationship -- asking, seeking and knocking, becomes even more powerful a tool and guide for what we need, for the law that is written on our hearts.

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." Jesus has preached the whole of the Sermon on the Mount, and all the readings mentioned above include "these sayings of Mine" that we have recorded. Taken in its entirety, we presume, is what Jesus is referring to as "these sayings of Mine." We can take the vicissitudes of life - the rain, the floods and the winds - as those things which will come our way to throw us off the path to the kingdom of heaven, to God. That is, all the things that will come our way and test our faith, so to speak. So to build our spiritual house upon a rock, this solid foundation, is to rest in His teachings in the Sermon on the Mount (and taken together as a whole), to live them and to do them, to take them to heart. We remember that He is speaking to His disciples, and as His disciples today, this is what we, too, must learn and practice and put to good use in our lives. Nothing can be left out. The exercise of powerful works can't excuse us from "doing the will of My Father in heaven." Otherwise, the warning here about the great fall of the house built on sand resounds in the light of the words on Judgment. We need the right foundation to deal with the challenges we will find in life. In that respect, this teaching is similar to that of the parable of the Sower, Jesus' first great parable, which will come in chapter 13.

And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Once again, Matthew here emphasizes the divinity and especially the authority of Jesus. His authority comes of Himself: He hasn't studied with a famous rabbi, there is no one else He can point to, no school nor group that gives Him the authority He possesses within Himself. This authority in His teaching, in Himself, aside from His words about Judgment, is the first public awareness or clue to His identity.

So, taken as a whole, how would you view this Sermon? What does it mean for Jesus to speak as One having authority, and yet this not be viewed as validated by a worldly credential of one sort or another? And the ideas that He gives here -- the will of His Father in heaven, the teachings about Judgment and powerful works, the expansion on the Law -- how would this have sounded in the ears of those listening, and in the ears of those listening today? He warns us about wolves in sheep's clothing, and teaches us that even those who may do great works in His name of all sorts are in danger if they don't follow the will of "My Father in heaven." Over and over again, we turn to the great message of relationship and of love. We are blessed when we are persecuted for righteousness' sake, and for His sake. We are to continually be asking, and seeking, and knocking. To enter into this relationship and into this kingdom are for those who truly hunger and thirst for it, and who are "poor in spirit." How do we depend on God, and the will of "My Father in heaven" -- the Father who is in the secret place, who sees and hears us in secret, and rewards us openly? Let us consider the entirety of the Sermon, all His words and teaching, the authority we hear in it, the astonishing quality of His teaching. How do we hear? How do we see? What are we willing to cast out in order to be filled with His light, so that we may be as He asks -- the salt of the earth, and the light of the world? How is it that we build our house upon the rock?

Build your house upon the rock

"Many will say to me in the day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!'

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

- Matthew 7:22-27

Today we return to the readings that continue from those of last week, from Saturday - see The narrow gate. This week we been through readings for Ascension Day, which was yesterday (see The Great Commission and the readings of Monday through Wednesday, Why do you speak to them in parables?, Therefore hear the parable of the sower, and Whose Son is He?). In today's reading, Jesus is continuing his conclusion from the Sermon on the Mount (see readings and commentary from Monday, April 26th through Saturday, May 8th, 2010 -- beginning with The Beatitudes and ending with The Narrow Gate).

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in the day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?' " My study bible has a note that applies to the first verse of today's reading, as well as the verse before, which I've included here. It reads, "Here is a threefold testimony to the deity of Christ: (1) He calls himself Lord -- Yahweh of the Old Testament; (2) He speaks of the will of my Father, which he fully knows and shares; (3) verse 22 reveals Christ as judge and therefore God, for only God can execute judgment. In that day (v. 22) refers to the final judgment." So, at this conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is finally teaching us about judgment - and the importance of what he has taught in the sermon. How deeply are we capable of building up our understanding of his teachings, and incorporating them into our lives? We must consider what we can do, and how we can grow toward the image he gives us throughout this sermon of perfection ("Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" - see An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth). Clearly, here, even the great gifts of prophesy, casting out demons, and performing "wonders" do not add up to anything without the adherence to these teachings on love in action.

"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock." What does it mean to be a wise man? To build our house on a rock? On the rock, as Jesus' words say? The rain descending, the floods coming, the winds that blow and beat on the house - all of these are the tribulations of life, the difficulties and challenges that we face, which are constant, and which cause us to question who we are and the wisdom of our choices. The challenges of life also ask us to go beyond what we're prepared for, what we already know and understand - and therefore deeply into the territory of faith. To build our home upon the rock is suggestive of something else we understand from the gospel: the Church. Later on in the gospel of Matthew we will read of Peter's confession of faith (and hence, the meaning of his name, given by Christ, which means "rock" in Greek) - see Matthew 13-20. As in the previous verses, when Jesus declares himself Lord, and reveals his divinity, the confession of Peter that Jesus is Christ is the rock upon which we build our faith. As Christ is "the Word," the gospel is called "the living word" - and the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount are "these sayings of mine" that Jesus refers to here as the rock upon which we may build our home as "wise men." To do so, therefore, is to build our secure homes, within our hearts, upon a foundation that is real, that will not pass away, something of true substance - worthy of our faith, our trust, our hearts, our treasure.

"But everyone who hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." I think it's interesting that Jesus notes here that those who hear and pay no attention - who ignore what they have heard - are the foolish. They are choosing, instead, to build their homes on something insubstantial, that shifts with every wind, washes away in the flood, does not hold in the rain. What Jesus offers us is something of substance, of the true nature of spiritual reality. Ideas come and go as does fashion for how we should live our lives, what new thing or teaching we should follow. But what he teaches is the foundation of a rock, the rock, something stable and timeless - based on love and justice and mercy, the very reality and substance of God.

I also think that what Jesus teaches here illustrates the power of the word on another level that is something reflected frequently in the gospels: to be ignorant of it is one thing, but to hear and to choose to ignore it is another, that carries strong consequences: "And great was its fall." Just as the words here follow Jesus' teaching about judgment, so we must understand it in that context - that a spiritual truth revealed to us confers a responsibility. The presence and action of Spirit confers responsibility on its witnesses. Our choices in terms of how we respond carry great weight and consequence. Jesus will repeat this again with more emphasis when he teaches his disciples about why he speaks in parables, when he quotes the words of Isaiah: "And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them." (See Why do you speak to them in parables? ) Our choices - when presented with spiritual truth - really do count. But, we remember, we always have the choice to start where we are, and grow in our understanding, no matter what has happened in our lives up this point. Our religion is one of a lifelong transformation - not a static existence nor a single choice, but a continuum of choices at every moment, and one of redemption and mercy and love. We can take this challenge to build our home upon the rock at any time. That is the promise that is made here.

So, we review the teachings in the Sermon: we are to practice love in action. We find our Father in the secret place. And we look for the wisdom in the teachings we follow in life, in the things we take seriously and to which we pay attention. There is a certainty in spiritual reality - in the timelessness of the teachings of love and mercy, and living in righteousness and justice - and the teachings that tell us about the heart and our inner lives, and not to live merely for outward purpose and image, as do "hypocrites" or "actors." That is our rock. We start with the secret place, and with the teachings of love, with the Beatitudes that tell us of a heavenly reality and the substance of treasures that neither moth nor rust can destroy, and thieves cannot break in and steal. How will we go forward upon that rock - the one that shelters us well in the storm?