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." 

 

- Matthew 7:22–27 

 

Recent readings of the past few days prepared us for the Feast of the Ascension, which in the Western Churches (and the Armenian Apostolic) was celebrated yesterday.  Please see yesterday's reading for the reading and commentary for the Feast of the Ascension:  I am with you always, even to the end of the age.   Prior to the preparation for the Feast of the Ascension, the lectionary had taken us through the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5 - 7 of St. Matthew's Gospel).  In our previous reading in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached:  "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.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.  Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.  You will know them by their fruits.  Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?  Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Therefore by their fruits you will know them.  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!'  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."  Here Jesus is speaking of Himself as Lord, a reference to the divine name "Yahweh" (YHWH) of the Old Testament, and therefore as judge.  His sayings are those which give to us "the will of My Father in heaven" (see the previous reading from the Sermon on the Mount, above), and therefore whoever hears and does not do is among those who practice lawlessness.  My study Bible comments that hearing the gospel alone is not enough, for salvation is based not on hearing alone, nor on faith alone -- but rather faithful living.  That is, also on doing the things spoken by Christ, His "sayings" which are given so fully in the Sermon on the Mount, concluded here (see James 2:24). 

 

Jesus teaches, "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."  Since this statement (as well as the inverse statement that to fail to found one's house on the rock is to invite disaster) is couched in clear terms of judgment, we can presume that Christ is speaking in an eschatological sense.  That is, He refers to the final state of a person.  The addition to the example of one who fails to build the house on the rock, "And great was its fall," certifies this understanding.  It is equivalent to Jesus' warning (found twice in the Gospel of St Matthew), "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him" (Matthew 13:12; 25:29).  But at the same time, Jesus gives us the metaphor of this foundation, the rock, which we find in so many places.  Simon will be given the name of Rock, or Stone (Petros in Greek; rendered to Peter in English), and it is a reference to faith after His confession that Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:13-20, esp. verse 16).  In St. Luke's Gospel, when the religious leaders try to silence those who shout for joy at Jesus' approach to Jerusalem as Messiah, Jesus replies to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out" (see Luke 19:37-40).  St. Peter himself writes that we the faithful are the "living stones" who build up the Church (1 Peter 2:4-6) upon the chief cornerstone, who is Christ Himself (Matthew 21:42).  Therefore we can understand through this metaphor of "the rock" that Christ's focus on judgment and our ultimate state leaves nothing out of how we live our lives in the present day and present moment.  The final state is simply a culmination of a journey that begins long before. To build on the rock is to live one's life faithful to His sayings, taking every day for the precious time it is, this life that we are given.  We build on the rock not simply so we don't lose or fall greatly in the end, but so that our very lives are on a secure foundation that can withstand the floods and winds that seem to shake us from our sense of security, our understanding of who we are and what we need to do in life.  The greatest security we have, in fact, is this rock of faith that teaches us what to do in difficult times of stress and tension and testing, and do so much to help us get through them intact.  Christ's sayings, and our growth in discipleship, affirm, support, and grow our own sense of ourselves.  This kind of confidence can see us through many storms and turmoil in life, even times that seem greatly threatening to our well-being. This is because it is a confidence that comes from faith in God and with God's help, and is not merely of ourselves alone.  Moreover within our communities of "living stones" we receive the kind of support for life that can be so very needed.  This house we build is a lifetime plan of work, embellishment, care -- but Christ clearly tells us that its foundation is all-important, for He is the chief cornerstone.

 

 

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." 

 

- Matthew 7:22-27 

 

Yesterday we read about Christ's Ascension, as in the West it was the celebration the Feast of our Lord's Ascension (next Thursday for the Eastern Churches), which takes place forty days after Christ's Resurrection (Easter or Pascha).  At that time the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.  When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.  And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."  Amen.

 

  "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!'"  In today's reading, we pick up where we left off in Saturday's reading (the interim readings were preparation and celebration of the Feast of our Lord's Ascension).   We recall that we had been reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7), and today we are given Christ's closing words to that Sermon.  Here, my study Bible comments that Jesus testifies to His own deity:  He calls Himself Lord, which refers to the divine name "Yahweh" of the Old Testament.   His words indicate His authority as judge, and only God can execute true judgment.  In that day refers to the final judgment.  In the verse just previous to these, He taught, "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."  To speak of the will of My Father also affirms His deity, as He fully knows and shares the Father's will.  

"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." My study Bible comments that hearing the gospel alone is not enough, for salvation is based not on hearing alone, nor on faith alone, but also on doing the things spoken of by Christ in "these sayings of Mine" (see James 2:24).  

Jesus contrasts "whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them" to "everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them."  The first has the security of a wise person who builds his house on a rock, a solid foundation that does not get shaken by storms, floods, winds, and other natural disasters.  The second is like one who is foolish, and builds a home on sands that shift with rain and flood and wind.  I once found myself in the midst of a very serious earthquake, and I can testify to what happens to homes built on landfill that mostly turned to sand in the shifting, shaking terrain along a coastline.  Jesus' images, as usual, are quite apt, even for modern construction techniques in a known earthquake zone.  Ultimately, what Jesus is saying is borne out throughout the course of our lives.  We might think that one wrong decision or another from time to time won't have much effect.  But decision-making, our patterns of thinking, are built over time.  We tend not necessarily to simply make a bad decision every once in a while, but rather build our lives on patterns.  We go down a road of a way of thinking and choosing, and we don't just stand still, or go backwards and forwards.  We tend to build upon whatever it is we build upon.  We rely on assumptions or decisions of the past to set the pattern, until something prompts us to reconsider, and to turn that thinking around.  This is why Jesus' teachings and sayings are so important, and so profound.  If we are vigilant, and if we recall His words and teachings, we can build our lives on something solid, something -- if one will pardon an oft-used expression -- that civilization, or what we understand of it, is based on.  If we have faith in having compassion for one another, if we have faith and are willing to live that faith in terms of our capacity for building something honestly in our lives, trying to establish righteous relations, then we will find ourselves capable of building up a pattern that leads to a life that gives us what is desirable:  staying away from bad habits, or from taking shortcuts in terms of how we treat others, from not caring about lies or insults in our ways of dealing with others.  Our own integrity becomes essential to us, and a resonance within which we can serve God, a highest good.  We will find that this forms a basis for good and safe choices in terms of what we build with our lives, how we conduct ourselves.  Most of all, I would say that Jesus teachings on prayer, almsgiving, and fasting -- about how God who sees in secret and is in the secret place will reward us openly (see this reading) -- are grounds for eventual outcomes which we can look upon with respect in our lives.  Living His way produces results that we can look back on and describe as things we feel good about, midst whatever tribulation and difficulties we might have through no fault of our own, or even midst our own mistakes we'll inevitably make.  But in Jesus' viewpoint, even those mistakes and even the tribulations become occasions for God's grace, for a learning curve, for prayer and mercy (see, for example, John 9:3; or the healing of one who was possessed by a Legion of demons  and is then sent out as a bearer of good news (Luke 8:38-39).  To hear these sayings and do them is truly to build a good life, despite the problems in our world and the difficulties that may befall us, for this is the way of Christ, and with God we know that all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).  Christ gives us His wisdom; it is the foolish who do not seek to follow it.