Before I get into this week’s message, I just want to again thank everyone who sent me happy birthday wishes. Receiving so many wishes from around the world is something that is truly special to me. When I was a young boy I never could imagine a world outside of my home town, and now, just WOW! God is so good allowing me another year of life and to continue these writings.
This week is Jesus’ fourth parable, Wise and Foolish Builders, which is found in Luke 6:47-49. This parable is the ending of the Sermon on the Mount, which is also told in Matthew. As discussed last week, Jesus to giving these teachings to a very large crowd of Jewish believers. He ends His message with the following:
I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teachings, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the flood waters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obeys is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against the house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins. Luke 6:47-49
In verse 46 Jesus posed a question, and this is the answer to that question, which is “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” What Jesus is saying right here is that He is not looking for just lip service. Just because you say something, that does not make it a true statement. There are so many people who will call themselves a Christian and a follower of Jesus in words, but they will not live that out with all of His teachings. People tend to think that they can pick and choose which commands to follow and which ones to ignore. Something that I call a “Cafeteria Christian”.
This is why some people will call Christians a hypocrite, a person who says with their month that Jesus is Lord and Master of life, then never listens to Jesus, never obeys Jesus. Jesus is now giving the image of building a house. A contractor agrees to build a house. He digs a deep hole, clear down to the bedrock. He fills the hole with a strong foundation laid on top of the bedrock. He then builds the house on that foundation. What does he have to fear? Even the worse flood could not harm the house built on a deep foundation on bedrock.
The opposite of this would be a contractor wants to get by doing as little and as cheap as possible. He does not even bother to dig a hole or lay a foundation. He just starts building a house on the surface of the ground. The flood comes. Instantly the house falls. Why? It has no connection to the bedrock, no foundation. Jesus is giving us a choice, which is for us to choose, hypocrisy or faithful obedience; built on the bedrock of Jesus or on sinking sand; eternal life or destruction?
Jesus says we are to do what he says. He doesn’t say, “listen to what I say” or “agree with what I say.” He says “do what I say.” What Jesus says is, you have to recognize your sin, see that you are prisoners, blind and oppressed, that you are the poor, that you are the hungry, that you are starving spiritually, that you are the sad over yourselves and others who are alienated from God. Jesus says, “I’m telling you, you’ve got to look at yourself and see yourself as a sinner, then you’ve got to look at me and see me as your Lord and cry out to God for mercy.”
Rock is an Old Testament term for God, isn’t it? And foundation is a New Testament term for Christ. What you have here is the message of Christ which is about God as the rock, about Christ as the foundation, and the gospel. Whoever builds his life on the gospel, on the great cornerstone of the gospel from Matthew 16, “Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.” That’s the rock bed, cornerstone foundation. When you go down and you build your life on God in Christ and the gospel, storms of judgment can never move your house. That’s somebody who just doesn’t admire Jesus, but who embraces Him as Lord and Savior.
Verse 49, the last verse, would have really hit the Jewish listeners. When Jesus said “When anyone hears and doesn’t obey” is from Ezekiel, which would have been familiar to these listeners. Jesus is referring to Ezekiel 33:31-33.
“So my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you. They listen to your words, but have no intension of doing what you say. Their mouths are full of lustful words, and their hearts seek only for money. You are very entertaining to them, someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice or plays fine music on an instrument. They hear what you say, but they don’t act on it! But when all these terrible things happen to them – as they certainly will – then they will know a prophet has been among them.”
Our Savior’s call for faith means we have to decide if we will follow him. To follow Jesus means to recognize His authority as Lord of all religion and all religious traditions. To follow Him means to realize the end of the road, death at the hands of religious leaders who are not willing to let him be Lord of religious traditions. To follow Jesus means to follow his teachings, truths that stands in stark contrast to normal religious teachings or how the secular world see things.
Let this be your prayer this week: Jesus, my teacher, call me to follow you in faith. Point out the hypocrisy in my life. Show me my blind spots. Help me see the true fruit my life is producing. I want you to be Lord of my life and Lord of all the traditions that feed and guide my life. Put love in my heart and forgiveness in my soul. Let me become like you. You are the only role model I want to follow. Speak, Lord, and I will follow in obedience. Amen.