How to Build

Day 38 (& 39)

Building Strong

 

Take a moment in the stillness and imagine yourself sitting on this Galilean hillside having spent a whole day listening, hearing, absorbing Jesus’ every word. Feel these familiar yet new teachings turn over and over like somersaults in your mind, like gentle rain on a dry heart.

Now, as the close of day approaches the sun is beginning to set over the inland Sea of Galilee and the shadows from trees, boulders and bushes stretch long fingers across the grass.

All day you’ve heard Jesus’ gentle but firm voice on the breeze delivering earnest invitations covering everything from morality and ethics, to conflict prevention and prayer, from forgiveness, anxiety and discernment to what it means to belong to God’s own family.

Jesus now takes His final few breaths of mountainside air and begins to turn His words towards the final descent, wrapping up all He has just revealed to His listeners with this simple story (about a builder a rock and a storm)… a story that is also an invitation, an invitation that is also a call, and a call that is also a command (depending on who Jesus is to the person listening to His words).

‘Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.’

Matthew 7:24-27

Listening, in most western contexts simply means that our ears discern the words and sounds manifest around us. But the Hebrew word for “hear or listen,” is ‘shema’ (pronounced “shmah”) which emphasises a physical response to the hearing. It describes both hearing and also the response to what is heard- being obedient and doing what is asked. Almost every time the English word “obey” is used in Scripture it is translated from this word shema.

To hear is to obey. To truly hear is to do. Listening in Hebrew thought is transformative because the line between the hearing and the doing is wafer thin.

When Jesus says “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice” He is assuming this very Jewish perspective of obedience to the hearing of His words. If He is truly Lord in His hearer’s lives, when they hear, their response will be active obedience.

One thing is clear, Jesus expects His teachings on this mountainside to practically and tangibly establish and define the family culture of His Kingdom. His expectation is for His first hearers and today’s hearers (us!) to ‘do’ His words. Not just study them, reflect on them, journal them or think about them, but do them; Live them, act on them and let them act in us.

God incarnate this day was calling His people to rebuild the foundation of their lives on His teaching. And He is calling us, here and now to do the same.

It is perhaps revealing that many of Jesus’ own disciples were not teachers of the Law or Pharisees (the theologians, seminary professors and pastors of their day), but rather practitioners- fishermen, tax collectors, even a freedom fighter! Jesus called people who would understand how to ‘practice’ His Kingdom, rather than intellectualise it.

His own brother James, after Christ’s death, similarly wrote to the early church…

‘Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says.’

James 1:22

Western culture particularly (influenced by ancient Greek philosophies, enlightenment and post enlightenment thinking) has often focused on ideas, creeds and religious thought rather than radically obedient practice.

Yet this story Jesus tells here to close His teachings this day, is more than simply a call to action and obedience, it’s also a warning. A warning that in many ways echoes God’s first warning to Adam and Eve in the garden long ago when He said…

“And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:15-17

God laid out plainly before the first human beings what obedience to His words and a trusting relationship with Him looked like, and He also described the consequences of not following His words. Not as a threat so much as a warning.

Now on this mountainside God incarnate has just made His commands clear… painting a full and robust picture of what life in loving obedience to Him and membership of His Kingdom family looks like. And Now He also warns His listeners about the consequences of not following His words. I love how vividly ’The Message’  translates this passage…

 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

“But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

Matthew 7:24-27 (The Message)

This story Jesus tells us is not a story about rewarding our good behaviour by ensuring we miraculously avoid of all of life’s storms. This passage actually  assumes storms will come. Its not about avoiding hard times, its about surviving them.

God’s intention for humankind has always been for us to thrive, even in the midst of struggle. Both the prophet Jeremiah and the psalmist imagined the person who lives their lives trusting in God and His word as a thriving tree with deep roots able to withstand the worst of circumstances.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8

“but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.”

Psalm 1:2-4

In the end, this foundation built on this rock we discover underneath us, holding us, stabilising us through our storms, may not be just be a simple foundation at all, but a deep life-giving root system wound around this rock which splits with springs of water, refreshing us and grounding us in deeper and deeper places we didn’t know existed.

Throughout this journey through Lent, during our time together on this mountainside we together have heard Jesus’ gentle but firm voice on the breeze delivering earnest invitations covering everything from morality and ethics, to conflict prevention and prayer, from forgiveness, anxiety and discernment to what it means to belong to God’s own family.

Jesus with His final few breaths of mountainside air has now wrapped up all He has revealed to us with this simple story (about a builder a rock and a storm). This simple story that is also an invitation, an invitation that is also a call, and a call that is also a command (depending on who Jesus is to the person listening to His words).

So this question then remains.

Who is Jesus to you?

 

 

Explore Further

 

Journaling The Journey

Reflect. What foundations is your life built on? What are the beliefs and practices that sit under everything else? Are these all Biblical? Good? Healthy?

Jesus’ calls us to ‘do’ His words, to live them and ‘put them into practice’. He calls us to build the foundation of our lives on them.

Look back over the Sermon on the mount. Which of Jesus’ words are you already living?

Which of His words is He calling you to build more fully into your life?

Reflect on a time when you chose not to build your life on God’s word. What impact did it have on yourself and others around you?

Is there anything right now that you have built into your life that you need to repent of and demolish?

 

Today’s hillside photograph was taken by Dan Evenhuis from the hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee in Israel.