Matthew 7:24-27: The Two Houses

Script

Jon: The Sermon on the Mount contains Jesus' most well-known teachings about God's heavenly Kingdom coming to Earth.

Tim: It begins with an announcement that God's Kingdom is coming to the people you would least expect. The entire middle section invites us to reimagine how we relate to God and other people.

And in the final part, Jesus gives us a choice about how to respond. He gives us three images, and we're going to look at the last one, a warning about what type of house you're going to build.

Jon: "So then everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, they will be like a wise man who builds his house on the rock."¹

So what's this rock?

Tim: Well, earlier in the sermon, Jesus told his followers that they are a city on a mountain. That's an image that comes from the prophet Isaiah who talked about the ideal Jerusalem on Mount Zion, a place where Heaven was meant to touch down on Earth in the temple, where God’s people would live by his wisdom and treat each other with love and justice.

Jon: "And the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the wind blew, and they fell upon that house, but it did not fall because its foundation was on the rock."²

So a storm is coming?

Tim: Yeah. Jesus is alluding to the theme of the chaos waters in the Hebrew Bible. So God tamed them in creation.

But then when humans filled the land with bloody violence, God allowed the cosmos to collapse in the great flood. Then, throughout Israel's history, the prophets would use images of flood storms to describe foreign armies coming to defeat Jerusalem, the city on the hill.

Jon: So the storm flood is about God handing people over to the destructive evil they've unleashed into the world?

Tim: Right. That is where the way of folly leads. Or as Jesus says,

Jon: "And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them, they will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds blew, and they fell upon that house. And it fell, and its falling was huge."³

So don't build on the sand. Build on the rock.

Tim: Right. And the whole sermon is Jesus teaching us how to build our lives and our communities on that rock.

Jon: But even so, storms will come?

Tim: Yeah. Sometimes our own decisions might lead to disaster, or other people's decisions can spill over and affect me. And then on top of all that, the ultimate flood of death is coming for us all.⁴

Jon: But there's a house that will stand.

Tim: Yes. The whole Sermon on the Mount is the invitation to trust the wisdom of Jesus. And following him will lead to a life of generosity and love in the Kingdom of God.

And that's the kind of house that can endure through the storms and out the other side. No matter what storms might come, we can endure into God's everlasting Kingdom.⁵