Foundations – Luke 6.46-49
Of all the parables of Jesus this is the one that has probably been reduced the most to a children’s story – via the children’s chorus – the “wise/foolish man built his house upon…” you know the chorus and you have probably sung it many times. This is a short parable but as they say dynamite comes in small packages, and in context this parable has powerful theological meaning and implication for the Christian. In Matthew this parable comes at the end of the Sermon on the Mount and here in Luke it comes at the end of the Sermon on the Plain – showing that for both Matthew and Luke the parable was selected for special prominence.
In Luke the issue is foundation verses no foundation. Whereas in Matthew it is the wise man or foolish man and we tend to remember Matthew’s account more than Luke’s. The parable uses a simple rhetorical structure with three basic themes:
Hear/do
Building a house
The storm/flood and its results
These three themes are followed first with a man who builds a house with a foundation and then with a man who builds a house without a foundation. This means that the storm and its effect on each of the houses is the climax of the parable. Unfortunately for many today the impact of this story is lost because we are rarely involved in the labour of building our own houses and the digging of foundations involves machinery and not physical labour. In this parable Jesus was evoking a powerful metaphor concerning the building of the spiritual house (temple of the Holy Spirit) in the life of a believer.
Let me read some verses to you from Isaiah 28.14-18. Here is the OT context of this parable of Christ Jesus. Isaiah had no confidence in the house the people of Israel had built (the agreement they had made with Egypt) and predicted a great storm was on its way (Assyria). That storm would destroy their building but in the future God would lay a new cornerstone in Zion that would be a sure foundation for a new building. The foundation would not be an ordinary rock but a gemstone. Over the intervening 600 years this text had become a physical stone in the second Temple in Jerusalem. On the Day of Atonement the high priest would enter the holy of Holies carrying a large pan of burning charcoal covered with incense. In the centre of the holy of holies there was as tone slightly elevated from the rest of the floor. On that stone he would “place the fire-pan.” The stone was called “the foundation.” No explanation is given as to why it was called “the foundation.” For the Jews of Christ’s day the Holy of Holies was thee most sacred spot on all the earth, and that stone was in “Zion” at the centre of the Temple complex. Therefore for the average Jew of the day of Christ – the Temple was built on that foundation stone – into such a world, into such an understanding, Christ Jesus stands up and offers a new understanding that the words of Isaiah (concerning this precious foundation stone) were fulfilled in him, in obedience to his words. “To hear and do my words,” said Jesus, was to build on “the foundation” that Isaiah promised. Jesus was saying “I am the foundation stone, build on me and my words and you will not be shaken.” Can you see how this parable would have an immense impact on those listening that day to Jesus?
At the time of Christ, and to some extent it is still the same today, houses in Palestine were only built during the summer months before the rains came. It is easy to imagine that someone would think that the clay, baked hard by the summer sun, would be a sufficient foundation to build the house. However, winter comes and the rains get heavier and heavier and what was once rock hard clay now begins to soften and move as a consequence of the torrential rain. The roof sags and the walls begin to bulge and eventually the house collapses. In October 1991 the Jerusalem Post reported how an apartment block collapsed in one of the suburbs of Jerusalem because the building had no solid foundations. We see it here in our own country at times – not so long ago in Enniskillen luxury apartments built on the edge of the Erne started to sag and massive cracks appeared in the walls and all because the foundations were not sufficient to support the structure. In fact when we moved into the rectory several of the houses around us had to have their porches supported and piled to support them. So, even today, such events happen.
Those listening to Jesus would have known that in Palestine solid bedrock lies not very far below the surface. A little hard labour and solid rock on which to build would have been located and exposed. Building must be done on the rock – just dig down to the rock and then begin to build on that solid foundation. From a solid foundation you can put up the walls and on to them erect the roof. When the rain comes, as they will in the winter season, the house will remain rooted on its foundations. Though the surface clay, baked hard now by the summer sun, starts to soften and begins to move the solid rock will remain steadfast in the midst of the rain. In the heat of the summer sun both houses look stable and secure. There is no way of telling who has built on secure foundations in the summer but when winter comes! When the rain begins to fall and the winds pick up eventually the foundations are revealed because the surface clay is washed away and all be revealed. The two houses may look the same but it is to the foundations that you look when the winter storms come battering those houses.
Application
It is obvious from the text that Jesus is teaching that he and his words are the foundation stone, the precious stone laid by God in Zion that we are to build our lives upon. The hard graft of digging down through the hard clay to solid rock to lay the foundations for the house are akin to the hard graft of listening to the Word of God and obeying the Word of God (James 1.22.-25).
The winter storms hit both houses. Both houses must endure the rains, the wind and the storms of winter. Faith in Christ is no magic protection from the storms of life. Winter comes to both houses as it comes to the lives of Christians and non-Christians alike. The promise here is not that the storms won’t assail your house but that when they do come, as they surely will, that your house built on the sure foundation of Jesus Christ will stand strong and will not be shaken. The life built on Christ, on hearing and obeying his Word, will not fall down when the storms of life hit with all their ferocity.
The foundations of hearing and obeying the Word of God – building upon Christ and his Word – leads to a secure house – as we use to sing in the hymn ‘All other ground is sinking sand.’ Friends you want to know why houses of faith fall down today because they are not built on the foundation of Christ and the Word of God. Christians are too lazy to do the hard labour of digging through the clay to find the solid rock of God’s Word. The daily discipline of reading the Word of God and then obeying the Word of God is just too much hard work in the heat of the summer sun for some believers. ‘Ah, but life is good, God is really blessing me. Life is great as a Christian at the moment.” How often I have seen such Christians. No depth to them. They will sing songs endlessly. They will go to every big event. They will buy into every so called latest move of the ‘Spirit.’ Then winter comes. Slowly at first the rain comes. A few drops at a time and then suddenly a downpour and the surface clay begins to soften in their lives and it begins to get washed away. There are no big events to go to. The singing isn’t as lively as it once was. The ‘experience’ just doesn’t do it for me any longer and suddenly there is no foundation to their faith and it comes crashing down and it is no blaze of glory as it falls. Why? Why does such a thing happen repeatedly in the life of the Christian church? I have lost count of the number of people it has happened to here at HT. we don’t have to go searching very far in our memories to think of people, people we loved deeply (and still do) who house of faith seemed secure, strong and stable but when the winter rains came it came crashing down around them.
Yet, friends, listen to me this morning – I need to take the log out of my own eye before I start trying to remove the speck out of other people’s eyes. I need to examine the foundations of my life – are they still built on Christ and his Word? Am I obeying his Word today? You see foundations can get cracks and they can be neglected to the detriment of the house. The same is true of my life in Christ. There is nothing else to build on that will stand the storms of life – only Jesus Christ and I need to make sure I do not try and build extensions on anything else but Jesus.
So this morning – have you built your life on the Lord Jesus Christ?
Are you hearing and obeying his Word each day? Not just now and then but each day. Are you digging through the clay to the solid rock of the foundation which is Christ and then building upon his Word?
When the winter rain/storms come on what is your house standing? Will your house stand?
“See I lay a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation…”Isaiah promised and Jesus boldly proclaimed that he was that precious cornerstone foundation that would keep secure the houses built upon Him when the storms of life came. Amen.
