Reflective Bible Study

At the close of Jesus’ famous “Sermon on the Mount”, He draws our attention to an illustration contrasting what people who obey His words are like when compared to those who ignores Jesus’ teaching. This illustration is most famous because it has been turned into a children’s song. However, while the song is fun to sing with kids, the illustration itself is very powerful.

Matthew’s version of Jesus’ illustration is more popular. He begins by quoting Jesus as saying, “Therefore, everyone who hears what I say and obeys it will be like a wise person who built a house on rock. Rain poured, and floods came. Winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not collapse, because its foundation was on rock.” (v. 24-25)

Jesus contrasts this wise builder with an example of a foolish one. He continues by saying, “Everyone who hears what I say but doesn’t obey it will be like a foolish person who built a house on sand. Rain poured, and floods came. Winds blew and struck that house. It collapsed, and the result was a total disaster.” (v. 26-27)

While it is easy for us to look at the illustration as a construction example, Jesus really is sharing it as a metaphor for laying the foundation of our lives: obedience to Jesus makes a strong foundation while ignoring Jesus makes a weak foundation.

In my mind’s eye, the builder who built the house on the rock built high above the waterline, perhaps near the edge of a cliff, where they would be plenty of protection from the waves. His house then overlooks the foolish builder who is building on a sandy beach.

But Luke also shares a version of this parable. He describes Jesus opening this parable with a question: “Why do you call me Lord but don’t do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46)

This question frames everything that Jesus is about to share. Then He continues by painting us a picture in our minds of two builders: “I will show you what everyone who comes to me, hears what I say, and obeys it is like. He is like a person who dug down to bedrock to lay the foundation of his home. When a flood came, the floodwaters pushed against that house. But the house couldn’t be washed away because it had a good foundation. The person who hears what I say but doesn’t obey it is like someone who built a house on the ground without any foundation. The floodwaters pushed against it, and that house quickly collapsed and was destroyed.” (Luke 6:47-49)

In Luke’s version, we have two homes that might look identical to a casual observer, but the thought process when building each of them was completely opposite. The wise builder focused on making his home strong in the non-visible areas. The foolish builder only cared about the parts of the home that could be seen.

The big key Jesus wants us to take from this illustration is that obedience to His teaching will result in a life that has a solid foundation. By obeying Jesus, we might not avoid challenges, but we will be able to withstand anything that comes our way. When we build our lives on the truth Jesus shared, our lives will be able to survive whatever storms life sends our way.

While reading through this passage, a number of things stood out to me. For this journal entry, we will focus on the role of the servant, and discuss who he might represent in this parable.

In my analysis, I can see three possible representatives for the role of the servant.

1. The first possible representative for the servant’s role is Jesus. He spent a good portion of His ministry showing people what God is like, and inviting them to believe in Him. Jesus invited people to follow Him, and by following Jesus, we are accepting the invitation to the banquet.
2. The second possible representative for the servant’s role is the Holy Spirit. Jesus is no longer on the earth, but He promised to send the Holy Spirit to as a Comforter and Guide. The Holy Spirit leads individuals into a growing relationship with God – which leads to accepting the invitation to the banquet.
3. The third possible representative for the servant’s role is us (His followers / His Church). Who better to invite other people than people who are already invited? Jesus tells us that “the person who is greatest among you will be your servant.” (Matthew 23:11) By inviting others to know and experience a relationship with Jesus, we are able to step into the servant’s role and invite others to the banquet.

Some might think that we must now choose one of these possible representatives to fill this role, but I disagree. In my mind, and in my experience, all three are the servant.

First Jesus came and served us, modeling true servant behavior, and opening a way for us to be invited to the banquet. Now, both the Holy Spirit prompting on an individual’s heart, as well as the invitation from a friend can inspire someone to accept Jesus into their lives – which is another way of saying that they are accepting the invitation to the banquet. All three of these representatives play a key role in the inviting process.

When reading about events in Jesus’ life on earth, occasionally I am surprised by some of the details that a gospel writer chose to include. It is this way with Matthew’s version of this event.

In our passage, Jesus has just chased all the moneychangers and merchants out of the temple, and He has sat down to heal, teach, and point people to God. But while He is teaching, the religious leaders show up. Matthew tells us what happened, “When the chief priests and the experts in Moses’ Teachings saw the amazing miracles he performed and the children shouting in the temple courtyard, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ they were irritated. They said to him, ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’” (v. 15-16)

In my mind’s eye, the leaders have approached on the sidelines and are watching what is going on. They see Jesus healing people and performing miracles, and they realize that they cannot challenge Jesus on this – especially because the crowd is benefiting from this. But they also notice the children giving praise to Jesus, and in their minds, this was clearly unacceptable. They know they cannot challenge Jesus’ actions, but they can challenge others who were present.

But Jesus has a response for even this challenge: “Have you never read, ‘From the mouths of little children and infants, you have created praise’?” The religious leaders did not like children being heard in church, but Jesus says God creates praise in their mouths.

This event brings out an interesting idea: The Pharisees and religious leaders focus on “cannot”, while Jesus focuses on “can”.

Focusing on what is not allowed and unacceptable is a defensive way of thinking. It leads to rules that protect people from breaking the rules, and it always is looking for why people cannot, or should not, do a certain thing.

But Jesus counters the religious leader’s position by focusing on helping people know what they could and should do. Instead of looking for reasons why something was unacceptable, He looked for reasons why an action was okay. Jesus answers the question, “How can we allow this?”

Jesus always appears to be one step ahead of the religious leaders – and that is because looking at the world from a “can” perspective places one on an offensive, forward thinking train of thought. The religious leaders, with their “cannot” perspective, were solidly seeing life as a defensive exercise, and instead of looking at possibilities, they were looking for reasons why things shouldn’t be done.

Jesus didn’t clear out the temple because money was unacceptable there. He cleared out the temple for a can – which was allowing people to more clearly see and worship God!

If we ever wondered or questioned God’s love for His people, this a portion of our passage for this entry helps us see how God loves us. While this passage is an excerpt from a much larger message to Jesus’ followers about remaining faithful to Him regardless of what comes our way through history, and while the majority of our excerpt is also warning, a phrase is present that shines of God’s love and His protection: “If the Lord does not reduce that time, no one will be saved. But those days will be reduced because of those whom God has chosen.” (v. 20)

This verse shouts of God’s love for us, and that no matter what happens, He is in control.

However, before you begin to question God’s love during this time when followers of His are being killed, one big key to understanding this verse is found in the phrase, “no one will be saved”. This says that there is something bigger at play here than simply one or two individuals. In this phrase, Jesus points forward to the ripple effect that our lives and relationships can have.

This phrase speaks of God ending the persecution before it has ended those who God has chosen, which gives us hope that regardless of what we face and how we might mess up, God will not let His message – His “Good News” – die.

However, slightly under the surface of this verse is another message of hope. For those who are killed, their lives still held a purpose. Some of the greatest testimonies are of those who willingly faced death because of their faith. For those who were killed, they have the promise Jesus gave that people can only kill the body; people cannot kill their whole being. God has the power to reverse bodily death and He has promised to do so for those who have died believing in Jesus.

Jesus promises to reduce the time His people are persecuted because they are His people. The persecution helps create character and resolve, but it was not ever meant to destroy. The persecution that Jesus’ followers face is like a fire that is meant to refine and not consume.