The house on the rock.

Matthew 7.24-27, Luke 6.47-49.

Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Mount with his well-known analogy of building a house on bedrock, as opposed to building it on sand. Living by his teachings is building on bedrock. Ignoring his teachings is building on sand.

I live in California, where we see examples of this analogy played out on a yearly basis: Bad weather comes, and houses which were not built on anything solid either slide down hills, slide off cliffs, or slide into the ocean. Modern-day construction doesn’t bother to dig for bedrock; we build our own “bedrock,” namely steel-reinforced concrete foundations. Which is fine on a level plain which isn’t in danger of flooding, but people build houses everywhere, and don’t always plan for the worst.

Before Jesus became a rabbi he was a builder. Mk 6.3 Or “carpenter,” if you wanna go with the traditional interpretation of τέκτων/tékton—which doesn’t account for the fact a tékton is a person who builds stuff. Could be out of wood, but téktoni could also work in stone or metal, and could build both small things and large—including houses. So when Jesus discusses house-building, he knew what he was talking about. Heck, as Creator, Jn 1.3 when he discusses creating anything, he knows what he’s talking about.

Matthew 7.24-27 KWL

24“So whoever hears these teachings of mine

and does them

will become like a wise man

who builds himself a house on bedrock.

25The rain comes down,

the current comes in,

the winds blow,

and slam into that house—

and it doesn’t fall down,

for it was grounded on bedrock.

26And whoever hears these teachings of mine

and doesn’t do them

will become like a stupid man

who builds himself a house on sand.

27The rain comes down,

the current comes in,

the winds blow,

and slam into that house—

and it falls,

and it’s a huge disaster.”

Luke 6.47-49 KWL

47“Everyone coming to me,

hearing my teachings, doing them—

I’ll show you² what it’s like.

48It’s like a person building a house,

who digs, digs deep,

and makes a foundation on bedrock.

The flood-tide coming, the river bursts upon that house,

and isn’t strong enough to shake it,

because it’s well-built.

49Hearers who don’t do as I teach:

It’s like a person building a house

directly on the ground, without a foundation.

The river bursts on it,

and next it collapses.

The destruction of that house becomes great.”

It’s not enough to simply know Jesus’s teachings.

Jesus’s story resembles a passage in the Talmud—a passage written between the years 700 and 900, so more than likely it’s plagiarizing Jesus just a little.

Elisha ben Abuyah would say: A person who has done good deeds and has learned a lot of Torah, what is he like? Like a person who builds by placing stones down first and then setting bricks on top. Even if a flood comes, the building will stand firm and not be washed away from its place. And a person who has not done good deeds but has learned Torah, what is he like? Like a person who builds by placing the bricks down first, and then placing stones on top. Even if a little water comes, it will topple the building right away. Avot DeRabbi Natan 24.1-2

Both Jesus bar Joseph and Elisha ben Abuyah are talking about constructing a building which won’t fall over when the floods come. Jesus speaks of making sure the foundation of one’s house is on bedrock; Elisha speaks of using stones as a foundation, which would kinda do the same thing. Jesus compares it to listening to and following his teachings; Elisha compares it to doing good deeds and knowing תּוֹרָה/toráh, the Law of Moses. In contrast, Jesus compares a poorly-founded house to someone who hears him but doesn’t follow; and Elisha compares it to someone who learned the Law but has no good deeds—or, one can argue, also doesn’t follow.

Of course the big difference is in who or what you’re following. Elisha wants people to follow the LORD’s commands. Jesus wants us to follow the LORD incarnate, i.e. him. Kind of a big difference!

Both Jesus and Elisha acknowledge that people can actually know the right things—they can know Jesus’s teachings, or know the Law—but what matters is whether any good behavior goes along with this knowledge. Plenty of Christians know the Sermon on the Mount. Now do these Christians actually do it? Meh. Likewise plenty of Jews know the Law, but they do the same as their Pharisee ancestors and look for any loopholes which’ll get them out of the obligation of actually living under the Law. Christian and Jewish hypocrites—two peas in a pod.

And both rabbis are correct. Knowing what we oughta do, but not doing it… well, Jesus’s brother James simply calls this sin. Jm 4.17 But yeah, it’s like constructing a building which isn’t gonna survive a single bout of bad weather.

James again: He advised his readers to “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” Jm 1.22 KJV Which is pretty much what most Christians do. The Sermon on the Mount is very familiar material. Its sayings and teachings are embedded in popular culture; we say “salt of the earth” and “turn the other cheek” and “go the extra mile” and “consider the lilies of the field,” and often never even think about the fact all these sayings originate with Jesus. We know what he teaches. Pagans know what he teaches.

Now, do we do what he teaches? Not nearly enough. That’s why the reputation Christians have among pagans is that of hypocrites: Too many of us, too often, don’t do as Christ Jesus teaches. And pagans know just enough about what Jesus teaches, to be fully aware of this: “You call yourselves Christians but you don’t follow Christ at all. You hypocrites.” They’re not wrong.

Do them.

In my Sermon on the Mount article, I write about all the ways Christians have tried to get out of doing as Jesus teaches. How we’ve argued the Sermon only applied to the people of his day, or only apply to the future citizens of God’s kingdom. How it’s an ideal to strive for, but let’s not be silly and try to literally do it; if you actually turn the other cheek in our fallen world, don’t expect bullies and authoritarians and criminals to respect your nonviolent resistance, and drop to their knees and repent in conviction and tears. Expect them to strike that cheek all the same. Then kill you.

All these excuses to not follow Jesus, stem from the same old selfish depravity that’s been corrupting humanity since the very first humans chose sin. Stems from people who covet the trappings of Christianity, but don’t really wanna repent and follow Jesus; they want heaven, but have no plans to prepare themselves to live there. (They don’t think they even have to prepare themselves; that when Jesus resurrects us, they’ll instantly be reprogrammed as sinless beings. You do realize if God wanted robots he’d’ve made robots.) For them, Christianity is all about avoiding hell, as easily as possible. So what’s the bare minimum we have to do to be saved? They’ll do that. And little more. They’ll be the worst Christians; the lowest in the kingdom. Mt 5.19 But hey, they’ll be in the kingdom.

James says these folks deceive themselves. Jesus says they’re like morons—the word I translated “stupid” and other bibles render “foolish” is μωρῷ/moró, which evolved into our word “moron.” They build on sand, or build on the bare ground—or in Elisha ben Abuyah’s story, they ridiculously put the bricks on the ground and the foundation-stones on top. Jesus is describing morons, but Elisha is describing people who are just nuts; that’s how foolish he considers it to know better, but not do better.

In Jesus’s analogy, these morons are skipping the hard work of digging deep into the ground, finding the bedrock, and using that as a foundation. Because it’s way easier not to. Exactly like the Christians who skip the hard work of actually following Jesus, and figure being fans of his, who said the sinner’s prayer and call him Lord, will do. In ancient Israel—long before the modern state of Israel planted a whole bunch of trees and changed their climate—rainfall in their dry region would easily turn into flash floods, and any wadi, or dry creek, could quickly become a river. You had to prepare for this kind of thing. Not doing so meant you were headed for a crash. Sometimes multiple crashes.

That’s where we find those Christians who know what Jesus teaches, but have all sorts of excuses to not obey him. They’re headed for a crash too. They’re running the risk of Jesus ultimately telling them he doesn’t know them. Yikes.