Wise & Foolish Builders
Sermon on the Mount # 17
a sermon on Matthew 7.21-29
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama


Since moving to Mobile I have become much more aware of the practical ways environment affects the construction of houses. It is something I had noticed years ago when I spent a couple of summers out in Montana. Growing up, I thought a house was a house as a house and that everyone built them the same way. Not so. In the cold climate of Montana, the windows on the houses are smaller than those in homes down South. The reason is perfectly sensible: less chance for heat to escape, thus a lower heating bill. You care about that when the temperature regularly drops below freezing and stays there for weeks.

Here on the coast, things are different, and so are the houses. I have only seen one house in Mobile with a true basement, and I was told it leaks. Our climate and location are not conducive to basements, which are so popular in the North. And of course, there are the homes right on the water, elevated at least one story. I cannot hear Jesus’ parable about the wise and foolish builders without thinking of the western end of Dauphin Island after Katrina. Those houses had not been built on sand. They were built on pilings sunk deep into the ground. All our modern precautions were not enough against such a powerful storm—not that anyone expected they would be. I remember the aerial photographs that showed the pilings sticking up out of the ground, the houses that once sat on top of them now gone. Even part of the island itself was washed away. One day you have a beautiful beach house. The very next day it is gone.

Katrina was too powerful, but often homes have been saved because they are elevated. The rain comes down. The flood comes up, but not high enough to flood the house elevated 15 feet on pilings. It makes sense to build that way. Think of the bridge that links Pensacola with Gulf Breeze. The newer bridge is higher than the older one. Ivan washed most of the old one away. You can still see small sections of it here and there as you drive by on the newer one. Building bridges and roads higher makes sense on the coast.

It makes sense. We human beings try to be a sensible as possible when building our homes and communities. We don’t want them to be destroyed. We want them to last and be economical to maintain. Over and over you could ask, “Why do we do it this way?” And the answer will always be, “It makes sense.” …

It makes sense … The knock against Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount has always been: It doesn’t make sense. It is not practical. It is too idealistic. Do unto others as you would have them do to you? How does that make sense? Blessed are the meek? Blessed are those who mourn? How is that practical? Forgiving? Not retaliating? Sure, the world would be a happy, peaceful, wonderful place if everyone acted this way. It doesn’t take more than a drive through the parking lot at Wal-mart to convince you they’re not going to. Jesus was a dreamer. He had a beautiful vision for what human life could be. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work out in real life. It doesn’t make practical sense.

That has been the criticism. Some people—and there have always been a few—have found Jesus’ vision so inspiring that they have resolved to live according to his teaching anyway. “Folks will repay your good with evil. Do good anyway.” They too see Jesus’ teaching as impractical, but worthy. Theirs is a heroic ethic, and I am not going to criticize them. But I must point out that Jesus’ evaluation is different. He does not say, “Here is how I am going to live. I know it is not practical. You ought to live this way too.” According to Jesus, his critics are wrong. According to him, nothing is more practical than his teachings in the Sermon on the Mount!

That is the point of his parable. The person who lives according to his teachings—he says, “Anyone who hears these words of mine and does them.” Hearing them is not enough. Calling Jesus “Lord” is not enough if you do not put his teaching into action.—the person who lives by Jesus’ words is like what? A wise builder. The wise builder is the practical builder, the one who does what makes sense. He builds on rock. His house has a foundation. Jesus did not have in mind in this parable a hurricane along the coast. He was painting with words a picture his first-century audience in Galilee could understand.

The climate in Palestine has a dry season and a rainy season. There are few rivers. The Jordan is the only one of significance, and it is nothing like the Mississippi, or even Dog River. There are however many wadis. A wadi is a riverbed that carries water in the rainy season and is dry during the dry season. During the summer it is dry, when the rains come in fall, it is full of water. Imagine, Jesus says, a foolish man who built his house in a wadi. For months he could be happy and secure. But it is only a question of time. The rain will come. The water will rise. The house will not stand. Building in a wadi was so impractical that anyone who seriously contemplated it was a fool. And who does Jesus compare to this kind of insensible fool? “Anyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them!” Only the worst kind of impractical fool could miss the obvious good sense Jesus’ teachings represent.

So what do you think? Who is right? I suspect many of us would want to be in the group that says, “Jesus’ teachings may not be practical, but they represent an ideal worthy of our best efforts.” I, however, will not let you into that group. I ask you to make a choice: Are Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount practical or not? His critics say they are not. Even many of his admirers lament that they are not. Jesus says that they are the picture of practicality. What do you say? Naturally you want to side with Jesus, but is it difficult? A bit uncomfortable? You know he has the authority to command us to live this way. You know he knows better than we do what is good and right. And yet how can you read through the Sermon on the Mount and not feel parts of it are a bit far fetched?

Jesus is right. But why? He knows something many people do not, although he has been trying to tell us about it all through the Sermon on the Mount. What is his Sermon on the Mount about? The kingdom of God! It is about the kingdom and how we are to live as kingdom people. If … if God had no plan … if the world were going to go on forever as it is now … if there were no kingdom of God—no chance of God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven, no chance of God’s name being hallowed because God’s glory gets indisputably revealed throughout creation—if the world as we experience it today were the final answer … then nothing could be less practical than Jesus’ teachings. He would truly be the founder of a faith one television comedy lampooned as: “that religion with all the well-meaning rules that don’t work out in real life.”

But … what if God does have a plan? What if his kingdom is coming? If the Sermon on the Mount were just a blueprint Jesus gave us so that we could build the kingdom ourselves, then again, it is impractical to the point of foolishness. We cannot do it. But what if God brings the kingdom? Jesus says he does. Jesus says he will! The kingdom of God is coming, and it cannot be stopped. If Jesus’ teaching looks a little upside down, that’s because the kingdom will turn everything right side up. Things are not that way right now. Everything is squirrelly because we have forgotten God. We are alienated from our Creator. But the present state of affairs is not permanent, just as the dryness of a wadi is not permanent. The fool lives his life as if the kingdom does not exist, as if it is never coming. The wise person builds with the kingdom in mind.

This explains the difference of perception between Jesus and his critics and admirers. The critics, even many admirers, do not believe in the coming kingdom. Hence, Jesus’ teaching looks impractical. Jesus knows the kingdom is inevitable. It will strike with a force that will make a hurricane look like a toddler trying to blow out birthday candles. Everything will be changed. The kingdom will mean nothing less than new creation. The dead will be raised. God’s glory will not be hidden as it is now, with the result that we can argue over whether God even exists or not. No, when the kingdom comes there will be no doubt. The kingdom will be the end of sin, suffering, and death. Nothing will be unchanged. God is going to do it! And given the fact that he is … how should we be living today?

Jesus taught a lot about the kingdom, and he used a variety of images to describe it: seeds and trees, treasures and parties. Sometimes he used forceful, violent images—like a storm. How do you read the parable in today’s text? One commentary I consulted thought the storm that tested the houses of the wise and foolish builders was nothing more than the trials and tribulations of life. “Live as a good follower of Jesus and these things will not destroy you,” was the message this particular scholar found. He missed the point. OK, following Jesus does give us resilience when we suffer, but that’s not what Jesus is taking about. He is talking about his teachings throughout the Sermon on the Mount and how they are practical. Not because they work out well from time to time, but because the kingdom is coming. It is dangerous to press a parable too far and try to figure out what every little detail means. Nevertheless, I think the storm in this parable is the coming of the kingdom.

Look back at the first part of our reading. I told you last week this is the most terrifying passage in scripture. Jesus says that just calling him “Lord” is not enough. We must do the will of his Father. Notice what he says: “Many will say to me on that day …” What is “that day”? What day is he talking about? It is the day of judgment … a day the Old Testament calls “the day of the Lord” … the day the kingdom finally comes and God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. That is the day Jesus is talking about. And that, I believe, is the day the rain comes down and the flood comes up and the wind beats against the house each of us has built. The storm in the parable is a cataclysm. So is the coming of the kingdom. That’s when our lives are put to the test and everything gets settled.

This is why Jesus’ teachings are practical. He offers them with the promise that a life lived his way endures into the kingdom when it comes. Living any other way is like building a house where it is bound to be destroyed. Jesus’ disciples are kingdom people. We live by kingdom values. We live in anticipation and hope of the kingdom. We do things that might seem foolish, but they make sense in light of the kingdom. Jesus has appointed us as a signpost, pointing to the kingdom, showing other by our life together as his church that the kingdom is on its way and what it will be like.

This is the 17th and final sermon in our series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We have spent a long time with it because it contains some of Jesus’ most important teaching. History shows the life changing power of the Sermon on the Mount. How many people have read Matthew 5—7 and realized this is how God wants us to live; it is a better way, and their lives have been changed! I said in a previous sermon in this series that people who have power and use violence do not change the world. They merely rearrange it. People of prayer, people who live according to the Sermon on the Mount, they are the ones who change the world.

I want you to change the world. I want you to be a kingdom person. Just as there have always been sincere disciples and heroic admirers of Jesus, there has always been a majority in the church that hears Jesus’ teachings and stops short of doing them. Many excuses have been offered. One of the best sounding (but still wrong) is: “The Sermon on the Mount describes life in the kingdom of God. It is too impractical for Christians to live that way now.” As we have seen, this is half right. The sermon is about the kingdom, but Jesus does intend for us to live this way now. We can be sure of this because he makes clear here at the end of his sermon that obedience is not optional. Also because he lived this way himself. You can see the Sermon on the Mount as a kind of manifesto. It tells us a lot about who Jesus thinks he is and how he aims to live and die. It explains everything about his ambitions and values. This is who he is. It is who he asks us to be. It is who he makes us to be by the indwelling of his Holy Spirit.

This whole series, 17 sermons, comes down to one question: Do you believe in the kingdom of God? Do you believe God is going to set things right—all things? If you do not, the Sermon on the Mount will not make sense to you. You will not live this way.

Jesus has always had admirers, people who believe in his ethics but not in him. That is, they try to live the way he tells us to, but they do not believe he is the Son of God, nor do they turn to him for forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Gandhi was an admirer of Jesus. Most are not famous, but they are always around. Do not be merely an admirer of Jesus. His ethics do not work apart from his message of the kingdom and his death and resurrection, which open the kingdom to the likes of you and me.

Jesus has always had plenty of people who call him “Lord” but go on living for themselves. We know what he thinks of them. Don’t be a disciple in name only.

Jesus has always had followers who do a halfway job. These are Christians who follow Jesus’ teachings when it is easy and convenient and doesn’t cost too much. Do not be a recreational Christian.

Be what Jesus wants you to be, a sincere, dedicated disciple—imperfect to be sure—walking the narrow path with faltering steps and falling down from time to time—yet convinced that Jesus is the way and the kingdom of God is coming. Be open to his grace and his work in you. Be loyal to him no matter the cost. Let your light shine, such as it is. Seek first the kingdom, and trust God for everything else. This alone is the way to life. Only in this way can you know the peace and joy God desires to give you. Be the wise builder, who, by obeying Jesus, builds his house on the rock. …

Matthew reports that when Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were astonished. The Greek word here includes a note of apprehension. They understood the import of his warning. The kingdom of God is coming, and it demands the total reorientation of one’s life. That’s a heavy message. At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addressed his disciples. He took them off by themselves to explain his expectations more fully. Now at the end, we find the crowds have been listening too. They are amazed.

Jesus taught as “one having authority.” Rabbis of his day taught by appealing to scripture and tradition: Here’s the passage. Here is what such-and-such a rabbi said about it. Here is what someone else said. Jesus said, “You have heard it was said, but I say to you …”

I like the way Clarence Jordan renders this verse in his Cotton Patch version of Matthew: “Jesus was teaching them like he knew what he was talking about.” … Does he? Does he know what he is talking about? Is he right? Was he an idealistic dreamer? A foolish builder who built his house upon the sand only to have it washed away courtesy of the Romans occupation?

Or … is he the Son of God, who gave his life and took it up again? Is he the risen Lord, who knows what he is talking about? Will he come again to set up God’s kingdom, fully and permanently? This is the question every person who hears about him must decide, and it makes all the difference now and in eternity.

Someday the kingdom will come. The rain will pour down, the flood will rise, and the wind will beat against every life wherever and however it has been built. The kingdom is not here in all its glory yet, obviously, but already there are signs. Already God’s Spirit is at work. Already a few raindrops are falling. That is where we find ourselves today. We stand in a light drizzle. Jesus says a storm is coming—new creation! Do not miss the signs. Look around and see the work of God! Feel the rain begin to fall. Someday … someday the kingdom will come. Amen.