A PRAYER TO START

This prayer of exaltation and expectation for what we know is ours in Jesus even in amidst the weight of life and sin of our hearts that so easily oppress us, is adapted from a portion of Psalm 119. Begin your time praying it 3xs…

Because you have satisfied me, Father, as your child through Jesus, I promise to do all that you say. I beg you from the depth of my soul to look upon me and smile, to be gracious to me as you have promised to be. When I thought of your ways, quickly I turned my feet to follow. I hurry and do not waste time to stay true to your instructed path. The wicked and wickedness of this world has entangled me, there seems to be no way out, yet not for even a full minute have I forgotten your plan for me. I get up at midnight to praise you for I cannot wait until the new morning to sing of your gracious love with thanksgiving! I am a friend of all who fear you, and of those who are committed to walk in your ways. The earth, my day and my soul, is full of your steadfast, never ending love! Train me, Father, to live by our counsel. Amen.

DIVING INTO THE DETAILS

The final section of Jesus’ most prolific teaching on kingdom life, Matthew 7:13-27, set the president for the life Jesus will model in Matthew’s gospel. A life in which he is “the way, the truth, and the life” which alone will lead you and I to the Father. Jesus’ revelation of God’s nature, of the nature of God’s kingdom, and of his role within is where we start, Jesus determining the way of life with God, of a good life. No one else, no other history, no ideas about him. His word, his actions, his way.

Not an entirely new way, nevertheless a very different way than the kings, priest, and saviors who have come before him. The parallel sermon on the plain in Luke’s gospel story (Luke 6:20-49), similar to the sermon on the mount in Matthew’s, compares and contrasts the way of God and other ways. Four bless-ed statements contrasted with four woe statements, heralded but often missed in our Hebrew bibles. Happy today are the poor, the hungry, those in mourning and those rejected. Miserable forever are those that are rich, full, silly, and popular. Seems a bit of a reversal of how we would generally describe happy people and miserable people. Doesn’t a good life come from what you have—money, security, frivolous freedom, a good reputation? Is not that what God promised us, what our obedience and faith get us? Something does not sound right. Happiness is wanting? Dissatisfaction in desires fulfilled is not how God would work things out for his people; would he?

Then on to loving enemies not seeking destruction but mercy. Actually, go beyond that, let yourself be taken advantage of in your compassion, especially by those who are ungrateful and evil. After all, that is how God is, merciful to sinners, and we are sinners after all. No, we are God’s people and his people are about justice. At least that’s how we judge things to be.

God is about destroying evil and those that are opposed to him. Yet Jesus confronts the confrontation welling up within those listening. Judgement is our natural response to any way of living we are given to follow. Whether judging to condemn or judging as a standard to measure ourselves. We are not so good at judging, haven’t been since Genesis 3. Seems like most of what we know is the blind leading the blind, or “hypocrite” by another name. But Jesus says, that the only judge is the fruit of life of faithfully following his way. No two ways about it. Either the seeds you are planting in your following Jesus are the seeds of the kingdom sprouting into recognizable good fruit or you are sowing seeds of some other kind of vegetation, like a thistle or a weed. Either way, nothing edible or of substance will be born up from such seeds. Live like Jesus alone—no one else, no other standard—and you will reap the fruit of his way of life.

The problem is building our life on the life Jesus is no effortless task. Following Jesus takes hard work, commitment, and a willingness to persevere in oddity and persecution of such a life (remember how the sermon began in Matthew 5:2-12). And Jesus knows the task before he and those he invites to follow with him, so he warns them of the importance of letting his way of life change our actions as well as thoughts in the story of the two builders (Matthew 7:24-27).

There are two things that the people who were listening to Jesus that mild spring afternoon would have picked up on in his concluding story. Already having their perception of God’s way of life confronted by the God-man’s description—perhaps a little confused, certainly intrigued—they would have been listening ever so carefully to this summation—this application—to his sermon. First, and what we often miss, is that they would have recognized the story Jesus told. These are men and women who grew up in a Jewish faith, who recognized some sort of ‘messiah’ or prophet quality in Jesus, and saw him to be a religious authority. They were people who knew their Jewish bible. These where ‘God’s people’. As such, the educated and uneducated alike would have recognized the parable’s similarities to two of their own stories.

The first is found in Isaiah 28:14-18, and the second Ezekiel 33:29-33. These two familiar texts would have given depth to Jesus’ story. Awaking in the minds of the hearers God’s response to their ancient family’s self-determined efforts as both a rebuke of their rejection of God, but also a promise to build up his people on something more just and righteous than power, wealth, and security, for all of which would be washed away by the storms and waters coming soon. And, that what Jesus is showing them in his life and ministry, what Jesus is saying to them in his description of the kingdom; these are not merely ‘feel good lyrics’ meant to arouse an emotional response, a mere recognition of something transcendent or splendid. Rather, his life and his words are an invitation and a warning. A gracious, sweet, beautiful invitation to life with God and warning that any other way of life is devastating.

Second, the people listening would have recognized that the wakeup call and invitation was not into some sort of effortless life or life of promised ease (peace and security), but was an exhortation to diligent, persevering work. Most of us do not know the labor of building a home. Either we buy/rent homes already constructed or pay someone else to do the work for us. Deedra and I built a house in 2007. It was our first home as a family. It took just over seven months from the finalization of the plans to the day we received our keys. We drove out the home site from our apartment several times a week to monitor the progress, excited and nervous for such a tremendous undertaking. The first four months, over half the build-time, was spent on one thing: digging out and laying the foundation. You see, we were building on clay. Clay seems hard to the touch when it is dry. It is quite difficult to dig into, but pour some water on it, and you will quickly see how your shovel sinks deep into a soft filament. Most of the area around Dallas County is clay, and most homes have foundation issues because of it. The same is true of land in Israel. As the Middle Eastern commentator, Kenneth Bailey (323-24) notes,

"In Israel/Palestine villagers only build in the summer. The rains come in winter…No one wants to build a stone house in the winter. Summer provides dry, warm days suitable for building houses, but there is a down side. As mentioned in Leviticus, during the summer, the soil, with its high clay content, is ‘like bronze’ (Lev 26:19 NIV).

It is easy to imagine a builder in the summer, with little imagination or wisdom, thinking that he can build an adequate one-level house on hard clay. With his pick he tries digging and finds the ground is indeed ‘like bronze.’ The walls [of the house] will not be more than seven feet high. It is hot. The idea of long days of backbreaking work under a hot, cloudless sky does not appeal to him. He opts to build his simple one or two-room home on the hardened clay. The underlying rock is down there somewhere—it will all work out! He constructs a roof with a reasonable overhang and is pleased that he has managed to finish before the onset of the rains.

That winter, however, there is more rain than anyone can remember and the ground rapidly becomes soaked. A small runoff stream starts to flow down his street and the ground begins to turn into the consistency of chocolate pudding. The clay under the stone walls of his newly built house begins to settle and buckle as a result. The stones are uncut field stones. One stone after another pops out of the wall. A serious bulge develops in one wall. The bulge expands and finally gives way, bringing down the entire structure. First-century Middle Eastern villagers used mud for mortar. If the wall is not built on the underlying rock, it will last only as long as the ground remains dry and prevents settling…The prudent, hardworking builder knows better. In the Holy Land solid rock lies everywhere—just beneath the soil. If the builder plans a house in a valley, the earth and rubble may be ten or more feet deep. On the tops of the low hills the underlying rock is barely covered and often exposed. [When asking] builders about the depth they must excavate to construct a stone house [, the] answer is always the same. They will [say] they must dig ‘down to the rock.’ If that means one inch or ten feet, the principle remains the same. Building must be done on the rock."

Jesus’ invitation to follow him and promise of a good life with God is certainly beautiful, a love song that draws us in! Yet, this journey is not for the faint of heart, as the remainder of Matthew’s gospel story will certainly reveal.

DEVELOPING DISCERNMENT

We want Jesus to save us, and he most certainly does. Yet our vision of salvation often misses the very road of salvation: life with Jesus. “Hearers” and “doers”, not to earn God’s grace or a place in the kingdom, but because we have received them both, yet are prone to wander after what is quick.

Don’t skip this part. Information is of little use in quickening a transformed life if we are undiscerning people. Take the time to thoughtfully answer these questions, and maybe use them as conversation starters in Gospel Community, at work or in your home. Doing so will pay dividends in the long run!

Read Matthew 7:24-27. What makes the words of Jesus hard to “do”, especially for those of us so willing to “hear” them?

Consider your co-workers and friends, maybe even your kids if they are old enough. What would keep them from hearing, much less doing, the words of Jesus?

Read Matthew 7:15-20. What sort of life bears good fruit? Consider what we have learned about God and his kingdom thus far in Matthew 5-7.

Describe the “false prophets”, teachings, or ideas in our culture (including the “church culture”) that tend to mascarde as Christ-likeness, but whose fruit doesn’t line up with the values of God’s kingdom.

Why are these so attractive to those inside and outside of our faith?

Read Matthew 5:12. In what ways do you feel like the path of Jesus is narrow, difficult and even strange to the majority path of those you love and share life with?

A PRAYER TO CLOSE

Jesus said “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Persecuted, separate, not-a-part-of-the-in-crowd because they are living rightly with God and others. Eugene Peterson prays in recognition of experiencing what Jesus expresses in his own life, and the life of all who hear and do the words of Christ. Pray…

Dear Father, people despise and reject what they do not understand, and they frequently misunderstand righteousness. Jesus knew what this meant, that the righteous often experience contempt. Father, closeness to you it seems at times means alienation from others. Father, you know my inner heart, my secret motives, my basic desires. My sins and my virtues are both under your mercy, so that I have nothing to fear from other and everything to hop from you, especially in Jesus Christ. Amen.