A Different Look at The House On The Rock

One of the most well-known parables, even among the non-religious, is Jesus’ parable of the house that was washed away because it did not have a firm foundation. I grew up knowing this parable through an old children’s church song:

“Oh the rains came down and the floods came up - the rains came down and the floods came up!”

For many, this parable is common sense—Listen to Jesus and know him deeply. Don’t be a shallow Christian who talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. In our contemporary, Western context for living, this implies growing in our personal understanding of who Jesus is and letting its natural wisdom shape our lives into stable followers of his. I’m not about to contradict this aspect of the parable or say that it’s incorrect to have this takeaway, but if we look more closely at the context of this parable within Jesus’ ministry, there’s a whole lot more to it.

Jesus was born into a world of extreme violence. Yes, of course, we suffer from violence in the modern day, but there is a feigned attempt in many parts of the ever-modernizing world to see other humans as individuals with autonomy and uncalculable self-worth. While societies used to see power dynamics as an excuse, even permission, to exploit and overpower those weaker than ourselves (this happened even into the 20th century in America with Social Darwinism) things are slowly changing, and kindness has become a cultural buzzword.  But the Jewish people literally inherited their former glorious kingdom of Israel through mass bloodshed and war in the first ten Books of the Bible. In the Second-Temple period 200 years before Jesus, where the Maccabean revolt left thousands dead and the Jews reclaimed some autonomy and continued to practice their faith in the Greek world, the Jews had a reinforced idea that their holy kingdom would come through violence. We see this in the disciple’s desperate attempt to yank their swords out and cut off the ear of the soldier who arrests Jesus (Luke 22:49-51). They believed that evil was fought by human hands, and policing bad behavior will inaugurate a kingdom of holiness until Christ does so by force.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the parable of the house on a firm foundation:

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:46-49)

Jesus is speaking clearly here, but he knows the filter his listeners are hearing his words through is so filled with gunk from their past that some people just won’t get it. Jesus’s ministry is often referred to as the inauguration of an “upside-down kingdom,” where everything is counter-intuitive to the dominating wisdom of the secular world in which we live. This is especially evident here in this parable, which closes out an entire chapter where Jesus has just challenged all of his listeners to value the position of the poor over the rich (6:20-26), to love our enemies and turn their violence against us into a blessing upon them (27-31), and to live a life of uncompromising mercy towards those who model wickedness against us (32-36).

Let’s be honest for a minute… Virtually no Christian actually behaves this way. Most of us think that if a thief steals something of ours, we’re encouraging bad behavior and ruining society by blessing the bad guy instead of stopping him. But hear me for a second:

Jesus does not care about producing good Americans, he cares about redeeming souls that belong to hell.

At the end of this entire speech on living a life of unfathomable kindness and peace, even when violence seems like the common sense option, Jesus ends with this parable, where he tells the listener (and you and me) that if we actually do what he says, we are like people who build our life on a firm foundation, embedded into stable bedrock. But if we just listen, yet don’t obey this teaching, our foundation will not withstand the storms to come.

Here is the entire point, and I cannot stress this enough - If you are a follower of Jesus, but you have humans on this earth you see as enemies, or you are expending more energy in preserving your empire than expanding God’s,  you’re neglecting the obedience Jesus demands, and you will get swept away by the storms of the modern world. This parable has little to nothing to do with simply knowing Jesus more and loving him, or spending time with him, or worshiping him, or being “on fire” for him. Get those churchy cliches out of your head.

It’s about making tangible, radically different decisions where people who suck are blessed by your actions. Where people who are doing things poorly are honored by your graciousness to them. Where people who lead you half-heartedly are encouraged by your patience with them. Where greedy businessmen and sleazy politicians are at the center of your prayers, and their names are spoken of in honor by your lips, because the sinful world around you already slanders each other, and we don’t need to join them and retaliate with the same sins. Obeying Jesus means you see no earthly inhabitant as an enemy but as an opportunity to reveal the mercy of God. It is God’s kindness that leads to repentance (Rom. 2:4).

Stop, ask the Holy Spirit to help you evaluate your actions, and take an honest look at whether or not you value uncompromising mercy, or if you make excuses to give people what’s coming to them and take on the role of Judge.

In the end, if those in your life completely reject that mercy, they will stand before God and quake as they give an account for eternity.

But you, you are responsible for taking Jesus’ commands here seriously. Otherwise, the storms of life will hit, and it won’t be your enemy’s house that crumbles.

It’ll be yours.