As a High School student, did you ever daydream your way through a lecture, only to have the teacher announce as the hour ended, “Study your notes tonight, there will be a quiz tomorrow!” I thought of those days as I pondered how Jesus finished up His sermon on the mount. 

The crowd had followed Jesus up the hill in order to listen to Him that day. It turned out to be a rather lengthy sermon! Now He was winding up, with one final exhortation.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Matthew 7:24-27

Intriguing story! Don’t you think that when the people heard it, they knew their own survival in the storms of life would depend on whether or not they moved their lives from the “sand” to the “Rock”? I believe they knew that really, there were two decisions to be made:

First of all, they had to decide where to build their life. Clearly, sand would be a ridiculous choice. They needed to build on the rock, laying the foundation for their lives on the truth of Jesus’ words. 

But there was another choice that was implied by the rabbi that day. He had said, “Everyone who hears these words and acts on them…” In Jesus’ parable, had the man who chose the rock for his house laid the foundation, gone to buy wood and nails, loaded them onto a cart, and used his donkey to haul it to his property, how foolish it would have been for him to immediately go to his neighbors and declare that he had built himself a house!

When it comes to following the Lord, it is a life-long proposition. When we are saved, we pour the foundation for our life on the Rock of Jesus Christ. We believe in Him and call on the name of the Lord. In Jesus’ parable, that is the moment we choose the “where”—the Rock, Jesus, to build our life.

But then it’s a matter of living for Him. 

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish.” Luke 14:27-30

I think the “coming after” that Jesus called for is the same as the “building” in His parable. Just so there wouldn’t be any confusion, Jesus had laid out for the people that day exactly what building a house on the Rock would look like. Building=Hearing “these words,” (the sermon He just had preached), and doing them! (I wonder if anyone sitting on the grass that day heard Jesus say that and thought, “I wish He would have started His sermon with this parable. I would have taken notes!”)

Hopefully they flipped back through the mental notes they had made, hoping to remember all He had said. Just what were the words they had heard that He wanted them to act on?

*Become like the humble, merciful, pure of heart, peacemaking people Jesus had described in His opening remarks that day. That would take some work! *Strive for genuine righteousness, inside and out. *Keep short accounts in relationships, not allowing resentment or unforgiveness to come between friends, neighbors, family, etc. In fact they were to love their enemies! He’d actually said that!

(By now I’m sure these people were thinking, “This is a tall order!”)

*He had reassured them that when they prayed, God, their Father, listened and answered. He knew their every need and would meet every one of them, so there was no need to store up “treasures”. He had even shown them how to pray, and encouraged them to keep at it! *Jesus had even made a joke about people who walk around with logs in their eyes trying to help their friends get a specks out of theirs! Clearly we don’t realize the “logs in our own eyes” if we spend our time judging everybody else.

Hmmm. What else? Oh yes! 

*How could they know if their behavior toward other people pleased God? It was simple really. If you would sincerely like someone treating you that way, then by all means, do it! (Maybe some women decided to embroider those words on some linen to hang on their wall!)

*Jesus had made it clear that following Him wasn’t for the feint of heart! He described the way to enter His path to life as being through a narrow gate. He even honestly disclosed that the path itself is difficult!

*Finally, just prior to His closing remarks, Jesus had said,”Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21) There it was again! Following Him was about living a life that genuinely reflected His Lordship.  Anybody could call out “Lord, Lord” when He walked by. But it was a whole other matter to step through the narrow gate onto the difficult path, in order to do what pleased the Father. Jesus said of those, “there are few”. But to those who do choose to let the Sermon on the Mount be their building plans, God has offered the Kingdom of Heaven!