By: Curtis Baker
This week we come to the final few verses of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. For the last nine months we have walked carefully through this sermon and saw what Jesus had to teach us about life and how it is to be lived. Jesus answers for us all the great questions that have been asked in every time and in every place. “What is the good life?” “Who is a good person?” As we have seen, Jesus’ answers to these questions are quite different from what we have learned from our culture. According to the wisdom of our own times, “the good life” might involve making a six figure income, having a large updated home, a nice vehicle, and plenty of vacation time to fish, shop, or play golf. A “good person” might be defined as one who holds a good job, keeps to his own business, and is a productive member of society. They are not the only ways our culture might define the good life and the good person, but certainly they are not far from the mark.
Jesus’ answer to these great questions of life not only cut against the grain of our culture, but against the grain of most cultures. Even countries in the West, who were built on a Christian heritage, do not have cultures that largely value what Jesus values in this sermon. Just think of the two world wars, and the tens of millions that were killed in the 20th century as fighting took place among the Christian nations of West, and you can see that “love of your enemy” is not an instruction taken very seriously. Consider also the consumerism that drives us constantly to have more and to never be satisfied with what we have, and you can see that Jesus’ instruction not to store up treasures on earth has largely been dismissed. When you see televangelists parade around like Hollywood celebrities and see Christians whipped into constant anger by television news networks exploiting their anxieties, Jesus’ teaching on praying in secret and his penetrating analysis of anger hardly even register to most, even those who attend church. We need not even mention the sexual perversions that run rampant. So it is no wonder our society is ill in so many ways, both physical and psychological. If Jesus is right about the good life and the good person, we too often live far away from that reality.
That is why it is vital that we pay attention to Jesus’ final words in this sermon. The blessed person will be the one who hears the words of Jesus, and actually puts them into practice. This is not because a person earns good favor before God for his actions, but simply because life was made to work in a certain way, and will not work any other way. For the one who puts Jesus’ words into practice, they will be like a person who has built their house on a solid foundation. No matter what comes against it (and there will be some awful things that do come against it), it will have the strength to stand. But for those who do not put Jesus’ words into practice, but instead lean on their own understanding and power, their house is like one that is built on sand, without a solid rock or concrete foundation. When the storms of life come ragging against it (and again, they will), the house will not stand. Jesus says, “it will fall with a great crash” (Matt 7:27)
As you think carefully about your own life, and the life of others around you, can you see how Jesus’ words speak truth? Have you seen the life of others around you fall with a great crash? More importantly, have you experienced your own life fall with a great crash? There is only one road to creating a life with the strength to stand–it is by putting Jesus’ words into practice. It is life that must be lived, and it takes practice to live it right. But the grace of God will be with you assisting you the whole way.
Listen to Jesus. He knows what the good life is and what it takes to be a good person. There is no other way that will not end in a crash. Don’t be foolish; build your life on the rock. (Don’t forget to join me for A Message from the Heart radio program Sunday evening at 8:00pm on KJAK 92.7FM, or streaming live at www.kjak.com)
Curtis Baker (curtisbaker@hotmail.com)
Write to: P.O. Box 157, Slaton, TX 79364
