What Jesus Was Talking About in the House on the Rock Parable
“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.”
The first sentence of this passage could be all we need to hear.
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
We don’t need a deep bible study. We don’t need elaborate exegesis on the Greek subculture that catalyzed the blah blah blah.
Jesus said this.
If you were reading along the Gospel of Luke and falling in love with Jesus, this verse makes you hit the brakes.
Obeying Jesus can take many flavors. We can hunt and pick all over to see what He means. We can read about the rich man and the camel going through the eye of the needle. We can read about giving to Caesar and giving to God and think that “do what I tell you” means we have to tithe.
But that’s not the context of this.
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
Look up a few verses and the challenge is bigger than ever. The question of Jesus being our Lord hangs on us doing what He says, and He just told us to love our enemies and not judge others.
Tithe all you want. Embrace poverty and march through that eye of the needle. Sacrifice yourself to the flames, even, but that’s not what provoked Jesus to tell the parable of the two houses. The house on the sand and the house on the rock aren’t about how we go through hardships or to stay faithful.
It’s a parable about whether or not we’ll obey Him in relation to our enemies. It’s a parable about whether or not we’ll obey Him when it comes to judging others.
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?
If the other verses of Luke 6 didn’t convince us enough, this conclusion does it. Take some time to flip back and read through the things that Jesus said in Luke 6. These are the teachings that He said we should obey. If we obey those teachings, we’ll be like a house that dug deep and built a house on the rock. The funny thing is that the only way we can do the things in Luke 6 is to dig deep and build our lives on Jesus.
Only Christ can give us the strength to love our enemies and to not judge others. He’s our only hope, but He’s continually filling us with His life and hope so that we can accomplish it.
–
You can get the Daily Bible Readings to your inbox via email every day by subscribing here. Join the discussion online on Facebook or Twitter.