The one who is wise

Read Matthew 7:24-25

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The parable of the wise and foolish builders is one of the best known stories told by Jesus, familiar even to little children. For that very reason, we can easily miss the point of it and also overlook its context. Its first word, “Therefore,” shows us that it’s directly connected with what Jesus has just said about the response of commitment which we must make to his teaching.

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In fact, the parable makes a fitting (and challenging) conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount as a whole. By it, Jesus calls his listeners “to hear these words of mine and put them into practice” (24). Luke’s version of the same story – likewise the conclusion to a shorter version of the same set of teaching – makes this point even more forcefully: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Lk.6:46).

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It’s not enough to admire Jesus’s teaching about the lifestyle of God’s kingdom – we need to live it. People who are “wise and understanding” (Jas.3:13) hear the message with “ears to hear” (Mk.4:9; Mt.11:15) and therefore make it their aim to build on the rock of obedience to Jesus. In this way they “lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age” (1 Tim.6:19).