Matthew 7: the wise man who built upon a rock

The end of the Sermon on the Mount

Chapters 5 to 7 of Matthew gather the teaching Jesus gives on a mountain in Galilee. Chapter 7 moves quickly through a series of sayings: judge not, the mote in a brother's eye and the beam in your own, ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find. Verse 12 gives the Golden Rule, to do to others what you would have them do to you, which Jesus says sums up the law and the prophets.

Then come warnings. The gate to life is strait and the way narrow. False prophets are known by their fruits, as a tree is. And not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom, but the one who does the will of the Father.

What does the house on the rock mean?

Everything leads to the parable in verses 24 to 27. Whoever hears these sayings and does them, Jesus says, is like a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. The rain descends, the floods come, the winds blow and beat upon that house, and it does not fall. Whoever hears and does not act is like a foolish man who built on sand; the same storm strikes, and great was the fall of it.

The point is easy to miss. Both builders hear the same words and both face the same weather. Faith does not spare anyone the storm. What differs is the foundation, and Jesus defines the foundation as putting his teaching into practice. Luke 6 tells the parable with one extra detail: the wise builder dug deep before laying the stone.

Matthew adds that the crowds were astonished, because he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

A verse for a new home

Generations of children have learned this parable through the Sunday school song about the wise man and the foolish man. The Cabin in the Storm print, in a bold linocut style, shows a lit house standing firm while the weather rages. It is a natural piece of Christian wall art for an entryway, a housewarming, a wedding, or a family going through a hard season.

The rock elsewhere in the Bible

Psalm 18 calls the LORD my rock and my fortress, and Isaiah 28 speaks of a tried and precious cornerstone laid in Zion. Paul picks up the builder's language in 1 Corinthians 3, where he writes that no other foundation can be laid than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.