Upwrite

I don’t mean “final” like I’ll never think about the Sermon on the Mount ever again.  Ha.  But I have finished up my meditations through the SotM.  I had more I wanted to write about, but I got distracted.  Story of my life.

Anyway…

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)

Jesus goes on to contrast this analogy with the one in which a man builds his house on sand by hearing but these words but not putting them into practice.  And this is how Jesus closes out his sermon.  The more I think about these closing words, the more I realize the active nature of being a disciple of Christ.  Just hearing the teachings alone is not enough, for both the wise and the foolish man had both heard the words.  It’s the “put them into practice” part that counts.  And here’s the other thing…either way you slice it, you’re going to build a house.  It’s just a matter of what it’s built on and whether it will stand. 

I think it gets easy for me to talk about who Jesus was and what he did for us, in terms of redemption.  But too often I forget what Jesus said and what he wants me to do as his disciple.  Going through the Sermon on the Mount has allowed me to re-acquaint myself with the Rabbi Jesus, the Teacher.  And for all the ways that his words have satisfied, they have also (paradoxically, I suppose) created a new hunger.  I feel like Jesus could have said so much more!  But he didn’t.  That guy…such a cliffhanger.