[Obviously, in this parable, Jesus is not talking about a house that we live in, not our dwelling house, but some kind of spiritual house. No one today is so foolish as to build a house of stone, or even a small weekend house on the shores of Lake Balaton, without a well-calculated foundation. But there is another kind of house for all of us, one that is built up from thoughts, feelings, plans, desires, hopes, the thousand problems, troubles and events of everyday life, and is built up into a spiritual house, our individuality, our inner world - our life.Yes: the Lord Jesus speaks of the house of our life, the culmination of which - at least for us who are here in the church - is salvation in the hereafter, the happiness of eternal life beyond death. We are all building this house unceasingly. I have spoken to young people many times: they have told me with sparkling eyes what beautiful plans they have for building their future. I have seen many times how enthusiastic they are about building! I have seen old people who, with trembling hands, have started again for who knows how many times to put the building blocks together, but they have started again because they had to rebuild their lives in the face of new opportunities. We are all building, always building. Because to live is to build! Everybody builds, or rebuilds, or continues to build the house of their own life.
Sometimes we do it quite well. Here and there, beautiful and prestigious houses stand along the path of our lives. I have seen many a fine religious, respectable, truly worthy of all praise "house". I have seen many a house that was really cosy, comfortable, warmly furnished, full of all kinds of preciousness and value inside, with a very impeccable, very happy family life, well done, high arched, beautifully built... There are many respectable, even enviable human destinies, beautiful examples of career, of scientific or artistic value, of material well-being, or of family happiness... And, of course, we have also seen the opposite of all this many times.
But as important as the structure and the furnishings are, Jesus Christ now says: there is an even more important question: what was the whole house built for? What is underneath? What is most important in a human life is not what is visible, but what is not visible: its foundation, its foundation. And this question is so important because for every house, without exception, there will come a time when, in the words of Jesus Christ, 'the rain will come down, the floods will rise and the winds will blow'. And when Jesus Christ foretells that, yes, the rain will come, the floods will come, the winds will blow, this is not pessimism, this is not a dark vision, but a sober reality. And the rain and the floods and the gales are not even a special thing that sometimes, occasionally, exceptionally, may befall an unfortunate person, a doomed soul - oh no! It is, in fact, the normal - or rather, universal - human fate. For let us never forget that the house of our life is built on the shores of a corrupt world, a world in rebellion against God and possessed by satanic forces... Therefore that house will sooner or later, but necessarily, in some way, come into contact with that particular flood and wind! Every house has its own cross... Every heart has its own pain! Every life has its own special individual pain, perhaps even wound...
Oh, how suddenly and unexpectedly some frightening, catastrophic storm can sometimes strike a house! Yesterday it was perhaps in all its glory. There was singing, music, merriment. The joy of the celebration of life shone through. Then suddenly, quite unexpectedly, the sky darkened: the rain poured down, the winds blew. Oh, what hard, freezing winds can blow at once, so that the whole house rattles, the whole building shakes, the plaster falls, the walls crack. Will it withstand the terrible storm? Just think of the mother who let her smiling daughter go to school with a kiss in the morning, and at noon the news came that the schoolgirl who was run over by a car on Szent István Boulevard was hers! Oh, that rain and that flood and those winds! Every house they tear down, every building they underlay, every wall they wet, no one is free from their destructive power! Especially we, the present generation, who have already been ravaged by the destructive storms of two world wars and are threatened by a third, know this. But so many spiritual houses have collapsed in the great world conflagration! But it is a very sad sight to see a once proud, cheerful, elegant house collapse! How it writhes in a whirlpool of despair, or how aimlessly, hesitatingly, helplessly it mourns and broods over the ruins of its crumbling life... And even if one's house has now escaped all the floods and storms, one more is sure to come, one more will come, the last! Even if not sooner, in death and in the last judgment, in all its reality, in all its harsh reality, everyone will experience what the Lord Jesus said: 'And the rain poured down, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was built upon the rock.' (verse 25) Then the question will really become acute: What was your house built on?
The problem is that you can build a very beautiful and very nice house on sand. There is nothing wrong with it except that it cannot withstand the storm. Let me show you some of these "sand" foundations. For example, health: sand! Retirement: sand! Money, landed property - once considered outright "real estate": sand! A happy marriage, a good family life, a hard-earned degree, or knowledge, or art: sand! Chastity, religiosity, clericalism, decency: all sand! Don't misunderstand me: it is not that all this "sand" is worthless, useless, or even ugly and bad! Oh, no! These things are all very nice and good things in themselves! It is very good to have a lot of knowledge, or a happy family life, but it is not good to build on it, to build a life on it! They are not the foundation of our lives. If your life, for example, is built on such things, if such things are its foundation, then your house is built on sand! If the rains come and the floods come: you will wash away the sand, you will lose the ground under your feet. It is then that a whole world collapses inside the human soul! For example - to give just one example - I know someone who built his entire peaceful old age, all the joy of his life, even his faith in God, on his one very dear, very beloved grandson. In the summer, the water and the wind literally washed away this dear, dear figure of this life. A sudden summer storm and the waves of Lake Balaton swept away the lively young grandson, and what happened to the house built on top of him was also literally what Jesus Christ said: 'it collapsed and the ruin of that house became great'! The whole house should be rebuilt, of course on a different foundation, if it is not too late!
In the final analysis, then, it all comes down to this crucial question: what is the "rock", the solid and firm foundation on which man can safely build his house? Jesus Christ makes it very clear: "If anyone hears these words from me and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock" (v.24). So, to hear the words of Jesus Christ and to do them, that is the "rock" foundation! This very simple looking statement in other words means: to take the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ Himself, His living person, seriously! I cannot emphasize to you enough the crucial importance of the person of Jesus Christ! Let me say it so unambiguously: it is not enough to say: I believe in God! What is decisive is how you believe in Jesus Christ? Because God has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, in his person living among us, God is made concrete for us! The faith that seeks God by turning Jesus off: it always finds some imaginary deity, but never the true, the real, the only living God!
For look: if I, for example, tell my child that I will meet him in Zugliget, that I will wait for him there, then he will wait for me and look for me in Zugló, but in vain. So no matter how serious the intention to meet, he will not find me. Well, if God once willed to meet us in the person of Jesus, and if He gave us the opportunity to meet Him at the cross of Jesus and at His open Easter tomb, then it is in vain to seek and wait for Him anywhere else, whether in philosophy, in science, in the height of the arts, or in the wonders of the natural world. To know the living God personally and to be reconciled to Him, to be right with Him, is possible only through the person of Jesus and His redemptive death and resurrection. Jesus, crucified and risen for me, is the Rock on whom I can build without wasting my life, either in this world or the next.
Brothers and sisters, who claim a relationship with God, take the person of Jesus really seriously. For in him God comes to you with outstretched arms! Do not be ashamed to take Jesus and what He has done for you very seriously. It will never be an outdated position, no matter how much the world develops. I can truly imagine that man will go to other planets, perhaps even other solar systems from this earth, but there he will remain in God's world and there his heart will remain in need of redemption! Christ will still be relevant for him there! Jesus and what He did for us cannot be outgrown, outgrown! Either we build everything on Him, our whole life, and then He will endure the flood and the wind - even death - or else we have not built on Him, and then there will certainly be great destruction!
So please take the person of Jesus very, very seriously. He is the foundation, the rock, the only sure foundation! And you can build on Him, as He says in this very Word: "If anyone hears My words from Me and does them"! In other words, to live by doing what we hear from Him. I have just said. What He said about love, forgiveness, merciful, gentle behaviour, absolute purity and selflessness are not outdated. Even in the most modern world, the Christian way of life is not silly! Heaven and earth will pass away before His words, before all that He ever said! We feel that we are truly standing on an immovable rock that can withstand any storm, when we are in an unshakeable state of equilibrium, when we are doing and living all that He says, when we are living as He says!
Indeed: as the eye is made for light, the ear for sound, so we ourselves are made to walk the path that Jesus shows us, the path that Jesus leads us. The word of Jesus, his command, is food that nourishes, sustains, strengthens, gives life. In obedience to Jesus, man finds harmony, peace, joy in his life. It is as if I have a reason to reflect on the thoughts of Jesus. It is as if my will is meant to be obedient to His will. As if my emotional world were there to be a dwelling place for His love. My life is always good and harmonious and safe and joyful as long as I am acting in His Spirit. Indeed, to hear His word from Him and to do it is like building on rock!
So, one who not only hears, but does! I know, you like to "hear"! That is why you are here now. But be careful! This is nothing! It can also be "sand". The one who loves to hear it so much that on Saturday he makes a special phone call to ask who is preaching on Sunday; he comes from far away; he who listens so much that he cannot help being enthusiastic about how great the Word he heard was, but... he does not act, he does not reckon with his sins, he does not reconcile his anger, he does not break his unclean relationships - he does not take Jesus seriously, no matter how fervently he says it. The word of Jesus is light not only for our eyes, but also for our feet.
Someone once said, "Christianity begins not with the head or the heart, but with the feet. That is, it is not a matter of reason, nor of emotion, but of will and action! It's no use sitting here, reading the Bible at home, if you don't stand up and do what Jesus said! We build on rock, if we do what Jesus teaches! It is worth living that way! In fact, it is the only way worth building! On rock! Because life is always hard, fundamentally. Happiness is hard, and unhappiness is hard. And so are our tasks. Our hearts are hard. Prosperity is hard, and sadness is hard. The sand can't take it! But there's still room for you on the rock!
Can we now truly, with a sincere heart, say to Jesus - let's try!
My invincible rock,
My protector and my stone,
On the cross at a dear price
I look to you for protection.
(Canticle 346, verse 1)
Amen
Date: 22 February 1959.
Lesson
Jak 1,19-26