Je­sus’ pub­lic mi­nist­ry be­gan af­ter he had been bap­ti­zed in the Jor­dan by John the Bap­tist. This oc­ca­si­on was wit­nes­sed by God in he­a­ven: ”This is my be­lo­ved Son; lis­ten to him” (Mat 3:17). Af­ter His bap­tism Je­sus went in­to the wil­der­ness to pre­pa­re for His mi­nist­ry. He fas­ted for 40 days, and af­ter that the ene­my temp­ted hung­ry Je­sus in many ways. Je­sus fen­ded off the ene­my by quo­ting God’s word from the scrip­tu­res. He fi­nal­ly drove away the ene­my, and an­gels came to ser­ve Him.

Soon Je­sus was told that his pre­de­ces­sor John had been kil­led. He cal­led a group of dis­cip­les to fol­low Him and be­gan to pre­ach. His inst­ruc­ti­on and ac­ti­vi­ty at­t­rac­ted a lot of at­ten­ti­on, and crowds of pe­op­le gat­he­red to lis­ten to him. What we now know as the Ser­mon on the Mount was His first and best known pub­lic speech.

From the very be­gin­ning Je­sus’ inst­ruc­ti­on in­vol­ved the use of pa­rab­les and ver­bal ima­ge­ry. His pa­rab­les re­fer­red to eve­ry­day ob­jects and events and were the­re­fo­re ea­sy to un­ders­tand. Anot­her es­sen­ti­al as­pect was that He knew the holy scrip­tu­res and exp­lai­ned and in­terp­re­ted them as ”one who had aut­ho­ri­ty” (Matt. 7:29).

Hou­ses are made for se­cu­ri­ty

The Ser­mon on the Mount is conc­lu­ded by a pa­rab­le of two dif­fe­rent buil­ders. It sum­ma­ri­zes Je­sus’ inst­ruc­ti­on and ad­d­res­ses each lis­te­ner per­so­nal­ly. “Eve­ry­o­ne then who he­ars these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his hou­se on the rock.”

The pa­rab­le tel­ls us of two buil­ders. One of them was wise and the ot­her foo­lish. It is ea­sy for the lis­te­ner to choo­se which one to iden­ti­fy with. Through this iden­ti­fi­ca­ti­on the lis­te­ner al­most be­co­mes part of the story. The wise buil­der built his hou­se on rock, the foo­lish one on sand. Each comp­le­ted their hou­se, and eve­ryt­hing see­med to be fine.

But then the we­at­her chan­ged. There came a storm. Rain, flood­wa­ter and wind las­hed against the hou­ses and the ground and be­gan to ero­de the sand. The foo­lish man’s hou­se col­lap­sed, and the fa­mi­ly were left wit­hout shel­ter. There was se­ri­ous da­ma­ge. The wise buil­der’s hou­se did not suf­fer da­ma­ge, be­cau­se it had a so­lid foun­da­ti­on.

The buil­ding alo­ne is not enough

Ac­cor­ding to the pa­rab­le, faith should be ba­sed on a foun­da­ti­on that en­du­res even in tri­als. Throug­hout his­to­ry pe­op­le have held dif­fe­ring views of what is the cor­rect faith. Many pe­op­le feel that it is not im­por­tant how you be­lie­ve as long as you be­lie­ve and ack­now­led­ge that there is a God. If this were true, why did Je­sus warn so se­ri­ous­ly against buil­ding on a weak foun­da­ti­on?

Paul la­ter un­der­li­nes the im­por­tan­ce of a so­lid foun­da­ti­on in the same way as Je­sus did. “Ac­cor­ding to the grace of God gi­ven to me, like a skil­led mas­ter buil­der I laid a foun­da­ti­on, and so­me­o­ne el­se is buil­ding upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foun­da­ti­on ot­her than that which is laid, which is Je­sus Christ. Now if any­o­ne builds on the foun­da­ti­on with gold, sil­ver, pre­ci­ous sto­nes, wood, hay, straw — each one’s work will be­co­me ma­ni­fest, for the Day will disc­lo­se it, be­cau­se it will be re­ve­a­led by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that any­o­ne has built on the foun­da­ti­on sur­vi­ves, he will re­cei­ve a re­ward.” (1 Cor. 3:10–14)

The buil­ding is al­so im­por­tant, but wit­hout a so­lid foun­da­ti­on not even a stur­dy buil­ding will stand in tri­als, and cer­tain­ly not at the Last Jud­ge­ment.

Foun­da­ti­on on Christ

At the end of the pa­rab­le of the buil­ders Je­sus un­der­li­nes that it is not enough on­ly to lis­ten, but we must al­so live as we be­lie­ve. And we must be­lie­ve as He has inst­ruc­ted us with the aut­ho­ri­ty of God’s po­wer. Even a we­a­ker buil­ding en­du­res if it has a good foun­da­ti­on. Righ­te­ous­ness of faith is ba­sed on Christ, the sal­va­ti­on He pre­pa­red for us, His word.

Je­sus as­ked his dis­cip­les who pe­op­le said he was. Then he con­ti­nu­ed by ad­d­res­sing His dis­cip­les: ”But who do you say that I am?” Pe­ter ans­we­red: ”You are the Christ, the Son of the li­ving God.” (Matt. 16:15–16) Je­sus foun­ded His cong­re­ga­ti­on on this con­fes­si­on. It will en­du­re be­cau­se its so­lid foun­da­ti­on is the sal­va­ti­on that God pre­pa­red in His son Je­sus Christ. Je­sus al­so aut­ho­ri­zed His cong­re­ga­ti­on to proc­laim this mes­sa­ge when He gave Pe­ter the keys to the king­dom of he­a­ven.

The pa­rab­le te­ac­hes us to make good choi­ces. It in­vi­tes us in­to fel­lows­hip with Christ. The sal­va­ti­on pre­pa­red by Christ will en­du­re the storms of the world, and it will one day bring us in­to the pe­a­ce­ful ha­ven of eter­nal life.

Text: Mik­ko Ul­jas

Trans­la­ti­on: S-LL

Sour­ce: Sii­o­nin Lä­he­tys­leh­ti 11/2014

Teks­tis­sä kä­si­tel­lään seu­raa­vaa raa­ma­tun­koh­taa: Matt. 7:24–27

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä kie­li­liit­tees­sä 24.11.2015.