Reflect
And so we reach the end. Twenty weeks in the Sermon on the Mount.
A lot has happened over the course of the past twenty weeks: a school year ended, an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, vuvuzelas, Vacation Bible School, a hot, hot summer, and more. Now, another school year has begun, college students have moved away, vacations are over, and our church is about to open up a beautiful new building.
Last spring, my wife and I were hooked on a television show called Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Part of the show was focused on improving the nutritional quality of school lunches. We were stunned by this shocking revelation: when the government evaluates the nutritional content of school lunches, French fries count as a vegetable. The base of the food pyramid – fruits and vegetables – can be made up of French fries.
Jesus sums up the Sermon on the Mount, everything we've talked about in the past twenty weeks, by talking about his own building project. He says that building our lives on anything but his teaching will be just as foolish as building a house on sand or building a diet on French fries. If you build your house on sand, you're going to lose your house. If you build on a diet of fries, you're going to lose your health. If you build your life apart from Jesus' teaching, you're building on a lie.
When Jesus finished the sermon, the crowds were amazed because he didn't hem and haw about what might be good ideas – he spoke with authority. Authority he possesses because of who he is. Authority that we can rest on, knowing that he's trustworthy. The wise person builds their house on it.
Eric Priest is an Assistant Minister at Christ the King.
Pray
How Firm a Foundation
From John Rippon's Selection of Hymns, 1787
How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he has said,
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
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