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The wise and foolish builders

Matt 7:24–27; Luke 6:46–49 · Early ministry in Galilee

Scripture

Matthew 7:24–27

herefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

King James Version · public domain

Mateu 7:24–27

ushdo pra që dëgjon këto fjalët’ e mia, edhe i bën ato, dot’a përgjanj atë me një njeri të-mënçim që ndërtoj shtëpin’ e ti mbi shkëmpt; 25Edhe zbriti shiu, e erdhë lumënjtë, e frynë erëratë, edhe upërpoqnë pas asaj shtëpie, po nuk’ urrëzua; sepse ishte themelosurë mbi shkëmpt. 26Po kushdo që dëgjon këto fjalët’ e mia, edhe nuk’i bën, dot’i gjanjë një njeriu të-marrë, që ndërtoj shtëpin’ e ti mbi rërët; 27edhe sbriti shiu, e erdhë lumënjtë, e frynë erëratë, edhe upërpoqnë pas asaj shtëpie, edhe urrëzua; edhe të-rrëzuarit’ e asaj ishte të-madh.

Kristoforidhi, Dhiata e Re Toskërisht 1879 · zotërim publik

Summary

The rock is Christ Himself and, with Him, the doing of His words; the sand is hearing without doing. The Fathers note that both men hear the same teaching: the difference is not in knowledge but in obedience. To build is to act, and the foundation that holds is a life laid upon what Christ has just commanded throughout the Sermon. The tradition often hears in this rock the deeper sense that Christ is the only sure ground, the same rock that gave water in the wilderness, so that doing His words and resting on His person are finally one thing.

Chrysostom presses the point hard: it is not enough to admire the teaching. The storms of temptation and the flood of the last judgment test whether a life was actually built upon obedience. He observes that the wise builder is not spared the tempest; the rains fall on both houses alike. What distinguishes them is hidden until trial comes, and only then is the foundation revealed. So the present calm proves nothing; the day of testing proves all.

Cyril of Alexandria and Theophylact, following Luke's form of the parable, draw out the labor of "digging deep" to reach the rock: a settled life in Christ costs effort, while the careless build quickly on the surface and are quickly overthrown. Luke sets the parable against those who say "Lord, Lord" and do not do what He says, so that a confession of faith without works is itself the house upon sand.

Augustine, in his exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, makes this the climax of the whole discourse: the words just spoken must be put into practice or they avail nothing. The hearing is the beginning, but the doing is the building.

In their own words

none of which is feared by him who has his house founded upon a rock, i.e. who not only hears, but also does, the Lord's commands. And the man who hears and does them not is in dangerous proximity to all these, for he has no stable foundation; but by hearing and not doing, he builds a ruin.

Blessed Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount, Book II, Chapter XXV, section 87 (NPNF1 Vol. 6)

The Wise and Foolish Builders (Matthew 7:24–27; Luke 6:46–49)

Public-Domain Patristic Commentary

At the close of the Sermon on the Mount (in Matthew) and the Sermon on the Plain (in Luke), Christ likens the one who hears His words and does them to a wise man who builds his house on rock, and the one who hears and does not to a foolish man who builds on sand. When the rain, floods, and winds beat against them, only the house founded on rock stands. The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations, each Father from his own work, several as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew (St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841). Nothing is paraphrased.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Sermon 34 (on Luke 6:46–49) Source: trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_03_sermons_26_38.htm

Cyril gives the Lord's words as his text:

Every one that cometh unto Me, and heareth My words, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug and made it deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock: and when there was a flood, the river beat against that house, and could not shake it, because it was well built.

On the calling of Christ "Lord" that must become obedience:

If therefore we call Christ, the Saviour of us all, Lord, let us do the things which He says. For He teaches us Himself what the benefit is of our being willing to do that which is commanded: and what the loss of our refusing to obey: for He says, Every one that heareth My words and doeth them, is like a man who builds a house, and firmly places its foundations upon the rock: while he who does not obey, he also is like a man building a house, but who has taken no care for its stability.

St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 24 (on Matthew 7:21–27) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/200124.htm

On why the wise builder is rewarded already in this life, not only the next:

What they shall suffer who do not (although they work miracles), you have heard; but you should know also what such as obey all these sayings shall enjoy; not in the world to come only, but even here. For "whosoever," says He, "hears these sayings of mine, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man."

On the rock as the steadfastness of Christ's teaching, and the storms as the afflictions of life:

By "rain" here, and "floods," and "winds," He is expressing metaphorically the calamities and afflictions that befall men; such as false accusations, plots, bereavements, deaths, loss of friends, vexations from strangers, all the ills in our life that any one could mention. But to none of these, says He, does such a soul give way; and the cause is, it is founded on the rock. He calls the steadfastness of His doctrine a rock; because in truth His commands are stronger than any rock, setting one above all the waves of human affairs.

On hearing as insufficient without obedience:

Though the things spoken be good, hearing is not sufficient for security, but there is need also of obedience in actions, and the whole lies chiefly in this.

On the folly of the man who builds on sand:

And well did He call this man "foolish": for what can be more senseless than one building a house on the sand, and while he submits to the labor, depriving himself of the fruit and refreshment, and instead thereof undergoing punishment? For that they too, who follow after wickedness, do labor, is surely manifest to every one.

On the greatness of the fall:

And it does not merely fall, but with great calamity: for "great indeed," He says, "was the fall of it." The risk not being of trifles, but of the soul, of the loss of Heaven, and those immortal blessings.

St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On the sand as the unstable foundation of false teaching:

On sand which is loose and cannot be bound into one mass, all the doctrine of heretics is built so as to fall.

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310–367)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On the rising assault of the storm as the stages of temptation:

By the showers He signifies the allurements of smooth and gently invading pleasures, with which the faith is at first watered as with spreading rills, afterwards comes down the rush of torrent floods, that is, the motions of fiercer desire, and lastly, the whole force of the driving tempests rages against it, that is, the universal spirits of the Devil's reign attack it.

Blessed Augustine (i Hiponit) (354–430)

From his Sermon on the Mount, as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain.

On the storms read as the evils that assail the soul:

Rain, when it is put to denote any evil, is understood as the darkness of superstition; rumours of men are compared to winds; the flood signifies the lust of the flesh, as it were flowing over the land, and because what is brought on by prosperity is broken off by adversity.

On the doer alone standing unmoved:

None of these things does he fear who has his house founded upon a rock, that is, who not only hears the command of the Lord, but who also does it. And in all these he submits himself to danger, who hears and does not. For no man confirms in himself what the Lord commands, or himself hears, but by doing it.

On the whole Sermon as the rock of the Christian life:

He shews plainly enough that this sermon is made complete by all those precepts by which the Christian life is formed, so that with good reason they that desire to live according to them, may be compared to one that builds on a rock.

Note on other Fathers

Cyril and Chrysostom agree on the heart of the parable: hearing must become doing, and the rock on which a life stands unshaken is obedience to the words of Christ (for Chrysostom, "the steadfastness of His doctrine"; for Cyril, doing "the things which He says"). The Latin Fathers received in the East confirm and deepen this: Jerome reads the sand as the unstable ground of heresy, Hilary unfolds the storm as the mounting stages of temptation, and Blessed Augustine, in his work on the Sermon on the Mount, reads the rain, winds, and flood as the evils that assail the soul, insisting that the house stands only by the doing of what is heard. The Catena Aurea on Matthew (St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841), from which these Latin excerpts are drawn, also carries comments under the names of Rabanus Maurus and others not quoted here, as well as material wrongly ascribed to Chrysostom (the so-called Opus Imperfectum), which is not the saint's own and is therefore not used. The Venerable Bede reads the rock as Christ and the digging deep as the precepts of humility that pluck earthly things out of the heart; his commentary survives in English chiefly in modern copyrighted editions and in the public-domain Catena Aurea.

Patristic sources

Read the sources: Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount (CCEL)