Earlier this week I was reading the Sermon on the Mount as part of the M’Cheyne plan. There’s a passage in the Sermon on the Mount that has always haunted me, and it again gave me pause.
In Matthew 7:21-21, it says:
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’
I’ve read this wondering what these people were like — these people who said to Jesus, “Lord, Lord,” — because I wonder if they would look like me. They did things in God’s name that I wish that I could do — might works! But they’re ultimately rejected, unknown to Jesus.
As I continued reading, I wondered what insight the next verses might offer. How would they inform my reading of the previous passage?
24 “Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”
So was the foundation of their salvation based on their might works? Was their justification found in the fact that mighty works actually happened? — “Of course God knows me. I invoked his name and I was effective!”
Today’s “Lord, Lord”
At this moment these verses speak to me in a particular way. As I reflect on this passage in light of church abuses of power with common justifications like, “But look at all the people who came to know Jesus because of him!” I wonder what “mighty works” in today’s church that would be counted as naught on “that day” as described in verse 22. The perpetual idol in my church circles has been doctrine and interpretive certainty. Verse 22 in my circles might look like:
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not have the right teaching? Did we not end every sermon and connect it with Jesus? Did we not guard the truth, resist moral decline, and work against those who were enemies of the faith?’
I’m starting to realize that Jesus’ response may also be, “I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.”
This latter section about building a house on a firm foundation — that is the key. Unfortunately, the familiar lyrics, “Jesus, you’re my firm foundation” seems a bit too broad because “Jesus” has come to mean many different things. In this passage, what is the “sand”?
Not robust faith.
I want a more robust faith than the one I grew up with. I’m learning that in some ways the faith I received was a fragile faith. I do not want a faith that crumbles when new knowledge about the nature, culture, history, humanity, etc. challenges the particular hermeneutic on scripture that I learned in church. Some examples: “What if the world wasn’t actually created in seven days?” “What if the flood didn’t actually happen?” “What if new knowledge about cultural and historical context changes a particular interpretation of a text?” “What if sexuality and gender are as much a sacred mystery as the human soul?” As I got older and experienced the world, both in its beauty and brokenness, that particular hermeneutic of scripture that I grew up with was challenged.
I didn’t want my faith to be so rigid that it would break under pressure. I needed a better foundation than one based on identity politics, positions on ethics, or a faithful (read, “stubborn”) stance in relation to scientific inquiry. Would my trust in Jesus wane if historically there wasn’t a global flood? Or a big fish to swallow a prophet? Would my relationship with God and the scriptures break? I want a faith on the rock, not on the sand.
So what is the rock (v24-25)?
What is the foundation of faith that manifests as behaving lawfully (in contrast to “behave lawlessly” in v23)?
Behaving lawfully
Jesus taught that two commands encapsulate the revealed will of God (“The Law and the Prophets”). In Matthew 22:37-39 says,
37 He [Jesus] said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
There’s another passage in Matthew with a very similar vibe to this “Lord, Lord” passage that came to mind. In Matthew 25 Jesus teaches about people who are also surprised by who God receives and rejects; it builds upon this summation of the Law and the Prophets. In this passage it is not about might works or invoking God’s name; in this passage we find that those who show love and mercy to those in need find themselves welcomed, but those who ignore the needy are rejected. And just like chapter 7 where Jesus says, “I never knew you,” knowledge of Jesus and being known by Jesus is paralleled with knowing and being known by the needy through our acts of love and mercy.
I want to build a faith that is built on love because we have a savior who practiced and taught us to love. Love is the rock that the wise one builds upon such that no rain, flood, wind could upturn the house. There is nothing on this earth that could ever undo Jesus’ love and his call to love — no research, no discovery, no social movement, no progression of culture. If I build my faith on anything other than love, it is like building on sand.