What a blast!

In 1982 an unusual and potentially fatal artwork went on display in an American art gallery. The piece of “modern art” consisted of a chair affixed to a shotgun. The best view was gained sitting in the chair, looking directly into the gun barrel. The gun was loaded and set by timer to fire at a predetermined moment within the next hundred years. Amazingly people waited in line to sit and stare into the shotgun blast path! The viewers all knew the gun could fire at point-blank range at any moment, but they were gambling that the fatal blast wouldn’t happen during THEIR moment in the chair.**

There is no denying the foolhardiness of those who gambled that the “artist” had set the timer to some far distant date, thus allowing them to get away before a shotgun blast separated body from soul. Yet such gambling with eternity is exactly what countless millions do all the time. They hazard a chance that they can get away with sin. Foolishly they ignore the risk until the inevitable self-destruction.

Jesus spoke about (and to) such people often: So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell--and great and complete was the fall of it.  Matthew 7:24-27 Amplified Bible

This parable may have been based upon an actual event, and we certainly see plenty of examples of such poor planning today. However the ecclesiastical implication of a much loved Sunday School favourite goes deep into the spiritual realm.  The picture is not of two men deliberately selecting building sites, but it contrasts one who carefully chooses and prepares his foundation with one who builds in a hap-hazard manner. 

This is more strongly emphasized in Luke’s rendering of the story: “He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood arose, the torrent broke against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been securely built or founded on a rock.” Luke 6:48

It’s not enough to just hear the words of the Lord; we must be about obeying and doing them as well. Our reliance upon Christ, His promises, confidence in His protection, and a hope of heaven through His blood must be such that earthly calamities do not destroy all that we have built in and through faith. When the storms of life beat around us (and they will) our foundations need to be deep enough to weather them.

This foundation is the person, blood, and righteousness of Christ, and is as a rock, firm and strong, which will bear the whole weight that is laid upon it; it is sure and certain, it will never give way; it is immoveable and everlasting; the house built upon it stands safe and sure.

The unwise build upon shallow foundations that simply melt when exposed to storms and trials, they take their chances, like the foolish viewers of the shotgun artwork, hoping that nothing will happen, even when they know that it must…eventually.  

An old Rabi said… “The man whose knowledge exceeds his works, to whom is he like? He is like a tree which had many branches, and only a few roots; and, when the stormy winds came, it was plucked up and broken. But he whose good works are greater than his knowledge, to what is he like? He is like a tree which had few branches, and many roots; so that all the winds of heaven could not move it from its place.” 

** As far as I know the gun has not fired yet!