Meditationen am Gnadenstuhl - Misericordias Domini (Easter III): Luke 6:46-49
Misericordias Domini (Third Sunday of Easter)
Daily Lectionary Readings: Exodus 32:15-35; Luke 6:39-49; (Sirach 45)
Luke 6:46-49:
[46] “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? [47] Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: [48] he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. [49] But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (ESV)
The Lord indicates what the true distinction between good and bad fruits is by continuing under another figure of speech. He says, “Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and does them, I will show you who he is like. He is like a man building a house.” Now this man building a house is the mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus, who deigned to build and consecrate a beloved and holy house for himself, namely, the church, in which to remain forever.
“He dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock,” for he strove to root out completely whatever base drives he found in the hearts of his faithful. When the traces of earlier habits and unnecessary thoughts had been cast out, he could have a firm and unshakable dwelling place in them. He himself is the rock upon which he laid the foundation for a house of this sort. Just as in building a house nothing is to be preferred to the rock on which the foundation is laid, so holy church has its rock, namely, Christ, concealed in the depths of its heart.…
“When a flood came, the stream was dashed against that house and could not shake it, for it had been founded upon the rock.” The explanation is obvious: the church is often struck by distressful situations but is not overthrown. If any believers are overcome by evils, if they yield, they surely did not belong to this house. If they had taken a stand founded on the rock of faith instead of on the sand of faithlessness, they would have been absolutely incapable of ever being shaken.
-The Venerable Bede, Homilies on the Gospels 2.25.1
Here in the conclusion of Jesus' Sermon on the Plain, according to St. Luke, our Lord promises that the flood will arise against those who hear the Word and follow it and those who hear the Word and either ignore or run away from it. Hardship, illness, tragedy, and sorrow afflict believers and unbelievers alike. If your foundation is firm, if you diligently study God's Word and take the Gospel to heart, then you will have the firm foundation upon which to remain faithful when these trials arrive. The faithful disciple will remain steadfast when the world hates them for their faith. Jesus' sermon ends on a note of Law: those who build their faith on sand will be lost. But the faithful disciple of Christ can hear this Gospel in it: The pain of persecution in this life is nothing compared to the eternal damnation from which our Lord has saved us.
1Arthur A. Just, ed., Luke, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 114.