It is important to pay attention to the teacher.
It is very clear who Jesus is talking to throughout the teaching on the Mount.
Crowds were amazed at what Jesus taught. Jesus was not delivering for the crowds. The teaching throughout was specifically geared to those who claimed to follow Him. It was one thing to get hung up with the various signs and wonders that He was doing. Crowds love seeing a spectacle and watching someone who couldn’t walk at all one minute, leap up and down the next is bound to grab the attention of a crowd.
Jesus was teaching His disciples. and anyone who was interested in seeing the hints at this being the breaking in of the Kingdom of Heaven. Anyone interested would have heard Jesus outline aspects of this Kingdom that would require some serious life adjustments. In the light of what was said, there were some things to be done.
Yet, as can often be the case, people can get caught up with the hype of a really great talker and then later on when asked what they said it’s clear that most of it was forgotten. The best way to remember what was heard was to be an ongoing practitioner. Therein lies the challenger for the listeners.
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. (Matthew 7:24-25)
Elsewhere on in His earthly ministry, Jesus would point out that some people would listen to what was said and then get it all choked and clogged up with cares of life, deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things. This all goes back to the matter and condition of the heart. Being a practitioner is the only way that what was said would be a solid reality when the issues of life blow in, rain down on you and make every effort to destabilise your situation.
Being a practitioner is about hearing and doing as an ongoing commitment to doing life the way He always planned it. Doing life as heaven had always designed for earth.
Here is to taking a step from the crowd and experiencing rock solid living because we pay attention to what the Teacher said.
(Photo by Stefan Gessert on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 