Last week we began a discussion about a provocative, and very important question that some in Jesus’ audience, including His closest followers, would surely have been asking one another more than once. If you happened to miss that one and want to catch up, we’re linking it here. We’re building on that by looking in more depth at Jesus’ practice of using stories and visual images as metaphorical representations of spiritual concepts. He wasn’t the only Jewish Rabbi to use those devices, which came to be called “parables”, as teaching tools, but nobody employed the technique more strategically or with greater effectiveness than the radical Rabbi from Nazareth. His tendency for spontaneously inserting a parable at unexpected times and in unusual circumstances often left His listeners asking, “What’s He ‘really’ talking about?” 

A Search for Understanding ~
The discussion we began last week grew out of a fresh realization of how important it is to discern the right answer to that question. Rather than deal in broad generalities, we focused our attention on a brief, but very well known parable that’s often referred to in different ways. Some consider it to be a story about wise vs. foolish builders, others emphasize the issue of foundations. But regardless of what we call it, our primary objective remains the same. We want to understand what Jesus is really talking about – and what we should do about it. This much we can be sure of, the focus of Jesus’ attention was not on literal houses and construction procedures. But before continuing, we should take another look at the parable as Jesus told it. Matthew recorded it for us like this: 

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. (Matthew 7:24–27 NKJV)

As we see in this case, the issues and objectives Jesus sought to illustrate were not always obvious on the surface. But His indirect approach was never intended to make truth more mysterious or difficult to grasp. Quite the opposite. The stories He told and the scenes He described were His means of translating profound spiritual truth into the language of human behavior. Jesus wanted people to understand and experience how God defined intangible concepts like faith, hope, love, compassion, joy, forgiveness and freedom. But though He loved, touched, ministered to, and transformed the lives of multitudes of individuals, His primary purpose and His ultimate objectives reached far beyond that.  

But in light of that, and to get back to our parable, it seems reasonable to ask what Jesus might have wanted His audience to do in response to all the challenging, often counter-intuitive and counter-cultural things He had just said to them. And beyond that, what He might ultimately have wanted them to understand. The answer to the first question is fairly obvious. In simple terms, Jesus wanted those who heard Him to practice what He had just preached. But regarding the second question I think there’s a concept He wanted His followers to understand that, initially, may not be so apparent. The clue that there may have been a perspective in place – one that we didn’t previously recognize – emerges in the mental picture that Jesus chose to use in His parable, and in my opinion, makes its implications powerful in any culture. 

A Perspective at Work ~
The perspective that seems to be at work underlying Jesus’ parable can be encapsulated in this simple observation … In addition to being Israel’s Messiah, the greatest Rabbi ever, and the very embodiment of God, throughout His life and at all kinds of levels, Jesus was a builder! In His work with His stepfather, Joseph, Jesus learned building skills. Most of our English Bibles describe Jesus’ work in the earlier days as a “carpenter.” Actually, the term translated as “carpenter” [Greek téktōn] was used in Jesus’ day mostly in reference to stone masons or general contract workers. But in any case, Jesus was a builder from the very beginning, and that’s what He was in the process of doing when He delivered the famous “Sermon on the Mount” and the parable that concluded it. 

Jesus was actively, consciously, purposefully building a Kingdom that no storm could shake, one that would endure forever, and He was calling others to join Him in its construction. The values and principles He taught that day are representative of the unshakeable bedrock upon which His Kingdom would be founded. And when Jesus challenged His hearers to bring those principles to life, He was calling His followers to be builders. And that is the challenge before all of us who have heard His words.

It’s about Building a Legacy ~
Last week we endeavored to establish that when Jesus was talking about two guys building houses, He wasn’t talking about brick and mortar structures. He was talking about our households, about the legacy that will grow from us and our families. The legacy haphazardly thrown together on unstable sand will never withstand the storms, whether of God’s righteous judgment, or the trials and tribulations thrown at all of us by God’s enemies and the violent, hate-filled empires that Satan has developed. 

The problem is that we don’t tend to see ourselves as ‘legacy builders’ or ‘contractors’ for the Kingdom. We don’t think of our commonplace, everyday intersections with family, friends, co-workers, and hobby partners as actually building anything . . . but God does. It is precisely in those contexts that the power of practicing Jesus’ principles adds depth and strength to the Kingdom that every follower of Jesus is a part of. 

My grandpa was a railroad engineer. He built some things around the little family farm my brother and I grew up on, but he probably would never have described himself as a builder. And though my grandma knew how to handle the business end of a hammer, and fixed more broken things than I can imagine, I’m confident that she never considered herself to be in the construction business. But something happened when I was in my early twenties that would challenge their answers … 

A guy I worked with at the time started talking to me about Jesus, and scenes kept coming into my head as I lay in bed thinking about what that friend had been saying. I remembered sitting on the floor next to my grandpa’s rocking chair when I was probably four or five years old and listening as he read the Bible out loud. And I’d recall my grandma singing songs about Jesus as she hung out clothes to dry. They didn’t know they were builders, but what they did was give me something that kept me listening to those comments about Jesus from my co-worker. It’s likely that none of those who led me to a foundation for my life ever saw themselves as builders, but they were.  

Jesus left his hearers, and us, with a sobering declaration: We’re either going to be Kingdom builders or homeless fools. That sounds harsh, but so are the storms heading our way. It sounds like an ultimatum, and I suppose it is. But all of us, regardless of our race, ethnic origin, gender, or social class have the same opportunity. It begins with listening to what Jesus taught. We can’t do what He said if we don’t know what He said. Then it’s a matter of taking Him as seriously as He was the day He said those things. 

So now, with a bit better insight into what He was ‘really’ talking about and what He ‘really’ said, may the wonderful “Builder” who, in His grace, added us to His Kingdom, use us as His builders, too, to make it bigger and stronger than ever!

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to tweet and share from the pull quotes below.  Each one links directly back to this article through Twitter . . .

• • Though Jesus loved, touched, ministered to, and transformed the lives of multitudes of individuals, His primary purpose and His ultimate objectives reached far beyond that. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 
  • Jesus was a ‘builder’ from the very beginning, and that’s exactly what He was in the process of doing … ‘building’ … when He delivered that profound “Sermon on the Mount” (Matth 5-7) and the parable that concluded it. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • Jesus was actively, consciously, purposely building a Kingdom that no storm could shake, one that would endure forever. He called others to join Him in its construction and values and principles of the unshakeable bedrock on which His Kingdom would be founded. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 
  • Jesus challenged His hearers to bring the principles of the unshakeable bedrock upon which His Kingdom would be founded to life. He was calling them to be ‘builders’. That’s the challenge before all of us who have heard His words. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)  
  • In the wise vs foolish builder parable, Jesus didn’t talk about brick and mortar structures, but about our households and the legacy that grows from us and our families. The legacy haphazardly thrown together on unstable sand will never withstand the storms. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)

Check out Ron’s book, “Right Side Up Thinking in an Upside Down World ~ Looking at the World through the Lens of Biblical Truth” 

 The Kindle e-version  is just $1.99. No Kindle device is needed. E-book readers are included on most computers, tablets, and smartphones. If you don’t have one, the free Kindle app can be easily downloaded directly from the Amazon site on almost any device.

Click here for a “Look Inside” preview at Amazon.

© 2026 Gallagher’s Pen, Ronald L. Gallagher, Ed.S.  All rights reserved.