Bible Stories for Grownups –

Three Parables of Jesus

Matthew 7:21-29, "The Wise Man Built His House upon the Rock"

Matthew 25:1-13, The Foolish and Wise Bridesmaids

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Marriage Procession. Click to enlarge. See below for provenance.

Matthew 7:21-29, "The Wise Man Built His House upon the Rock" (9/25/2009)

One of the songs we learned in Sunday School is this one:

The wise man built his house upon the rock

Back in the last century, just before Christmas in 1964, much of the State of Oregon was flooded by heavy rains that drenched the whole state and melted snowpack in the Cascades. My grandfather died that week, and my parents and sister and I had to travel from one end of the state to the other. Going to the funeral, we took Interstate 5 up the Willamette Valley to Portland and Interstate 80 (now 84) east to La Grande. By the time we came home, a brand new bridge over the John Day River on Interstate 80 had washed out, and we had to come home by a different route. We saw a lot of water.

The engineers and builders planned for something like the 500-year flood when they poured the foundations for that bridge. As it turned out, the bed of the John Day River was sandy for a long way down. Two months later, a flood much bigger than they planned for came down the river and washed away the sand below the foundations. Since they hadn't built their bridge upon the rock, it came tumbling down.

Always plan for the 1000-year flood by building your house on the Rock, Jesus Christ. How? By doing the will of God.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. [Psalm 6:8]

When Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. This was because he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not like their scribes.

Matthew 25:1-13, The Foolish and Wise Bridesmaids (7/20/2009)

The main thing we learned in Sunday School about the five foolish bridesmaids is that they didn't bring any oil for their lamps, and consequently they didn't get to go to the wedding. Unfortunately, the story is more grim than that. Fortunately, if you read it all the way through, it's self-explanatory. The great theologian Bob Dylan puts it this way:

You only get one chance to meet the bridegroom. Be ready.

Luke 10:29-37, The Good Samaritan (9/3/2009)

Jews didn't like Samaritans. Even if they might have had a few Jewish ancestors who had escaped being deported along with the rest of the Ten Lost Tribes, mostly they were a lot of foreigners who had been imported from pagan countries. They had interfered with the rebuilding of the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem. They claimed to follow the Law, but they sacrificed on mountains, not in the Temple. They didn't accept the writings of the prophets, and they didn't listen to the teachings of the rabbis. In short, they were not us.