when the wind blows

 

June is a strange month, the tension building in the air as sulking heatwaves give way to grumbling thunderstorms and sudden, petulant outbursts of rain.

It reminds me of these words of Jesus, at the end of the ‘sermon’ on the mount:

‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell-and great was its fall!’

Matthew 7.24-27

It is a taut illustration, sparing in words, making the most of repetition and of rhythm like fingertips against a drum. The downpour broke, releasing the deluge (potamos, from which we get hippopotamus, or river horse), and blew, the wind.

And yet, Jesus plays with the words he chooses. In our English translation, the wind beats both houses; but in the Greek, the word describing the actions of the wind is not identical. When it reaches the household built up on exposed bedrock, the wind ‘prosepesan,’ which can be translated, ‘prostrated itself,’ as one might prostrate oneself in worship of a god or a king. But when it reaches the household built on sand, the wind ‘prosekopsan,’ or ‘struck’ it, as you might strike down an intruder.

That is both a small difference — pesan or kopsan — and a huge difference.

Blew, the wind...and when it reached the household of the wise, it recognised wisdom, acknowledged wisdom, submitted to wisdom.

The rain and the deluge, or torrent, and the wind that blows, test the quality of work — of what has been built up — the house being metaphor for the household, for a wife and children and slaves (in the Greco-Roman world, only a freeman could form a household, could be, by law, a husband and father and owner of slaves) whose character has been built up, made strong; or else perhaps undermined or disregarded.

You can’t stop the rains, the flood, the gale. You can only invest in solid foundations, for yourself and for any other human you have responsibility for, or duty towards, at any given point in their lives. Indeed, the storms reveal the quality of your work, which is an out-working of your character. Whether you are wise or dull of mind. Whether you have been sharpened by time spent with others whose lives evidence their wisdom or dulled by time spent with those who know the shortcuts to success.

The wisest of all is Jesus, who is both the word to the wise and their bedrock.