More than a founder

In Luke the issue is foundation verses no foundation. Whereas in Matthew it is the wise man or foolish man and we tend to remember Matthew’s account more than Luke’s. The parable uses a simple rhetorical structure with three basic themes: The storm/flood and its results

These three themes are followed first with a man who builds a house with a foundation and then with a man who builds a house without a foundation. This means that the storm and its effect on each of the houses is the climax of the parable. Unfortunately for many today the impact of this story is lost because we are rarely involved in the labour of building our own houses and the digging of foundations involves machinery and not physical labour. In this parable Jesus was evoking a powerful metaphor concerning the building of the spiritual house (temple of the Holy Spirit) in the life of a believer.