A house of cards is a phrase with multiple meanings. Literally it means a deck of cards placed one at a time, each leaning against another, until the rising (and very unstable) results tower into the air.
There is only one problem with a house of cards. The slightest movement of air, or a bumped table, or even someone walking across the floor, can shift just one of those cards, just one, and the entire “building” comes crashing to the ground.
Any other meaning of this catchy phrase stems directly from its literal meaning. A business that is a house of cards is large and substantial on the outside, but its financial stability is tenuous, and all it takes is one card, and the entire business comes tumbling down.
A political leader? Expose one inelegant escapade such as the abuse of a governor’s ability to manipulate city traffic over a single bridge, and all the other cards begin to waver. The governor’s standing at the top of his game becomes a precarious position to maintain.
Our families can also become a house of cards. We smile in public, drop our children off in tony automobiles, and we are punctual for church every Sunday morning. However, we are one argument, one accusation, one discovery away from the divorce courts.
The Jews were a people under subjection when Jesus came onto the scene. They were under the thumb of Rome, subject to a higher authority, and incapable of making decisions on their own.
In the midst of this, they had built a house of cards, pretending to be a powerful people, large and substantial on the outside, standing at the top of their game, smiling in public, yet just one shift away from crashing to the ground.
John 19:12 tells of Pilate’s willingness to release Jesus from his imprisonment. Verse 13 reveals where Pilate seats Jesus on the stone platform in the open court in front of the praetorium, the place of final sentencing.
Jesus’ presence was the wind about to tumble the Jews’ house of cards, the bumped table, the vibration in the floor that would shift just one insubstantial support, and in that shift, the Jews’ entire make-believe world would come crashing to the ground.
Verse 14 relates Pilate’s words: Behold your king!
The Jews could have had a house built upon the rock of Jesus, but they preferred their house of cards. In Verse 15 they cried, “We have no king but Caesar.”
They built their house of cards on Rome and Roman authority. They elected Caesar to be their king, and that same king would bring their house of cards fluttering to the ground.
Do we choose a house of cards, or do we choose a house built upon the rock of Jesus? Do we trust in our businesses that can fail, or do we let Jesus be our safety net? Are our political leaders our moral guides, or do we stand on Jesus? When our families seem shaken by the world, where do we turn?
Psalms 78:35 tells us God is our Rock, our most high God.
Isaiah 30:29 proclaims God as the Rock of Israel.
Deuteronomy 32:31 says the world’s rock does not compare to our Rock.
2 Samuel 22:47 cries, Blessed be my Rock, the God of my salvation.
Matthew 21:42 speaks of Jesus, the stone the builders rejected, the Rock that is our foundation.
1 Peter 2:6-7 reveals Jesus as our cornerstone, our Rock, elect and precious.
Jesus is the Rock upon which we stand. Without him, all is sinking sand, nothing more than a flimsy construction built of cards, ready to tumble down at the whim of the world.
When we build our house upon Jesus, nothing can bring us down.
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Code: FGO.C.04.14.vp