GOOD FRUIT


So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.
(Matthew 7: 17-20 – NAS)


Jesus, in warning His followers about the possibility of false prophets and teachers, used the analogy of comparing people – the prophets and teachers especially – to fruit-bearing trees. His initial comparison was between plants that bear fruit (such as grapes and figs) and plants that do not (particularly thorns and thistles). He now fine-tunes the comparison between good and bad teachers to one of good fruit trees and those that bear bad fruit.

In modern life, as consumers of fruit, we have become very far removed from the trees that bear the fruit we eat. A person could go their whole life now without seeing a single plant that feeds him or her. Thus, the issue of whether a plant is delivering good fruit or bad fruit is very distant from our awareness. We only see the good fruit in the grocery store.

There could be many causes for a plant or tree to bear bad fruit. The root system could be constricted and thus not delivering nutrients to the plant. Or the root system could be eaten away by animals, with similar results. A disease may have invaded the plant, or a parasite or bug of some sort which steals away the life of the plant. Or it may be that by simple genetics, a particular plant produces a less pleasant, more sour type of fruit.

As Jesus observes, and His listeners in that day would have readily understood, trees and plants that produced fruit that was “bad,” whether diseased or simply unpalatable, were destroyed. They were cut down. They were often pulled up by the roots, so that no remnant of the bad plant would remain to produce fruit of any sort again. And they were burned, in order to keep any stray cutting from taking root. Farming and tending trees is a pragmatic business and does not allow for sentiment. That which is perpetually unsatisfactory must be removed, lest whatever the cause of its “bad fruit” spread to other plants, either by disease, infestation, or genetics.

The initial analogy was applied to teachers and prophets who might come among His followers. Jesus tells us that we will know the quality of the teacher by the quality of the fruit he produces. The simple logic of farming, of maintaining the plants that feed us, provides a guideline for judging those who would lead and teach us. What is the quality of the fruit they have produced?

Does this teacher or prophet provide nourishing fruit, or is what he provides merely pulp and bulky substance? Is the fruit sweet and satisfying or is it sour and unpleasant to taste? This is not to say that everything a teacher or prophet says has to be sweetness and light and unchallenging. The “bitter herbs” of cooking carry sharper flavors that in turn enhance the flavor of the main food substance they are cooked with. Those bitter herbs are a far cry from substances that are badly spoiled or even poisonous to us. The dividing line remains the same: there is that which nourishes us and there is that which our bodies reject. We spew out the bad, but take in the good.

So. We will know the good teachers and prophets from the bad by the fruit they produce.

And what might that be?

The modern age has raised the craft of persuasion to the level of an art (though whether or not it is a fine art can definitely be debated). On all sides we see advertisements that try to convince us that this soap or that shoe or the next beverage is the very best thing in the universe and we must have it in order to have a good, happy life. And often enough the product will be of sufficient quality to be worth our spending money for it. Such things, of course, do not of themselves provide that good, happy life we desire, but they may be tools that can help us along the way.

If we can persuade each other about objects and products, how much more so can we do it with our teaching and personalities?

“Oh, he’s so pleasant to be around that of course his teaching must be good! Right?” And so, people listen, absorb, and start to adjust their behaviors to whatever that teaching might be, never weighing just what the fruit of the teaching actually is.

Let us remember that the object of our lives is to be the people described in the Beatitudes: people who are outwardly directed to those around us, caring, attentive, humble. We have been told to not put our own interests first, but rather to serve the Lord first and foremost, and that as a consequence all our needs will be attended to by our heavenly Father.

What might we hear from the False Prophets and Teachers?

Such a one might declare that he and he alone knows the time of the end of the world and the day of the Lord’s return: therefore, give all to him and follow him, and you will be the select who rise to glory!

Ridiculous? But we have seen, and that recently, such a scenario, where those who did not heed scripture (for Jesus himself said that no one would know the hour of his coming again, except God the Father only). They gave all to the false prophet, and when things did not come to pass as the man declared, those followers lost all. They lost not just the money and belongings they had given away, but also trust, faith, love – all those qualities that enrich our interactions, damaged by the experience.

Or what of those teachers that tell you to focus all your energies on yourself, telling you that you should make choices the benefit you first and foremost – for it’s only after you have achieved your goal of glory that you can do anything for others. Right?

Whole organizations have grown up based on such a message. In the worldly context, many of them even thrive, because the human creature is by nature selfish. We believe that we do have to take care of ourselves first. It is a primal, primitive reaction to our broken, fallen world.

But Jesus reminds us that that is not what God has designed. The Lord created beauty, and He still desires us to achieve that. As our Father, He is the one that watches out for us and provides for us. If we put our trust in that truth, then we have no need to listen to the teachers who preach, at the core, that ultimate selfishness is the greatest human achievement. Since we, as followers of Jesus, already know that we are greatly loved and are provided for in all our needs, we are free to extend that care and love to others.

Jesus began the analogy by applying it to false prophets and teachers. But inevitably, we cannot escape the implication that He also wants us to apply it to ourselves. He has called us to be His followers, which means teaching others His Way as well as living it ourselves. We, then, must also look to the fruit we ourselves produce.

What is your fruit like? What is mine like? Are we bringing forth sweet, juicy apples, or are they the sourest, most inedible crabapples in existence?