Matthew 12:33-37
“Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
And now it gets just plain ugly. The confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees, that is. They leveled charges that Jesus is in league with the prince of demons himself, and now he points the finger back at their slander. All in all, this is one of those passages you want to read as quickly as possible if not skip over entirely. Two things, however, that might make our reading, if not more pleasant, at least more profitable.
First, a word on context. It’s been noted by many that Matthew is the hardest on the Pharisees of any of the four evangelists. It may be that this stems from Matthew’s own rivalry with the Pharisees of his time. By the time he writes, you see – around 80 AD or so – the Jewish Temple has been destroyed and the Pharisees have risen in stature and status even as the Sadducees (the keepers of the Temple) have declined. Who knows – Matthew himself may have been a Pharisee or Scribe at one point or another. But now he is trying to keep his fledgling community of Jews who confessed Christ together, and he accomplishes this in part with a harsh portrayal of the Pharisees.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s little question that Jesus tangled with the Pharisees and other religious authorities. But there’s also little question that Matthew emphasizes these tensions more than the other evangelists and likely does that because the Pharisees of his time are his main competitors for the hearts and souls of his people.
Second, even amid this harsh exchange, Jesus makes an interesting point. It’s not simply that good fruit proves a tree is good or that bad fruit proves a tree is bad, but that a good tree can only produce good fruit and a bad one bad. Which makes me wonder: Christians have spent a lot of time telling people they should produce good fruit. That is, telling and encouraging and exhorting people to good behavior. If what Jesus says is true, however, then maybe we should have spent more time just telling people that they are good trees. That is, telling them that God loves and values them and wants the best for them…and then stepping back to see what happens.
Because we are. We are those people for whom Christ died that we might know just how much God loves us. We are those people who God called good, even when we fall short. We are those people God not only loves but also has called, equipped, and commissioned to share the word of God’s great love for the world with everyone.
We are good trees, and because we are, then we’ll bear good fruit. So maybe the Christian faith should be more about declaration than exhortation. If we can believe what Jesus says, anyway.
Prayer: Dear God, remind us of your great love for us and embolden us to tell others that you love them just as much. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
David, as a parent educator, I know two things that bear on your wonderful reflection on the Matthew text today to be true:
1. What gets attention gets repeated. If we name others “good trees” and expend more energy naming and pointing out their “good fruit,” I believe that those are the actions and attitudes that will be repeated.
2. Our kids become what we tell them they are. So let us name them as God has already named and claimed them – “good trees” – then, stand back and watch them become precisely that and bear “good fruit.”
Blessings,
Marilyn
I also think this would take away some of our anxiety about discernment: should I do a or b? Or something else?
If you’re looking at a peach tree, you don’t think “Which is the one and only perfect peach I should pick and eat?” You just pick a ripe peach and eat it.