A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
How do we account for the fact that our own fruit is imperfect? We are not so good a tree that all of our fruit is entirely an image of the ideal. And if we are not this good tree, this tree that bears only and entirely good fruit, is there hope for us?
We can see that Jesus himself seemed to authorize patience in regard to trees that were struggling to bear fruit, that such trees were actually worthy of special care and attention on the part of the gardener.
And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ (see Luke 13:8-9).
A tree that is sufficiently rotten will need an external intervention if it is to be brought back to health. But let us mix our metaphors slightly. If the source of the life of the tree is inadequate then no mere triage of the symptomatic parts will be sufficient. It would then lack the flowing inner life necessary to yield desirable fruit. In such cases a new source of life must be necessary, as when lifeless branches are grafted onto a vine.
and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree (see Romans 11:17).
So if we seem insufficient of ourselves to bear desirable fruit, perhaps there is another tree unto which we might be grafted. And what is the one tree which bears only good fruit? It is the cross of Jesus himself. He is the one who has invited us to abide in him as branches on a vine.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (see John 15:5).
If we persist on our own apart from the life flowing from Christ our fruit will go from bad to worse as what little even what little sap we have in our branches dries up and dies and we wither in the hostile weather and the storms of life. But if we are attentive and cherish and nurture our connection to Jesus then the fruits of his Holy Spirit will become increasingly manifest in us.
I will show you what someone is like who comes to me,
listens to my words, and acts on them.
Jesus wants to be the foundation of our lives. His words are more than good ideas or true philosophy. They are a solid foundation because his words empower what they command. He is not like someone who commands us to build a house but then provides no help. He himself is actually meant to be the chief laborer in the project of our lives.
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain (see Psalm 127:1).
The risk for us is that we prefer to remain rooted in our old self, no matter how many thorns and brambles it contains. We sometimes build on sand just to avoid dependence on anyone, even Jesus himself. But it is not only true that apart from Jesus we may not succeed. It is rather the case that we cannot. For he is the only truly solid and stable foundation for our lives. His life, flowing from the tree of the cross to us, is the only thing that can transform that which is rotten within us and make us to bear the good fruit he desires.
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