Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 19:1–24; Acts 28:1–15
This Week’s Readings: Jeremiah 23:16–29; Romans 8:12–17; Matt. 7:15–23
“So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” (Matthew 7:17)
An apple tree can only produce apples. A fig tree can only produce figs. There are good trees. And there are bad trees. Some are even poisonous. Each will always produce fruit according to its own kind.
Jesus is clearly talking about people. But what is He trying to say? Is He saying that good people do good things, and that bad people do bad things? If that is true, we should get rid of all the bad people.
Many people believe that good people go to heaven and that bad people go to hell. But, that is not what the Bible teaches. The opposite is true. God often chooses His servants from among those who are guilty of the most horrendous of sins. He chooses bad people for heaven.
To find the answer, we need to trace backwards to see what kind of tree we came from. We discover that:. 1) All people come from the same tree. 2) There were two trees in the middle of the Garden. The one we came from was the bad one.
All humans come from the Knowledge of Good and Evil Tree. As “good to the eye” and appealing as our fruits might be, we produce death, just like the tree we came from. Only one human has ever lived who was not of our father Adam's sin: Jesus is the Seed of the woman alone. He alone is of the Tree of Life.
So then, does this mean that we are all going to hell? No, not so fast! Jesus has grafted us into Himself so that He might bear fruit in us.
The really ironic thing about trying to produce fruit is that we cannot do it by trying. It happens on its own, without us even being aware that it is happening. (In the parable of the sheep and the goats, the sheep did not even know they had done good works.)
God works through the Baptized of Christ without their even knowing it. He works through each of His Baptized children. He even works through the Baptized eight-day-old baby. That baby does great works before God.
In Christ alone, we are transformed from being bad trees, into being good trees. In His Tree of Life, we cannot be otherwise.
“Grant to us, Lord, we implore You, the Spirit to think and do always such things as are right, that we, who cannot do anything that is good without You, may be enabled to live according to Your will; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.” (Collect for Eighth Sunday after Trinity)
The Rev. Carlton Hein, Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, Loveland, CO, is the author for this portion of the Trinity season.