Text: Galatians 5:1, 13–25; Matthew 7:15–20
Facebook live: Good Trees Bearing Good Fruit, Bad Trees Bearing Bad Fruit
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
I’m not a fan of shopping. I have trouble picking out fruit at the grocery store.
I usually run in and out as quickly as I can getting what I need.
I usually don’t know what I’m looking for. I don’t want my bananas green, but also, not too yellow or it won’t last the week.
As we heard the Lord Jesus say in the Second Reading:
17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
Mt 7:17
So, as we continue our sermon series, “Living among the Bible’s Trees,” we consider good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit.
Considering Good Trees Bearing Good Fruit and Bad Trees Bearing Bad Fruit, We Realize That,
Though by nature we are bad trees bearing bad fruit, God changes you and me into good trees bearing good fruit.
I. By nature, we are bad trees bearing bad fruit.
The Lord Jesus’ words ring true later in St. Matthew’s Gospel where he writes:
33 “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. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
And the passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians that we heard draws on both Jesus’ words and other similar teachings about faith and its fruit.
The idea of finding grapes on a vine and not on something like a thornbush, of finding figs on a fig tree and not on something like a thistle plant, may seem for us to be a no-brainer.
But what is important, is for us to recognize is the good or bad nature of the tree – is by its fruit – pointing to the source of the tree is good or bad.
Jesus says to beware of false prophets, and, later in St. Matthew’s Gospel in this context, Jesus calls the Jewish leaders a “brood of vipers” and says they are evil – making a judgment.
They are no different by nature than we are.
Out of the abundance of our hearts, our mouths also speak, and Jesus says:
36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matt 12:36-37
Our words give evidence either to the faith that is in our hearts, or to the lack of faith and our need. Rom 10:9–10
That focus on words is not to mention the thoughts that precede the words, and the deeds that follow.
As the works of the sinful flesh, St. Paul lists for the Galatians and us
“sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” Gal 5:19–21
He warns the Galatians and you and me as well that
“… those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” v 21
Rather, as Jesus said,
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit - is cut down and thrown into the fire” Mt 7:19
That judgment is not only on some far-off Judgment Day, but, as John the Baptist has said,
“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees” Mt 3:10
II. God changes us into good trees bearing good fruit.
The Lord Jesus says that
“a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit” Mt 7:18
Implying,
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad” Mt 12:33
But we can’t make literal trees good or bad, much less ourselves as figurative sense.
John and Jesus call for fruits in keeping with repentance, and both John and Jesus’ disciples - baptized for that purpose. Mt 3:8; Jn 4:2
For the sake of Jesus’ death on the cross, God himself, working through his Word in Baptism, changes us …
… from being bad trees bearing bad fruit to being good trees bearing good fruit, fruit in keeping with repentance.
St. Paul says that we are called to freedom,
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:36
Christ sets us free by the truth of his Gospel (Jn 8:32)—his Gospel that he, true God in human flesh, died on the cross for the sins of the whole world, including your sins and my sins.
Christ substituted himself there on the cross for us. Unless we reject God’s enabling call to repent,
God frees us from our slavery to sin, death, and the power of the devil.
God forgives our evil sinful nature and all our actual sins of thought, word, and deed.
God makes we who are bad trees good, so that instead of bearing bad fruit, which brings condemnation, we bear good fruit, the fruit of justification and eternal life.
God’s Word read and preached to us all as a group brings about and continues that change, as does God’s Word applied to us in Holy Baptism, in Absolution, and in the Sacrament of the Altar, where bread is the body of Christ given for us, and wine is the blood of Christ shed for us.
The Lord changes us from bad to good in his way as we live this out in our lives.
So, we know that we bear fruit of good works in our lives and our vocations as brothers and sisters, moms and dads, workers, friends, sons and daughters redeemed in Christ!
And St. Paul in the First Reading specifically lists as our common fruit of the Spirit,
“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” Gal 5:22–23
When we fail in any way to bring forth such fruits of repentance, good works, and fruits of the Spirit - we fail to live in the daily repentance, that God requires.
And considering good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit, we realize that, though by nature we are bad trees bearing bad fruit, God changes us into good trees bearing good fruit.
God has called us to repentance and forgiven our sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
From various sources, we may learn the necessary skills for using our senses and reason to pick literal good trees’ good fruit— oranges, apples, bananas and the like—in our local supermarkets.
But only by the power of the Holy Spirit, reaching past our senses and reason to our hearts through his Means of Grace, can we ever be figurative good trees, ourselves bearing the good fruits of the Spirit that St. Paul calls us to be.
May God grow us to be the good trees he desires of us!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
Lent series, "Living among the Bible's trees" - modified
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