“Good Trees Bearing Good Fruit, Bad Trees Bearing Bad Fruit,” Psalm 148, Gal. 5.1, 13–25; Matt. 7.15–20, Lent 6

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word in our 6^th Lenten Midweek Service is taken from Psalm 148, Gal. 5:1, 13-25, and Matt. 7:15-20.  It’s entitled, “Good Trees Bearing Good Fruit, Bad Trees Bearing Bad Fruit,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                People sometimes have trouble picking out produce at the grocery store. Is that avocado not ripe enough, or is it too ripe? Will that orange be juicy? Is the texture of that apple going to be just right? Standing at the store, we are primarily concerned about the fruit in front of us and not so much the tree it came from. Yet, the quality of the fruit depends on the quality of the tree! As we heard the Lord Jesus say in the Second Reading, “every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit” (Mt 7:17). So, as we continue our Lenten 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 Us into Good Trees Bearing Good Fruit.

3.                The Lord Jesus’ words in the Second Reading come in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, but he is recorded speaking similarly both later in St. Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 12:33–37) and in St. Luke’s Gospel account (Lk 6:43–44). And the passage from St. Paul’s divinely inspired Letter to the Galatians that we heard in the First Reading likely 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’s important for us is to recognize the good or bad nature of the tree by its fruit and the good or bad nature of the tree as the cause of the quality of the fruit.

4.                In the Sermon on the Mount and in the other places where Jesus speaks similarly, the Jewish leaders as false teachers in particular seem to be the target of what Jesus says. For example, in that Second Reading, 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. They are no different by nature than we are. Out of the abundance of our hearts, our mouths also speak, and Jesus says that “on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt 12:36–37). Our words give evidence either to the faith that is in our hearts or to the lack thereof (cf Rom 10:9–10). That focus on words is not even to mention what probably are the thoughts that precede the words and the deeds that follow the words. 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 us 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 Baptizer said before Jesus, “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees” (Mt 3:10, emphasis added).

5.                The Lord Jesus says that “a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit” (Mt 7:18). So, Jesus says, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad” (Mt 12:33). But we can hardly make literal trees good or bad, much less ourselves as figurative trees. John the Baptizer and the Lord 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 the Lord Jesus’ death on the cross, God himself, working through his Word in Baptism and all its forms, changes us from being bad trees bearing bad fruit to being good trees bearing good fruit, fruit in keeping with repentance.

6.                In the First Reading, St. Paul says that we are called to freedom and that Christ has set us free (cf Jn 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 us bad trees good, so that instead of bearing bad fruit, which brings condemnation, we bear good fruit, the fruit of justification and eternal life.

7.                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 individually in Holy Baptism, in private 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. In all these ways, those whom God has sent bring out of their good treasure what is old and what is new (Mt 13:52), and those of us who are served by them can do the same.

8.                As St. Luke uniquely reports, John the Baptizer to some extent tailored his teaching about the good fruit in keeping with repentance to the different vocational groups that were baptized by him, such as tax collectors and soldiers (Lk 3:10–14). So, we know that we likewise have fruit of good works that we do in keeping with our vocations.

9.                There is also fruit of good works that we have in common. For example, our Psalm calls all to praise the Lord, even mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, all peoples, princes and all rulers, young men and maidens, old men and children. With the author of Hebrews, we can say that our sacrifice of praise is the fruit of lips that acknowledge (or “profess” or “confess” [NIV; cf ASV]) his name (Heb 13:15). 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 in keeping with our vocations, and fruits of the Spirit—as we will fail—then we live in daily repentance, and so we are daily comforted with God’s forgiveness.

10.             As we have continued considering our “Living among the Bible’s Trees,” we today specifically considered good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit. 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.

11.             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—avocados, oranges, apples, 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 describes in the First Reading. A study of that passage was the basis for Anglican hymnwriter Timothy Dudley-Smith’s text that we sang as the Office Hymn.₂₀ We close now by praying again its final stanza: “Fruitful trees, the Spirit’s tending, May we grow till harvests cease; Till we taste, in life unending, Heaven’s love and joy and peace” (LSB 691:4). Amen.  Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.

20. William R. Blohm, “875 Fruitful Trees, the Spirit’s Sowing,” Hymnal Supplement 98: Handbook, ed. Paul Grime and Joseph Herl (St. Louis: The Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, 1998), 142.