Day 25 - Saturday, March 13
Title: “YOU WILL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS”
Scripture: Matthew 7:18-28
“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Poetry: 
Growing Apples
by Nancy Miller Gomez

There is big excitement in C block today.
On the window sill,
in a plastic ice cream cup
a little plant is growing.
This is all the men want to talk about:
how an apple seed germinated
in a crack of damp concrete;
how they tore open tea bags
to collect the leaves, leached them
in water, then laid the sprout onto the bed
made of Lipton. How this finger of spring
dug one delicate root down
into the dark fannings and now
two small sleeves of green
are pushing out from the emerging tip.
The men are tipsy with this miracle.
Each morning, one by one,
they go to the window and check
the progress of the struggling plant.
All through the day they return
to stand over the seedling
and whisper.

YOU WILL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FRUITS

A seed is both simple and miraculous.  Hold a seed in your hand and you may only see a tiny dry, ugly, withered pip, and yet given the right circumstances for germination, a miracle is unfurled.  Within that seemingly dead seed coat lies the potential for beauty and life.  In our passage today we read Jesus’ own words of caution to his disciples regarding false teachers. Watch out! Make sure that you carefully judge not only the words that come from their mouths, but also the example of their lives. Sometimes it’s difficult to know one seed from another (particularly, if like me and you are not a gardener!); they often all look alike.  But remember, the seed is not the end goal. A seed is not designed to remain a seed, it contains all the information needed to transform into a plant - a plant that will bear fruit, fruit that can be tasted and proven. In order to distinguish a false prophet from a true prophet, Jesus commands his followers to look for the signs of a flourishing plant and examine the fruit that it bears. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.

A seed doesn’t just grow into a tree overnight. It takes months, even years of patient waiting; it takes time. The pomegranate tree takes two to three years to mature before it bears any fruit, the fruit itself takes another five to seven months to grow. That’s a lot of patience - a lot of staring out of the window, waiting for the miraculous, waiting for that hard, tiny stone like seed to take root and transform into the new life of a fruit bearer. This process is miraculous enough to warrant whispers from the men in Gomez’ poem, and yet so very simple.

The transformation from seed to edible fruit also requires just the right soil. Weinman’s The Tree of Life, standing erect in the desert, has found just the right soil, life itself bursting forth in the most unlikely desert conditions. A solid rock seems an unlikely ground for a seed to flourish, and yet in Gomez’ "a crack of damp concrete" gives life, providing the seed with just enough protection from the storms that rage. The miraculous and the simple: those two things need not be incongruous. Jesus tells his disciples that the one who hears his words and acts on them is like a wise man who settles on the hard work of digging out a bedrock foundation for his house. Like the seed protected by the damp concrete crack, the wise man’s house is also founded on the rock. Our lives as followers of Christ also need this firm foundation if we are to produce the necessary fruit.

The pomegranate is often a symbol of eternal and abundant life. In Weinman’s painting Seeds of Mercy III notice how the seeds ooze out of the pomegranates. Mingle this picture with today’s music, and you will hear an echo of Eden and the cultivation of all that was good. Weinman’s pomegranate is good for eating right now, but also bursts forth with seeds that hold the potential for many more pomegranate trees - future hope. Now that’s good fruit! Hearing and heeding the words of Jesus looks like this fruit - fit for the purpose of eating, but also for the purpose of reproducing. A tree that bears good fruit is also a tree that generates more seeds. We see this truth in the quiet regeneration of nature, and we see it in the transformational work of the gospel in the lives of our neighbors and friends. In both situations the foundational bedrock matters; in both situations the process takes time.

As we pray through this period of Lent together, may we continue to participate in the miraculous simplicity of the transformational gospel message. Let us choose to root ourselves firmly in the teachings of Jesus, allowing the Spirit to do the internal transformation that will ooze out into our interactions with others - always looking forward to that future hope found only in Jesus.

Prayer:
For God alone, O my soul, wait in 
silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah”
Amen.
(Psalm 62:5-8)

Sian Draycott
Instructor, Torrey Honors College
Biola University

For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.