Produce Fruit

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

PRODUCE FRUIT

Matt 21:33-46

33 "Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 35 "The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said. 38 "But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"  41 "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, "and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." 42 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? 43 "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."  45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. NIV

It is not difficult to understand the meaning of the parable as long as we do not get too involved in trying to determine what everything Jesus describes. In other words, all we need to know is that the vineyard is Israel and all the servants are the various prophets that were sent to Israel, whom they killed, which is true. As far as the fence, the winepress and the watchtower, they could be part of the parable because Jesus used the things of that culture to explain a truth. It would have been customary for a landowner to build some type of wall around his property. Having traveled through Israel, it was interesting to see the Bedouins using a circle of stones as a marker, or fence around land they were allowed to claim as their own. It also would not be uncommon for those who planted vineyards to have some kind of tower. However, the point Jesus was making is that Israel did not recognize the landowners right or claim on his own vineyard and to expect it to produce fruit for him. They knew the right answer to the question of Jesus, but they were not producing the fruit for the Lord, and so he rents out the kingdom of God to those who will produce the fruit. Of course, we know that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches and we need to be producing fruit in our lives, which is in essence the Spirit producing his fruit in and through us which is explained in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. When it comes to the harvest time, the time to gather all the people, it is those who produce the fruit who are in the kingdom of God. It is also interesting that He has put His hedge of protection around and watches over us. Still, it is incumbent upon us to yield to the working of the Spirit, and be living experiencing His fruit in our lives. There should be evidence of this love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control manifested within us. Sometimes we can get too entrenched in doing “Good deeds” that we become almost burdened down with them to the point there is no joy and peace, or we are not gentle or patient, but rather dogmatic in our efforts of doing good. Sometimes we forget the purpose of this fruit of the Spirit is for the benefit of others to be able to enjoy the fruit manifested in us, in fact, we might even forget the Lord enjoys seeing all the fruit in us. He wants his share of the harvest, that is, he wants us. If we want to be in the kingdom of God, or given the kingdom, we do need to producing fruit. Sure, salvation is a free gift of God, but as Israel did not yield to the Spirit, they killed prophets, they left their first love, and turn from God to live the traditions of men. The kingdom was taken from them and given to those who believe in the Son of God who share the fruit of the vineyard with him, who share their lives with Jesus.