A Lesson in Christian Spirituality
This is a guest essay by The Rev. Dr. David Scott formerly professor of systematic theology and ethics at VTS. David is an old friend and one of the founders of Scholarly Engagement With Anglican Doctrine which has morphed into Mere Anglicanism.
“You Will Know Them By Their Fruits”
A Lesson in Christian Spirituality
Christian Spiritual Life
Christian spirituality is a believer’s relation to God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Believers relate to God at both a conscious level and a level below our daily awareness. God seeks and sustains this relationship in many ways. The Christian spiritual life starts in, from and by God. God seeks us; the key issue of Christian spiritual life is whether and how we seek, discern, and respond to God’s reaching out and to us. How we learn to seek and respond to God depends on how and where we look. In this essay I write about one way and place Jesus teaches us to look, namely the world of nature.
Christians distinguish themselves by seeking God in and through Jesus Christ. In and through Jesus, God shows himself as heavenly Father. The distinctive mark of Christian spirituality is believers uniting with Jesus as the way to the Father, as the truth of the Father, as the life of the Father. Christian spirituality, in distinction to Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu or any other spirituality, is Christ-centered, Christ mediated.
How do we seek, discern and respond to God in Jesus Christ? The Christian community, as the Body of Christ, is the context in which believers discover and grow in their relation to God in Jesus Christ. In the Church Christians are joined to Christ in baptism. In the Church their relation to Christ is nurtured by the Eucharist. In the Church they learn Christ through preaching and teaching. In the Church believers learn Christ through the example of others. In the fellowship of the Church, Christ is present and active through His Spirit. Directly or indirectly, Christian spirituality—our living relation to God in Christ - begins and continues in the Christian fellowship.
Believers, however, should cultivate in their lives what is planted in the church. Prayer, Bible reading and participation in public worship are structured ways individual believers dwell in Jesus Christ and develop their relation to God in him. A Christian receives, but he or she also should engage in these personal disciplines.
Thus, training in Christian spirituality is a communal and individual work.
The grandeur of the Christian spiritual life is that the most important thing —–God’s relation to us and ours to God—-is the central concern of a disciple’s daily life. In every situation and moment, he or she is or can be doing the most important possible thing: seeking first the Kingdom of God.
“Seeking first” does not mean that we start the week with God in church and then spend the rest of the week minding our own affairs. “Seeking first” also does not mean that we make God our top priority and assign lesser, but separate, importance to family, work, health, etc. “Seeking first” means seeking God, at all times, in all situations, and in every relationship. This constant attention to God transfigures the daily events and activities of our lives. At every moment, the spiritual person is doing what should come first in his or her life: seeking God and striving to shape his or her life according to God. Notice I say “seeking” and “striving”. The believer knocks, waits, seeks, looks, hopes and asks. But the believer seeks, knowing that God in Christ has reached out to him first and continues to reach out at every moment. Christian spirituality is a work, a discipline, a practice. But this work is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Meeting Christ in the Gospels
One way to grow closer to the mind and will of Jesus Christ (better: responding to God in Christ reaching out to us) is through “meeting” Christ in the Bible, especially in the Four Gospels. A Christian’s goal in personal Bible study is to decide how the biblical witness to Jesus Christ can and should affect his or her own life.
Believers can and should attune their spiritual antennae by “following” Jesus in the New Testament Gospels. “Following Jesus in the Gospels” means reading the Gospel stories about Jesus and letting these encounters attune us to God in our daily lives. God the Father offers Jesus as the way, the truth and the life for us. By following Jesus in the New Testament, we want to see better with his sight; hear better with his hearing; feel better with his emotions. Reading “between the lines” in the stories of Jesus in the New Testament, we can train our ability to discern God in our own lives. Reading the Bible is a wonderful resource for entering into Jesus, the Father’s gift.
The Christian is not Jesus; he or she follows Jesus, or hopes God the Father will find him or her in and through Jesus. St. Paul, in is Letters to the churches, speaks of being one with Christ, of being in Christ and Christ being in him. But Paul always called Christ the head, and said that believers were the members of Christ’s body. While Jesus is the way, the truth and the life for believers, he remains Lord. Jesus leads us; we follow him.
This essay
In a series of essays I am meeting Jesus in The Gospel According to St. Matthew. The aim is to provide a focused way for readers and myself to enter into the mind of Christ. The first essay in this series focused on Jesus’ counsel to “watch”; the second on Jesus’ criticism of “hypocrites.” In this essay we focus on what I label Jesus’ fruits test.
In the Gospel According to St. Matthew, the author recounts Jesus providing his hearers with this test on two occasions. In Matthew (and in Luke’s Gospel chapter 6: 43ff) , Jesus states this fruits test first in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew then has Jesus state this “fruits test” a second time in the context of his clash with the scribes and the Pharisees (Matthew 12:33-35) . In this essay I ask how can this fruits test feed believers’ work of Christian spirituality?
We enrich our meeting Jesus in the Gospels if we pay attention to the structure and dynamics of each Gospel. We should also patiently attend to the immediate and larger contexts of the verses we study. Therefore, I spend time examining both occasions in Matthew’s gospel in which Jesus refers to his fruits test. Only then do I connect the fruits test to our Christian spiritual life. The author of the Collect in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer counseled this patience with the text, when he wrote that we should “read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” Scripture.
The Fruits Test in Matthew’s Gospel
Matthew has Jesus announce the fruits test first in the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7). In this setting, Jesus is instructing his disciples.
A. The Sermon on the Mount
For this essay, we assume, with many New Testament experts, that Matthew’s version of the Sermon presents Jesus as a second, new Moses. Moses was, for the Jews, both a Prophet and a mediator of God’s Torah. Matthew was deeply concerned about presenting Jesus as God’s Messiah, God’ anointed one, who prophetically interpreted and fulfilled God’s Torah. Although Bible translators sometimes translate Torah with “law,” they should look for words that better convey more than divine civil law, cultic rules or moral norms. Torah means a life path—the way of walking in right relation to Yahweh. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew presents Jesus as a second Moses teaching God’s Torah.
More specifically in his Sermon on the Mount, Matthew has Jesus instruct his disciples about what kind of people can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In the “Beatitudes” Matthew has Jesus characterize those who are “blessed,” i.e. those who belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. Those belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven are salt and light, (5:13, 14) ; they truly fulfill the law (5:20); they do not harbor anger (5:22); lust (5:28); do not divorce except for reasons of unchastity (5:32); do not invoke vows in God’s name (5:34); do not resist evil- doers (5:39); love their enemies (5:44); do not practice religious hypocrisy (6: 1-18); do not store up treasures on earth (6:16); do not serve two masters (6:24); do not worry about their life (6:25-34.) Clearly, Matthew presents Jesus as deeply concerned about the kinds of people who can be part of God’s Kingdom. Jesus is God’s anointed person to call his people back to a right relation to Him, similar to Isaiah and the other prophets of the First Covenant (Old Testament).
Having made these observations about Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount as a whole, I turn to the immediate context of Jesus’ fruits test.
The more immediate context of the fruits test is chapter 7. In this chapter Matthew strings together several of Jesus’ teachings, making no obvious attempt to connect them. “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged” (7:1); “Do not give what is holy to dogs” (7:6) ; “Ask and it will be given you” (7:7); “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you” (7:12) ; “Enter through the narrow gate” (7:13).” Then Matthew presents the fruits test for the first time.
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every three that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:15-20)
Although we can see no obvious connection between this declaration of the fruits test and the preceding passages, we can see a logical connection between 7:15-20 and the verses that come next. In 7:15-20, Jesus announces the fruits test, which directs disciples to the goodness or badness of prophet’s behavior. In verses 21-24, Matthew presents Jesus’ teaching that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” When Jesus directs attention to “doing the will of my Father in heaven” rather than just “saying Lord, Lord,” he clearly makes behavior, deeds, and the test for rightness. Thus, I consider these two groups of verses to be connected and coherent with each other.
Three Initial Points about the Fruits Test
Having looked at Jesus’ first statement of the fruits test we can step back and make three observations.
Is Jesus Green?
When Jesus asks rhetorically “can a bad tree produce good fruits?” , he directs attention to a “natural process.” Biologically, like produces like. Grape vines produce grapes, not thorns; fig trees produce figs, not thistles. Each kind of growing thing produces its proper kind of fruits, not something different.
Jesus secondly makes usefulness the standard of “good” and “bad” in nature. Grape vines and fig trees are good; thorn bushes and thistle bushes are bad. Grapes and figs are food and help people; thorns and thistles don’t help people; they hurt people. Jesus measures good and bad in this fruits test from the standpoint of human need. Nature is not, according to this fruits test, sacred or good in itself.
So, Jesus was not a worshipper of nature; not a “tree hugger,” if we mean someone who thinks nature is sacred or divine. For Jesus, natural processes were not divine. Christians should note that Jesus assumes that nature (like the Sabbath, and according to the Genesis creation stories) was made for man, not man for nature. This insight should help Christians see the difference between their spirituality and spiritualities that view nature as a god/dess which humanity should serve.
However, Jesus’ fruits test, and much else in his teaching, shows that he could read nature and see truth about God. This is, I will be claiming, the spiritual value of Jesus’ fruits test for us today.
The Problem: False Prophets
We see in this first statement of the fruits test that Jesus (or Matthew) thinks the disciples need it because false prophets exist. Some who speak in God’s name, like prophets, speak the truth. Others who speak in God’s name don’t speak the truth. God’s people depend on those who speak in God’s name. If some who speak in God’s name speak the truth and others don’t, God’s people face a major problem. How can a follower of God distinguish true from false prophets? Thus, Jesus offers the fruits test in relation to a concrete, vital issue facing those who wish to know and obey God’s will. The fruits test should help disciples distinguish between true and false prophets.
Discerning true from false prophets probably seems quite remote from the daily life of readers of this essay. But on second thought, we should see that when Jesus offers the fruits test as a way for people to assess, he implicitly expects people to apply this test to himself.
Matthew reports the time John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask whether Jesus was “the one who is to come” or “should we wait for another.” Jesus’ answer implies his own fruits test.
Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised; the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me.
Jesus avoided, as he often did, giving a direct answer to John’s disciples. He gave an indirect answer; look at the fruits and judge for yourselves about the tree. Jesus’ indirection is another lesson for us about Christian spirituality.
Jesus’ response to John the Baptist’s disciples threw the responsibility to see rightly and judge rightly back onto them and John. Jesus does this often in relation to his disciples, to the crowds, to those seeking his help, and to the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus thinks the evidence of his identity is there for all to see. The blind receive their sight; the lame walk, etc. But those who see and hear these deeds must evaluate and respond for themselves. Jesus healed the paralyzed man lowered through the roof, “when he saw their (the carriers’) faith (Matthew 9:2). Like so much in Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, the real reference is not those who are listening but Jesus who is teaching.
Inside and Outside: Being and Knowing
This leads to the third observation we want to make about the fruits test. It implies a double movement of judgment, a double movement between inside and outside. According to the nature of good and bad trees and people, the movement is from inside to outside, or from nature to its fruits. The good tree and a good prophet produce good fruit and good deeds. Conversely, a bad tree produces bad fruit and a bad prophet produces bad deeds. If we want to say this in philosophical terms, we would say that at the ontological level, at the level of being, the movement is from inside to outside, from nature to product, from essence to manifestation, from truth to appearance.
However, if we consider the path of understanding and evaluation, the path disciples need to follow in relation to prophets, and Jesus, the fruits test says they should move from outside to inside. They should look at the fruits to determine what kind of tree they come from and should look at a prophet’s deeds to determine whether that prophet is good or bad. Again, if we want to make this point in classical philosophical terminology, we say the noetic movement (the path of knowing) is from outside to inside, from appearance or manifestation to inward nature or essence.
B. Jesus’ Clashes with the Scribes and Pharisees
Having examined Jesus’ first statement of the fruits test in Matthew’s Gospel, we turn now to the second statement. Matthew places this in Chapter 12. In this chapter Matthew collects a series of stories about clashes between Jesus and the Pharisees.
Matthew opens his chapter with a story about the Pharisees criticizing Jesus because Jesus’ disciples harvested and ate ears of grain on the Sabbath. After stating Jesus’ rebuttal to this charge, Matthew tells about the Pharisees criticizing Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. Next, Matthew relates the Pharisees accusation that Jesus casts out demons “by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” Matthew follows this by presenting Jesus’ rebuttal of this claim. Jesus answers that if he casts out demons by the Spirit of God, then the “kingdom of God has come to you.” That is, Jesus invites the Pharisees to apply Jesus’ fruits test; Jesus’ good works could come from a good source; not from Beelzebul, but from God, by the Spirit of God.
In this context of clashes with the Pharisees, Matthew has Jesus repeat the fruits test.
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.” (Matthew 12:33)
Matthew then has Jesus continue:
You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. “(Matthew 12:34-35)
In this further statement, Jesus changes the images but retains the idea. Here Jesus speaks of heart/ speech; good treasure/bad treasure: good things/bad things. Heart and good treasure parallel good trees; bad teaching and good things parallel bad and good fruits.
Having set out the texts, let’s observe the similarity between the fruits test and Jesus’ teaching about the heart as the source of evil
In Chapter 15, Matthew presents another clash between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes. They have criticized Jesus because his disciples “break the tradition of the elders” by not washing their hands before they eat. Jesus responds with a counter-charge: that a legal tradition the scribes and Pharisees support (money for support of religious institutions excuses non- support of parents) subverts God’s Commandment to honor father and mother. After quoting Isaiah’s prophesy that “this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, teaching human precepts as doctrines” Jesus calls the crowd to him and teaches them:
Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles. (Matthew 15:10-11)
Matthew next presents Peter asking Jesus to explain this “parable” (of what goes in and what goes out of the mouth.) Jesus responds:
Are you still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. From out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile. (Matthew 17-20)
The reader can easily see the similarity between Jesus’ fruits test and his teaching about the heart as the source of moral evil.
I underscore the parallels between Jesus’ teaching about evil coming from the heart, and about good and bad people bringing out good and bad from their good and bad treasure because we can better see how deep the divide is between Jesus’ teaching and that of the scribes and Pharisees.
The scribes and Pharisees were concerned about ritual cleanliness because they thought ritual uncleanness (not washing the plate and cup) could cause immorality in a person. But, when Jesus said that evil deeds proceed from an evil heart, he moves the focus from ritual uncleanness to moral evil. Matthew makes clear that Jesus is deeply concerned about the difference between moral evil and ritual cleanness. In chapter 23: 25, Matthew has Jesus tell the scribes and Pharisees they “clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisees! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.” Jesus thought the scribes and Pharisees held a totally misguided belief and teaching about moral evil. He repeatedly charged them with spiritual blindness and of being blind guides. We see here one aspect of the abyss that divided Jesus and the religious leaders of his day.
The Larger Context of Matthew’s Gospel
Toward the beginning of his Gospel, Matthew recounts a statement of John the Baptist using the image of trees and good fruit.
But when he [John the Baptist] saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor.’ for I tell you , God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is laying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:7-10)
Here John the Baptist uses the image of fruits in two ways. He speaks about bearing fruit that befits repentance. And, he warns that every tree that does not produce good fruit will be destroyed. Both ways of referring to fruits differ from Jesus’ use of this image.
The context of John the Baptist’s usage is warning about final judgment. Whereas Jesus uses the fruits test in relation to false prophets and in the context of his criticism of the scribes and Pharisees, John the Baptist uses the image in statements about God’s final judgment (the wrath to come).
We should note, however, that John the Baptist uses the epithet “you brood of vipers,” the same phrase as Jesus uses in his criticism of the scribes and Pharisees in Chapter 23:33. Possibly, Jesus obtained the image of tree and fruits from John the Baptist but used it in different contexts.
The Limits of Jesus’ Fruits Test
Jesus’ fruits test implies that a person’s inward moral nature determines the moral quality of his or her outward actions. A good tree produces good fruit; a bad tree produces bad fruit. An evil person does evil deeds; a good person does good deeds. Jesus teaches thereby that good acts and vicious acts come from within a person, from what he calls “the heart.” At the level of moral assessment, this is the meaning of Jesus’ fruits test.
At first glance, everyone might agree with this model of human morality. If we read that Mother Teresa fed starving people on the streets of Calcutta, we say “of course she did that; she was a good person.” Or, if we read that a person has a long crime record, we readily conclude: I could never trust this person; he or she has a “criminal mind.” Good deeds come from good people; bad deeds come from bad people. Morality moves from inside to outside.
However, Jesus’ tree-fruits model is only valid as a general rule of thumb. If we reflect on our daily experience, we realize we can’t use it an infallible rule about human morality.
The Mafia Boss Who Loves his Granddaughter
We know that “bad people” sometimes perform good deeds. We often observe people, whom society consider thoroughly evil, doing good deeds. The Mafia boss may be have a criminal mind and heart. He robs, extorts and murders with great criminal intensity. But the Mafia Boss can also be a loving father; he takes his grand-daughter to the zoo; he visits his sick father in the hospital; he gives money to a widow whose house has burned down. As Mafia boss, he is a moral monster. Privately, he is a loving father, son and friend.
Conversely, people whom we know are well-intentioned and good-hearted sometimes hurt people. The “saintly” person who “gives his life for others” can speak rudely and act cruelly. The believer who wants to live according to the Ten Commandments, whose heart is “in the right place,”can act immorally. People are not morally consistent. Bad people can do good things; good people can do bad things. This experience teaches us.
Habits and Acts
Relevant for assessing Jesus’ fruits test is the philosopher Aristotle’s teaching about moral habits and moral acts. By moral acts, Aristotle meant intentional courageous, prudent, benevolent or temperate actions. By habits Aristotle meant a person’s inner dispositions to act well or badly. Courage is a habit; its corresponding moral acts are courageous deeds.
Aristotle taught that moral habits and moral actions influence one another, and this is the key point for us. By doing individual courageous acts, a person builds up in himself or herself the character strength (good habit) of courageousness/courage. But, reciprocally, a person who has developed the habit of courage tends to act courageously, not cowardly.
Parents usually follow Aristotle, whether they know it or not. They tell their children to brush after every meal, because they want their children to develop the good “tooth -brushing habit.” Parents rightly believe, if their children brush after every meal, they will tend to do so for the rest of their lives, because they will cement the teeth brushing virtue into their character. People with good habits and bad habits (Aristotle and the later philosophical tradition call good moral habits “virtues” and bad moral habits “vices”) tend to produce good moral acts and bad moral acts respectively. But these same acts have a moral feedback effect, reinforcing and strengthening their corresponding habits. Human morality is not just from inside to outside, as Jesus’ fruits test implies.
What have we gained by reviewing Aristotle on habits and act? We have learned that the value of Jesus’ fruits test for moral analysis is limited; it serves as a general rule, not as an all-sufficient theory of human morality. At the deeper level of Christian spirituality, however, Jesus’ fruits test is very important.
The Fruits Test and Christian Spirituality
I live part of each year in Bavaria, Germany’s most southern part. My part of Bavaria is forests, lakes, rivers, pastures and the Alpine foothills. During the last seven years, I discovered how farmers and their families see much more in nature than I can. Clouds, rainfall, wind direction, the feel of the air, tell them much more than they tell me. Farmers “see” nature. I, a product of suburbia, enjoy the scenery.
Jesus saw in nature more than lessons about planting, gathering into barns and the quality and quantity of milk. Jesus’ fruits test shows how Jesus could “read” nature and find, reflected there, truth about God and human beings. Learning to do this from and with Jesus forms us in Christ’s image. This is the value of Jesus’ fruits test for Christian spiritual life.
The most important spiritual lesson Jesus found reflected in nature is to “strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) When Jesus viewed the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, he discerned God’s gracious provision and concluded that his heavenly Father would provide even better for humans. Jesus concluded: we should not indulge in senseless worry about our physical welfare in this life. Seeking God’s kingdom was most important. Worrying about what we will eat or drink or what we will wear cannot add a single hour to our lives. If God adorns the grass, which tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not care for us who are of much more value?
Jesus saw a lot about God and humans reflected in nature. His fruits test, his teaching about the lilies of the field and birds of the air, or about the house built on sand or on rock (Matthew 7:24-27) show us that Jesus discerned his heavenly Father’s truth mirrored in nature. Jesus’ parables, which Matthew collected in chapter 13, show us the same. The parables of the sower; the good seed and the weeds; the mustard seed ; the yeast mixed with flour; the net thrown into the sea, catching fish of every kind remind us how Jesus could see God’s truth reflected in what we call “nature.”
Even if we live in the city or suburbia, we access nature. Nature is around us and, through our bodies, we are part of it and nature is a part of us. Looking and listening for God in every situation, we struggle against the spiritual blindness Jesus criticized so harshly.
When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is read.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is read and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. (Matthew 16: 1-3)
The scribes and Pharisees wanted a sign, proof of Jesus’ authority. Jesus thought they were blind to God’s ways already available to them, ways which Jesus could see.
Conclusion
Christian spirituality is a discipline, a learning process, a practice. Christian spirituality is learning to see as Jesus saw, to hear as Jesus heard, to respond to God as Jesus responded. We grow spirituality as we integrate this learning progress with Jesus into our daily lives. Christian spirituality is learning to live with Jesus. His fruits test is a truth about human life Jesus saw reflected in nature. It exemplifies one doorway into the “mind of Christ.
XXX
(The Rev.) David Scott, Ph.D.
October, 2008
Seattle, Washington and Murnau, Germany
Davidscott1234@aol.com