Multiple choice about today’s scripture passage:
____a. Jesus is teaching his disciples a lesson in horticulture.
____b. A person is either good or evil and will pay an eternal price for character.
____c. Matthew, as always interested in fitting Jesus’ life into Jewish history, shows him again in conflict with the Pharisaic legalism.
I’m no horticulturist, but I’ve bought and planted good trees and not-so-good trees. Genetics matter in trees, and the best way to harvest good fruit is to plant a good cultivar (and they usually cost more to obtain).
I’m of the opinion that we are all capable of good or evil deeds—not just born to one or the other. Jesus says we show our character by our words and actions. (The inductive argument of Aristotle seems better than the deduction of Plato here.)
In Matthew’s story of Jewish history moving toward fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy (12:18-21), Jesus is a corrective to the too-rigid, unforgiving rabbis who seek to trap him and negate his influence as teacher and healer. Jesus tries quietly to avoid confrontation with His critics, but He is finally pushed to a response: “you brood of vipers!” He calls them, and He points His listeners forward to eternal consequences for words and actions, not backward to the Pharisees’ deuteronomic and levitical rules.
In Advent we look forward, not back, but we must live in the present. Today we can plant good trees, speak kind words, do good deeds. May our prayer be for the coming of a good and fruitful world. May our actions help to usher it in.
Doug Watson