Faithful on Fridays Blog

Matt. 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12; Luke 20:9-20

As Jesus prepared for His exodus from our world He told the people more stories to solidify His last points. “Picture this …” He said, and so we must. A landowner sent servants to tenants in order to collect the fruit from his vineyard; their responsibility was to produce a good crop. Those tenants not only refused, but shamefully treated the servants and even killed the last one, the beloved son. The landowner is definitely returning and Jesus’ ending for the religious leaders is a quote from Psalm 118:22-23 saying, in essence, ‘the stone is rejected, but will be the ‘cornerstone’; God will do this marvelous thing. Those leaders were fuming since they knew Jesus was talking about them so they sent spies to catch Him in His words leading to His arrest. As with any parable, that’s the lower story. It’s the focus of many, but it really doesn’t help us as believers preparing for His return. Let’s check out the upper story.

We know that Jesus is the Cornerstone or Head of the Church, but He says something fascinating,

… the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you (religious leaders) and given to people producing its fruits. Anyone who falls on this Stone will be broken, and when it falls on anyone it’ll crush him. Matt. 21:43-44

Now we’re getting somewhere. As we prepare our lives, influencing our families, churches, and neighbors we must fall at Jesus’ feet in repentance allowing Him to break us. If we don’t, when He returns on Judgment Day, it’ll fall and crush us. Sobering, I know, but the Lord is clear: repentance and faith are our first fruits. 

There are remarkable passages in Scripture that discuss the upper story of fruit; allow me to summarize. A spiritually healthy person bears good spiritual fruit (Matt. 7:15-20), a branch (you) that remains on the vine (Jesus) bears abundant fruit (John 15:1-5), you’ve been set free from sin and your fruit is a life that’s set apart for God (Rom. 6:20-22). Spiritual fruit increases your credit with God (Phil. 4:17), good works are good fruit, and character that’s fruitful is filled with virtue, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, and loving people (2 Peter 1:5-10). Peter went on to say … that’s the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (vs. 11). 

James succinctly wrote that pure, spiritual wisdom is gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, impartial, sincere, and peace-filled; that’s a harvest of the fruit of righteousness in Christ (James 3:17-18). 

The kicker of Jesus’ parable for us is being aware of developing fruit in our lives due to our vital union with Him. That’s where it all begins. Spend quality time with God and experience the fruit of intimacy:

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23a-b