Jesus teaches that his kingdom will be taken from those who do not produce fruit and given to those who do.
Matthew 21:33-46 33 "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.' 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 41 They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time." 42 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls." 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
I like that Jesus' parable is not directed at an individual. It is directed at the community who claims to be the people of God. In that moment, Jesus was pointing out that the Jewish community had been living in the abundance that God had given them. In doing so, they were to produce fruit. In other scripture, we see that they were primarily to be a welcoming presence of God's love to the world. But instead they closed themselves off from the world refusing to produce fruit for God and instead hoarding God's abundance for themselves. When God sent prophets to show them the error of their ways, they killed them. Now God has sent his son... and they are about to kill him too.
But these are not words that no longer apply to us today. Today, these words of Jesus speak to the church. Do the individuals in your church work together to produce fruit for God? Many churches treat God the way these tenants treated the landowner. Churches are willing to accept what God gives them whether it be eternal life or earthly abundance... but they don't realize accepting God's gifts is not what following Jesus is all about. Following Jesus means we produce fruit for God. If the church is not producing fruit, its fate is pretty clear... God will entrust his kingdom to others who will.
Do we ignore how important it is for the body of Christ to produce fruit?
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