Do You Bear Fruit?

Do you bear fruit? How do you know if you are bearing fruit? Watch whether others come to you. If you see others coming to you to gather from you, or to take a bite from you; it is an indication that you are bearing fruit. I watch birds. Birds gather on trees that provide food, provide shelter.

The Greeks came to Jesus. The Centurion, whose daughter was ill, came to Jesus. People searched after him day and night, brought their sick and needy to Him. Jesus kept bearing fruits of mercy, generosity, and inclusivity.

Jesus bore difficult fruits. In John 8: 1-11, we have the story of the woman caught in sin. And our binary sense of morality says, the scribes and Pharisees were insensitive to women, they brought her to Jesus to trap Jesus, etc. I would think that there was at least a few among them who wanted help her, support her; they were unable because of the society they lived in. They were unable to bear fruits of such great quality. They come to Jesus for that difficult fruit—mercy. Mercy, compassion, inclusivity, etc. are difficult fruits to bear, but it is made possible if we abide with Him (John 15: 1-8). Again read what is foretold about the followers of Christ, 'the world will hate you, persecute you' (John 15: 18); yet you must bear fruit; and that is difficult. You must become like Christ to think and forgive the very people who are crucifying you.

Let us look comparatively on two people who bore fruit in the gospel of Luke: The Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37) and the Rich Fool (Luke 12: 16-21). When the good Samaritan spend all he had, time, resources, money for the sake of the other; the rich fool who had produced a lot of grains and fruits said, “I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones to store this grain and all my other goods…” While the Good Samaritan bore difficult fruits, the rich fool only had quantity of fruits but no quality.

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