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Crushed Fruit
Constance Hastings April 22, 2024
The Trouble with Jesus means treasures most dear to God are the ashes of our lives
Funny how religions have these strange dramas. Some wail and beat chests, some interrupt the day kneeling in a certain direction, others smear their faces with burnt leaves, all making a spectacle of themselves in flaunting how good and holy they’re supposed to be. But take an inside peak into their palaces of piety, and you don’t have to be a deity to know it’s all a sham. Give it up please, or at least stay home and out of sight.
Yeah, that’s what Jesus said, too. He wasn’t in favor of ostentatious displays and public relation ploys to show how righteous one was. He even recommended praying in a closet alone, away and out of sight. What’s more, he got crazy about it saying don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. (Try doing that for a little mental workout.) And if you decide to donate to a good cause, keep it between you and God. (Maybe the IRS should know but that’s on your conscience, not mine.)
You mention the shams of religion. God knows there’s a multitude out there who has benefited from it. Celebrities and politicians get a lot of mileage there. Preachers have become rock stars and are experts at whipping up a congregation to Amens and hands raised. You’d think you were at last weekend’s Superbowl. Face it, it’s often a good show. That’s what we live for, right?
Take a Private Position
So why was Jesus so adamant about keeping the disciplines of faith under cover? “Give your gifts in secret…pray to your Father secretly…fast, comb your hair, wash your face.” If God is the only one who knows about it, then only you and God know what it’s for.
So, what is it for? Reducing your tax liability, getting on the good side of God, losing weight? How come people are supposed to do this, and what do Wednesday’s ashes prove?
Not to deny these things won’t happen, but it’s really about You, You alone as well as You collectively. It’s a time of deliberation about what is important, where your dependencies lie, what needs to be relinquished to God. It’s more than sacrificing chocolate until the Easter basket has a big brown bunny in it. Ultimately, it’s the right to oneself giving way to sacrifice. That sacrifice could lead to reward, not the good life we all desire, but good in what life should be.
A World View or World Vision?
Need a suggestion? How’s your lifestyle these days? If you live in this present time in the United States of America, even if you live on the streets, you’ve got it pretty good compared to third world countries when it comes to a measure of wealth and basic health. While inflation has taken a bite out of what’s affordable, other parts of the world don’t have a tenth of what we have stored in our closets. Our lifestyles, health, needs take precedent over the rest of the world, and too bad for them.
How’s that? Take those chocolate bunny ears you’re ready to bite off. Look into where much of our chocolate comes from. Follow the money. Modern day slavery utilizes very young children, some stolen or sold into servitude, to harvest cocoa beans. Yep. What is a treat for our children is born of tragedy for others.
But we treat people in this country not much differently. Let’s take one issue of which we’re vaguely aware and agree it should be addressed: homelessness. As the above graphic shows, the causes of homelessness are many and complicated. (Figure 3)
Agencies that serve the homeless are up against all of this. Not one societal effort alone will solve it.
Denial: Not a River in Egypt
Overwhelmed? Makes giving up chocolate for Lent look easy. Yet, pretending it’s not your problem and just driving by that guy with a cardboard sign asking for help isn’t right either. Handouts might get someone through the night, but even those who are not very street smart know giving cash is a ticket to cheap drugs. Want to love your neighbor? Run into that secret prayer closet and ask for direction.
(Couple of things lacking in the graphic: those who are immigrants at our border or refugees running from a war they didn’t cause. Spend some more time on your knees with that one.)
Where’s that leave us with God? Honestly, do you really think God cares if you give up some kind of food for six and a half weeks? None of it would make a substantial difference in reducing child labor, helping the homeless or bettering your relationship with your neighbor, let alone with God.
What does get to God is how we expect the world to revolve around us. To examine these issues, to make or advocate for change in our lives and community that upholds justice and love of neighbor is what God desires. When you focus on what is beyond your own little realm and take notice of the brutal reality of another’s world, the challenge is clear. It’ll mean a measure of self-denial, attention to the have-nots, and acceptance that it will cost you in time, money, resources, all treasures stored up on earth. The old ways become ashes, becoming what is given up and sacrificed for the purposes of heaven.
God does take notice of how you give, pray and fast. For when we make choices viewed as treasure stored in heaven, we are blessed because our world is changed.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
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The Trouble with Jesus: His words grow like a vine,
thin trails of thought getting thicker with meaning.
Jesus kept talking. He’d just said it was time to go. But he kept talking. The tension in the room was a weighty blend of grief, some denial, maybe even suppressed anger at what he was saying held in place by the exhaustion of the week. Tonight was not how it had started, an exhilarating parade with the crowd calling him the new king, a king who would save. (Mark 11:1-11)
Deviating Thoughts
But he kept saying things like being lifted on a cross even as he almost desperately called to the people to believe he was sent from God. Those gathered in the city for the Passover festival had heard about his miracle of bringing a friend back to life after four days dead. (John 11:1-44) But most were not buying much more of his message than that. Still, he just kept talking.
Earlier in the evening, he had done something weird, uncharacteristic for one who would be king. He’d dressed like a servant and washed their dirty feet, calling upon them to serve others likewise. (John 13:1-17)
Then he’d said the unthinkable, that one of them, these who had followed and learned of him for three years, would betray him. Maybe that’s why he’d said to Judas, “Hurry. Do it now.” Judas was the treasurer who paid for their meals and gave money to the poor. (John 13:27-30) Do you think he left to pay off any threat to their Rabbi and themselves? Jesus kept talking.
In all the confusion, Peter had declared he’d die for his Lord. Jesus silenced the room when he stated Peter would do go so far as to three times deny he even knew Jesus before that very night was over. (John 13:38) Next came some kind of talk about going away somewhere and how he would send a Counselor to teach and remind them of what he had said. (John 14:26)
Restless, Weaving Thoughts
It was too much, how he kept talking even when he said they should be going. It was as if Jesus knew when they left that room he never would have again the chance to tell them all he wanted. So he weaved in his thoughts, let them creep out and hold on where they would, seemingly just talk but growing into so much more.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” Jesus kept talking but hold on to that thought. A vine. The image is one similar to what he is doing now. It grows, spreads out, weaves up into and among places to which it can grasp, wrap itself, become stable-tight, and then move out again. His words have been like that all night, thin trails of thought getting thicker with meaning.
Jesus fleshes it out. His Father, the one from whom he comes, is the gardener. The work of this Gardener-God is made clear from the beginning: to produce fruit. The gardener trains the branches on the vine, how to grow so light is available to all parts of it. The parts that impede ability to produce fruit are removed, pruned.
Such it has been with these friends of Jesus. The message he has given them has cut away at their ambitions, desires, misconceptions of God’s purpose in them. It’s pruning that can be severe but necessary for the fruit of the vine. Not all will accept being part of the vine. The separation leaves a wound on the vine like something nailed deep into flesh.
Severe, sometimes necessary pruning can also be a cleansing, yielding process, as if having feet or hands washed. The health of the vine and the expected fruit must be protected from disease. Yielding to the Gardener-God’s work maintains the well-being of the branches.
Roving, Winding Thoughts
From the True Vine come branches, and from the yielding of the branches is fruit. There is an interconnectedness in the image that belies the translations. Eight times Jesus states the importance of remaining, abiding, being joined to him. “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”
You won’t know growth. You can’t be effective. You won’t have life in the abundance the Gardener-God would have for you. You won’t last because you won’t produce fruit. Abide, remain in, and be joined to the message Jesus brings.
To abide is to be not just a branch, an extra appendage, but an integral part of the vine. By an intimate conjoining of Love the True Vine connects with its branches. In this Christ-likeness, the branch is identified with The True Vine. Yet, this metaphor is not limited to individualism.
“You may ask any request you like, and it will be granted.” Not a blanket give-a-way is this. Throughout Jesus’ words the plural form of “you” is stated. You entails the interconnected, gathered believers who remain in, are joined to, and abide in the True Vine. In the altogether growing, cleansing, pruning of the branches is God’s desire in producing fruit.
Meandering, Heavy Thoughts
Jesus kept talking. His message is understood as the tenuous wisps of leaves sprouted from the tips of the branch connected to the True Vine. His discourse is cloudy in its first vision, requiring multiple re-examinations as the vine sends out more branches.
Jesus kept talking. Fruit is the desire of his Gardener-God. Fruit will be taken from the vine of Love and crushed into a cup from which Jesus soon will pour out his life. The True Vine stared into his fate.
He kept talking.
