A fruitful season
'He who abides in Me.. bears much fruit'
Peter Carruthers
Meteorological autumn began on 1 September; astronomical autumn begins on the equinox, which, this year, falls on 23 September. So, depending on how you look at it, autumn has come or is coming soon.
Hedgerow fruits
Autumn is the season of ‘autumn colours’ and, as John Keats famously wrote, of ‘fruitfulness’. Already the hedgerows are a blaze of colour and brimming with colourful fruits: black elderberries and blackberries, red hips and haws, purple sloes and wild plums, and green and yellow crab apples.
Most of these are edible in some form. Blackberries (Rubus fruticosus)1 are the sweetest, safest, most popular and most versatile. Most of the rest need to be cooked first, with sugar, and made into cordials, jams, jellies, ketchup, or wine. Sloes (the fruits of blackthorn, Prunus spinosa) and wild plums (damsons or bullace, Prunus domestica) are usually steeped in alcohol. Rose hips (from Rosa canina and other species) must be boiled, mashed and strained to remove the fine hairs inside the fruit; these hairs are an irritant and are extracted to make an itching powder! Rose hips are very high in Vitamin C and were traditionally used to make syrups to boost intake, but have largely been supplanted by other sources of Vitamin C.
There are many other berries in our hedgerows just now. Look out for the shiny, red berries of hedgerow climbers, white bryony (Bryonia dioica) and black bryony (Tamus communis). But don’t eat either; they are both poisonous! The hanging bunches of the guelder rose’s (Viburnum opulus) translucent, bright-red berries are very striking. The spindle is particularly distinctive, with its slightly square stems and pink-and-orange berries.
‘Season of … fruitfulness’
John Keats’ ‘To Autumn’ (1819) is undoubtedly the best known poem about autumn in the English language. Like so many of my generation, I ‘did’ Keats at school and I can still recite the first few lines of the poem. With his hallmark extravagance, Keats depicts the abundant fruitfulness of autumn as a ‘conspiracy’ between the season and the sun to “load and bless [the vines] with fruit”, to “bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees”, to “fill all fruit with ripeness to the core”, and to “swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells”.
Biblical fruitfulness
The Bible has much to say about fruitfulness.
God made a fruitful creation. “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit”, He declared on the third day (Genesis 1:11). On Day 5, He said, “let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures”, and He blessed sea creatures and birds commanding them to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth” (Genesis 1:22). On the sixth day, he commanded humanity (and by implication land animals) to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). Later, through Isaac’s blessing of Jacob, the Lord calls His chosen people to be “fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 28:3-4). ‘Keatsian’ abundance is God’s intention for His creation and His people.
Fruitfulness is central to God’s economy as revealed to ancient Israel and recorded in the Old Testament. Abundance is a sign of blessing and favour, consequent on loving God, obeying His commands and walking in His ways (Genesis 1:29, 2:8-9; Deuteronomy 28:1-14). Scarcity is the outcome of disobedience and turning away from Him (Genesis 2:17-19; Deuteronomy 28:15-24; Jeremiah 4:22-26). Especially, the land is rendered unfruitful and defiled by sexual immorality, bloodshed and idolatry (eg Hosea 4:1-3).
Fruits are also used many times in the OT as metaphors and similes. The wife of the man who “fears the Lord and walks in His ways” is like a fruitful vine and his children are like olive branches (Psalm 128:1-3). The ‘beloved’ of Song of Solomon is likened to an “apple tree among the trees of the woods (Songs 2:3), and the “fragrance of [the Shulamite’s] breath like apples” (Song 7:8). The Lord showed how those who heeded His message through Jeremiah were like good figs and those who ignored it were like bad figs (Jeremiah 24:1-10).
Jesus also talked much about fruit. He warned His followers that false prophets, false teachers and even false messiahs will come (Matthew 24:4-5, 24-25),2 but that they can be recognised by their fruits.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:15-20).
In contrast to the false prophets and teachers, Jesus’s true followers are appointed to be fruitful - to bear much lasting fruit (John 15:5,8,16). And, in the gospels and the other books of the New Testament, but recapitulating many OT themes, He sets out the ‘how, what and why’ of fruit bearing.
How to be fruitful
The Psalms open with a clear statement of the criteria for bearing fruit.
“Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season” (Psalm 1:1-3).
Jesus restates this principle in the ‘parable of the sower’ (Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:1-15). The seeds that fall on good soil and bear fruit represent those who “hear the word [of God, of the kingdom], understand it, accept it, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience (Matthew 13:23; Mark 4:20; Luke 8:15).
In His discourse on the ‘true vine’ Jesus elaborates further on fruit bearing (John 15:1-11). Fruitful disciples are those who abide in Him.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).
‘Abiding’ embraces ideas of both remaining and relationship.
Those who abide in Christ are like the seeds that fall on good ground, because, unlike the seeds that fall on stony ground or are choked by the weeds, they delight and meditate on, accept and understand, and hold fast to the word of God, even in the face of trouble and persecution, and of the cares and pleasures of the world.
Abiding also implies a close, intimate communion with Jesus. The branches that bear fruit are those that remain connected to, united with, the vine. Especially, this abiding/intimacy/communion is characterised by obedience (to Jesus’ commandments), love (for Jesus and one another) and (fullness of) joy (John 15:9-13; Psalm 16:11).
These two keys to fruitfulness, ie understanding and holding fast to God’s word and loving communion with Jesus and one another, are timeless imperatives. But, as I have argued elsewhere, they have a special significance in our present times, in our current ‘season’.
“The eleventh hour is a time of harvest, a time when I believe God has a special purpose for his people in rural areas, a time to return to the Scriptures with new fervour, and a time for deeper fellowship with Jesus and with one another.”
Across the world, Christians are being assailed both with the worries and temptations of this world and with tribulation and persecution, arguably on a scale unknown since the days of the early church. Yet, as the above makes clear, in such times, the call to fruitfulness is louder and more urgent than ever.
Pruning the fruitful branches
Fruitfulness depends, therefore, on action on our part. But, the Lord does not just leave us alone to get on with it. Jesus opens His discourse on fruitfulness by reminding us first that it is His father who is the vinedresser - who ‘cleanses’ the vine by removing the fruitless branches (‘deadwooding’) and pruning the fruitful branches so they will bear more fruit and will go on bearing fruit (John 15:1-2,6).
This reflects a theme throughout the Bible. God uses discipline, chastisement, adversity and suffering to make His people more fruitful. “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes”, wrote the psalmist (Psalm 119:71). Using an ‘athletic metaphor’, the writer to the Hebrews calls us to ‘run the race’ with perseverance and endurance mindful of the example of the saints who have gone before and looking to Jesus who endured the suffering of the cross for the joy beyond it (Hebrews 12:1-3). “For the moment”, he goes on, “all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Ultimately fruitfulness is contingent on death and resurrection. Jesus use of the sowing and, by implication, burial of seeds (because the seeds that are not buried do not even start to grow) in the parable of the sower is suggestive of His more explicit statement of the necessity of death to bearing fruit.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).
Jesus is referring primarily to His own sacrificial death. But He also sets out a natural and spiritual principle. This month’s Seeds of Prayer, echoes this theme, suggesting that it has a particular application to our present ‘season’.
September is a month of both endings and beginnings. Summer ends and autumn begins. Holidays finish and the academic year commences. Parliament returns after the summer recess. Farmers conclude most harvesting operations and prepare for the start of a new farming year in October. By the end of the month, trees will begin to shed their leaves in preparation for their winter dormancy and many animals will start preparing for their winter sleep.
In rural life, in church and nation, and perhaps even in our own lives, we see much that seems to be coming to an end. And the coming months will almost certainly bring new changes and challenges, for many people and, especially, for believers. Yet, as T S Eliot wrote, “the end is where we start from”. As hymn writer Nathalie Sleeth wrote, '"in our end is our beginning:". And, as Jesus said (both referring to His own death and resurrection, and expressing a natural and spiritual principle), "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12: 24).
There are times when we need to let our own works, projects, programmes, organisations and institutions die, so that the Lord can do a 'new thing' and so that we can bear much fruit (Isaiah 43:19; Philippians 3:12-14). And now may be such a time.
What fruits should we bear?
The things that make us fruitful are themselves fruits. In Psalm 1, rejecting ungodliness and eschewing ungodly company and delighting and meditating on God’s law are both fruitful virtues and virtuous fruits. A righteous person is fruitful because righteousness is a good fruit (Proverbs 11:30; Philippians 1:11; Hebrews 12:11).
Similarly, in the parable of the sower, those who bear fruit are characterised by hearing, understanding, and heeding God’s word and by goodness, honesty and patience (Matthew 13:23; Mark 4:20; Luke 8:15), ie by righteousness.
In the ‘true vine’, abiding in Jesus and the obedience, love and joy that characterise those who abide in Jesus are both the conditions for and consequence of fruitfulness.
However, just as the Lord tends and prunes His people so that they bear more fruit (as above), so also He adds fruit to their fruit.
As an outcome of his righteousness, the ‘man who is blessed’ of Psalm 1 prospers even in the dry season, ie in troubled times (Psalm 1:3), and qualifies to take his place and be given the floor in the (divine) council (Psalm 1:5, see also 1 Corinthians 6:3), ie to have godly authority.3 Similarly, in the ‘true vine’ those who abide in Jesus and His words and bear fruit qualify to have their prayers heard and heeded (John 15:7, 16).
In the ‘sower’, the fruitful seeds are defined by producing other seeds. This is suggestive of making disciples, especially when considered alongside Jesus’ other uses of seed and harvest metaphors and similes (eg Matthew 9:35-37; John 4:31-42, 12:24).
Paul’s letters give us further understanding of fruit and fruitfulness. Through Jesus’ atoning death, “we have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God” to yield “the fruit that leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Romans 6:22-23). Free from the law through Christ, we no longer “bear fruit for death”, but are “raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4-5). Those who, through faith, have the righteousness of Christ and in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, bear the “fruit of the Spirit”, which “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). Those who “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him”, bear fruits of good works and the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10).
Why be fruitful?
In the ‘true vine’, Jesus tells us that fruitfulness is proof of His followers’ discipleship (John 15:8). The fruits of love, joy and peace not only sustain us in the face of the world’s hostility (John 14:27, 15:11, 16:33), but are also evidence to the world that we are authentic followers of Jesus (John 13:34-35, 15:8).
The ultimate purpose of fruitfulness, however, is to glorify God. Just as the Lord created a fruitful earth, which is good (Genesis 1:20,25,31) and declares His glory (Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20), so He makes His disciples fruitful so that He is glorified (John 15:8). Especially, He disciplines and prunes us, through “various trials”, so “that the genuineness of our faith, much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7).
Future fruit
The biblical story begins with God creating a fruitful earth and planting a garden full of fruitful trees, with the tree of life at its centre (Genesis 2:8-14). It ends with a ‘garden-city’ with the tree of life in the middle, yielding its fruit every month (Revelation 22:2).
John’s vision of the tree of life growing on either side of the river flowing from the “throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1-2) echoes Ezekiel’s vision of the restored temple with a ‘river of life’ flowing from “under its threshold” with “fruit trees of all kinds growing on both banks of the river, bearing fruit every month (Ezekiel 47:1-12). Both visions recapitulate Eden’s trees and rivers. Both visions declare that humanity’s access to the tree of life denied after the Fall is restored and its fruit and leaves are for nourishment and healing.
As Antony Billington writes, “fruitfulness is bound up with the larger biblical drama of creation and redemption, promise and fulfilment, God’s relationship with his people and his plan for the nations. And it’s our privilege as disciples of Christ to take our place in His grand scheme, working out the implications of the gospel on our frontlines, our lives reflecting the scope of His reign, our relationships displaying the arrival of the kingdom and anticipating its future completion, all the while bearing fruit to the glory of God.”
“Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” (Ezekiel 47:12)
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. (Revelation 22:1-2)
There are several other species of blackberry in the UK, although far less frequent than Rubus fruticosus.
See also Acts 20:29-30, Timothy 3:13 and 2 Peter 2:1.
“Judgement’ (Psalm 1:5) is also suggestive of the ultimate “judgement of God” (Acts 17:31; Romans 2:5; Revelation 20:11-15).