Even though “they” say not to, I apologize in advance if this little letter is somewhat confusing. I had a lot of thoughts this morning and didn’t have time to make a nice, neat package out of them. It’s a good thing I don’t get paid for this.
“They” also say I should have at least one image in every post. That’s my favorite cow ever, Sid. If ever a cow could have made us money cuddling, it would have been Sid.
Also, please believe me when I say I am not a Bible scholar nor do I play one on TV.
Okay, I’m done.
Last week I wrote about Judas and the fact that in the very same moment he was betraying the Lord Jesus, Jesus called him “Friend.” You can read all that here if you want some background.
I received a comment on that post that made me keep going back to Matthew 19:28, where Jesus is talking to his disciples and says,
And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
I asked Ben about it because he’s my preferred commentary, and all he said was that when Jesus said, “ye which have followed me,” the “which have followed me” part is a qualifier. That means Jesus wasn’t saying ALL of those disciples would sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes, just the ones that followed him. Grammatically I agree. But as easy as it is to ask Ben every little thing, I still like to learn things on my own, so I kept following the trail. The Bible always leaves a trail and there’s nothing I love more than a good hike.
To get the context of that verse, I read the whole passage in Matthew 19, from verse 16 on. It tells the story of a rich young ruler who came to Jesus and told him about all the good things he’d done, very proud of himself for being so great. Then he asked, “what lack I yet?” In other words, what else do I need to do to get to heaven?
Jesus told him to sell all his possessions and give it all to the poor, then come and follow him.
The Bible says the rich young ruler “went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”
Jesus used this lesson to show the disciples how hard it is for a rich man to walk away from his riches to follow Jesus.
I immediately thought of Judas, the one who always carried the money. John 12:6 says he was a thief—that’s some serious cash-love. In the end, Judas had the idea to betray Jesus for money. It was an even trade: Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Judas wanted his money more than he wanted to be a follower of Jesus.
I thought that was the end of my rabbit trail, so I went back to my regular Bible reading, which just happened to be in Mark 4, the parable of the sower. I won’t go into a long explanation of it, but you can read the parable in three places:
If you want to follow my thoughts better, read Mark 4:3–20. It’s basically a parable about a guy who goes out sowing seed (representing the word of God) and how it lands in four different kinds of ground and how that works out in the end. Mark 4:7 says of the third kind of ground,
“And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.”
The first two don’t say anything about fruit, but for this ground, this person, apparently the seed is planted and sprouts and grows a little, maybe looks like the plant should, but it doesn’t produce fruit.
Then in verses 18 and 19, Jesus is explaining this third situation:
“And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,
And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”
And just like a dim little 25-watt light bulb flipping on in my head, I saw Judas.
Judas heard the word. He embraced it. He followed Jesus around, listening and watching the miracles and hearing all the teachings. He sprouted as a follower of Jesus. But while he was following, the cares of the world and “the deceitfulness of riches” choked the word Judas had heard, and he “becometh unfruitful.”
Then I stopped at the phrase “becometh unfruitful” and thought, you know what, you have to start toward being fruitful before you can become unfruitful. There has to be some hint of fruit to begin with before it can become unfruitful. So maybe this is a case where Judas heard the word, thought that sounded good and started following it around. He looked like a Jesus follower. Acted like a Jesus follower. Dressed like a Jesus follower. Hung out with other Jesus followers. Had leaves and branches like a Jesus follower. Maybe he even sprouted a few blossoms and some tiny little pre-fruit was set.
Remember, at the last Passover supper with Jesus and the disciples, none of them knew who the betrayer was. Judas must have looked like a perfectly healthy Jesus follower. He fooled them all (except Jesus).
But then Judas’ own love for money swooped in and choked the little buds and so he “yielded no fruit.” He “becometh unfruitful.”
Luke describes them this way: “choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection,” as if there is the beginning of fruit there, but it never ripens, is never usable or edible. It dies on the vine.
Are you mentally exhausted yet? Me too, but I just couldn’t stop. Things kept popping into my head. (Welcome to my world.)
Then I remembered the day Jesus and his disciples were in Bethany and Jesus was hungry. He saw a fig tree that had no fruit on it. It was obviously a fig tree; maybe they could tell by the bark or leaves? I’ve never been any good at identifying trees, but since Jesus made them all, he had the advantage. He recognized it as a fig tree.
But it had no fruit, so he cursed it, saying, “Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever.” In Matthew 21 it says “the fig tree withered away.”
Luke shares the story of the fig tree as a parable, where a man finds a fig tree in his vineyard and goes looking for fruit, but finds none. Now I have to believe that if the guy owned a whole vineyard, he knew a little bit about plants. He knew it was a fig tree and thought it looked healthy enough to have fruit, and he was hacked that it didn’t. He told the gardener to cut it down and not waste space in the garden with it.
But the dresser of the vineyard asked the man to give it one more chance. He said let me dig around it and put some manure in the dirt (nature’s fertilizer) and see if I can get it to bear fruit. And if it doesn’t, then I’ll cut it down.
In each case, the fig tree looked like a fig tree and acted like a fig tree and did everything that fig trees do except bear fruit. Jesus cursed it, and the tree would never again be able to present itself as a fruitful fig tree. It “withered away.” It would always be known as the cursed fig tree. I mean, here we are in 2023, and that’s what we know it as, right?
Now I realize the whole lesson about Jesus cursing the fig tree has a different application, but I’m drawing an example from it here too.
(Hang on, let me get my brain all the way back to the beginning of this train of thought…)
We were talking about Judas, lover of money more than lover of Jesus. The deceitfulness of riches choked the Jesus-love right out of Judas. Even though he looked like a disciple and acted like one, he didn’t bear fruit. Maybe he set a few tiny fruitlets, but none ever ripened all the way. In the end he hung himself and withered away, just like the fruitless fig tree.
What’s the point? I’m not sure I know. But I wrote one little thing about Judas last week and now I’m seeing him everywhere and boy, what a reminder to not let the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Jesus out of me.
Whatever you do, don't try to figure out who makes the cut in Revelation 21:14!