It’s a fairly reasonable expectation that if you go to someone who says they’re qualified for the task, they will be able to do it. If you are ill, you go to a doctor and you would expect them to do something about making you well. If you need legal advice, you go to a lawyer and expect them to tell you something about the law. A doctor who doesn’t know anything about making you well or a lawyer who doesn’t know anything about the law won’t be asked to do any work again. People will soon see that they are not capable of doing what is needed and will go to someone else who can do what is needed. It’s the same for God. God needs people to show the world what God is like, and sadly, that’s not always been the case.
In our reading today, Jesus takes an ancient prophesy of Isaiah and brings it into His own time. He wants to warn the leadership of Israel that they are going down a very dangerous path. They enjoy the privilege of being known as God’s people without any of the responsibility of actually doing what God wanted them to. God had given them the honour of leading Israel and given them all they needed to ensure they produced “good fruit”, namely love, mercy, kindness and humility. They had not done so and, despite sending prophet after to prophet, nothing would change their mind. In the end, even sending the Son of God to warn them to change wasn’t enough. Jesus warned that if they could not produce this good fruit then the kingdom would be taken from them and given to others who could.
Unfortunately, readings like this lull us today into a false sense of security. We believe that Jesus is talking about “them” and not “us”. We are the ones to whom the kingdom has been given so we are alright, there’s nothing for us to worry about. Yet the warning remains that God expects God’s people to be kind, loving, gracious and forgiving, to keep producing the good fruit of the Spirit. If we are truly committed to following Jesus, we will model our lives upon His. If we know the kingdom is taken from those who do not produce good fruit and is given to those who do, we need to ask ourselves “which group are we?” We can assume that we are the privileged ones and in doing so are no better than the Pharisees who receive this warning. If we truly love our neighbours, genuinely seek the best for them, why would we not produce this good fruit in all we say and do?