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"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here."
- Matthew 12:33-42
Yesterday, we read that one was brought to Jesus who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, "Could this be the Son of David?" Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, "This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons." But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come."
"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." As in yesterday's reading, when Jesus spoke of the blasphemy of the Spirit, so in today's reading, Jesus continues regarding such people. My study bible points out that this is a pronunciation of severe judgment regarding such behavior: "As the tree is revealed by its fruit, a human being is known by his works. He will do according to the kind of person he is. The blasphemers are a brood of vipers because of their evil works and malice. Their heritage is of no value to them; they bear no fruit appropriate to a chosen people." In this sense, they are a brood or children of vipers -- suggesting that we reap from what we choose to love, to place first in our lives. A viper can also be a symbolic image of a demon, of evil. My study bible also has extensive notes on the biblical use of "heart" here in Jesus' statement: "The heart in Scripture refers to the center of consciousness, the seat of the intellect and the will, the source from which the whole of spiritual life proceeds. When grace permeates the heart, it masters the body and guides all actions and thoughts. When malice and evil capture the heart, a person becomes full of darkness and spiritual confusion."
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." My study bible points out that this demand also reflects the "evil in the heart" Jesus was just speaking about: "After so many miracles, they now ask Jesus for such a sign? But Jesus will not cater to their hard-heartedness. His sign will be His Passion and Resurrection from the dead. . ." In icons of the Eastern Church, Christ descends even to those in Sheol and lifts Adam and Eve with Him.
"The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here." Again, the theme rests on the blasphemy against the works of the Spirit done through Him. It is hard-heartedness that fails to recognize this, a willful way of not seeing, a refusal of the grace in their midst. My study bible points out that the words adulterous generation echo the analogy of the prophets for the infidelity of Israel: see these passages found in Jeremiah and Hosea. Jesus compares the present generation with those outsiders, who, while not blessed with the knowledge of the spiritual history of Israel, recognized God's presence -- or the work of the Spirit -- in the preaching of Jonah and the wisdom of Solomon.
Jesus constantly seems to emphasize the importance of spiritual eyes and ears, the capacity to discern in the heart the work of grace, of God. How do we know what is good, and what is not? It seems to me that one of the purposes of prayer, of cultivating a relationship with God, is so that we are able better to discern. We may not all be entirely sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit, but the Gospels suggest to us emphatically that we are not only capable of recognizing the good around us, the work of God or grace in our lives, but that our very souls depend on it. This responsibility isn't just one that will help us, or even simply make us better persons (although it will do both), it's a kind of key to the entrance of the Kingdom itself. Our eternal lives depend upon it. It's the way in which we come to be citizens in this Kingdom. Jesus very carefully gives instances where it is foreigners, outsiders, who are the ones capable of discerning the work of God in their midst -- in the warnings of the prophets (such as Jonah, who incidentally also was from a town in Galilee near to Nazareth), and in the wisdom of Solomon which was a gift from God. The Spirit was present and working in the prophecy of Jonah and the wisdom or discernment of Solomon, but these gifts -- like all grace -- needed to be received by others as well, and the people of Ninevah and the queen of Sheba (queen of the South) were capable of that themselves. These examples give us pause, because they force us to ask ourselves about ourselves and to take these stories out of the past, out of a spiritual history, and to recognize that they are told so that we, too, understand our capabilities and our responsibility. The situation is just as urgent and necessary now, in the midst of our extremely busy lives and with so many messages that proliferate our minds in a constant barrage of images. How do you find that connection that tells you true? Where is the central place of the heart that helps you to discern? "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you," He taught in the Sermon on the Mount, earlier in Matthew's Gospel. Let us follow Solomon, and Sheba, and Jonah and the people of Ninevah, and remember what is really worth asking for. What we really treasure in our heart makes all the difference.
