Meditation for 26 May 2010
From The Rev. Peter A. Munson
Matthew 12:33-37

[Jesus said to the Pharisees,] 33 ‘Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. 36I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; 37for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’

Trees and Fruit, Hearts and Words

Thanks to a steadily-growing world population and huge advances in technology, words and images (each worth a thousand words?) are absolutely everywhere. Rather than getting up in the morning and reading the one newspaper that you picked up off the driveway, you and I have the option of getting on the internet and reading as many newspapers as we want to. Add to that email, blogs, texts on our cell phones, not to mention all the talk shows, etc., and we are drowning in words One of the potential downfalls? More opportunities for “careless words” (see verse 36) to harm another person. Another potential downfall? Not making any room to hear the word of God being spoken into our lives.

Probably you recall the old playground comeback, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” I never realized when I was a young boy what a ridiculously stupid saying that was. Of course words can hurt us! (It was only after a child was really hurt by another child’s words that a parent or teacher taught the hurt child to use this lame retort the next time that child was hurt again.)

Jesus would have never had counseled a hurt child to say anything of the sort. Just look at the words above, recorded by Matthew. “I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37)

Does that get your attention? It gets mine!

Jesus said this to the Pharisees, right after he cured a blind and mute demoniac, and they said of the healing, “It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow casts out demons.” (To which Jesus gave one of the most famous replies in all of scripture, “… no city or house divided against itself will stand.” Matthew 12:25)

Jesus saw through the Pharisees. He heard their words, and their words gave him some clues about the state of their hearts. And so he said to them, “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure.” (Matthew 12:34-35)

One cannot be “good”, in the deepest sense of the word, without abiding in God, and in God’s Word – Jesus. For only God is Good with a capital G. (Remember Jesus saying, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” – Mark 10:18)

This much I know. Our hearts become a “good treasure” when we stay close to God. If we want to become like Jesus, if we want to have “good hearts” and become people of good character, then we must keep praying, keep reading God’s word, and keep practicing the other things that Jesus practiced – gratitude, love, faithfulness, solitude with God, generosity, humility, forgiveness, honesty.

Then… our lives will bear fruit. Then… our words will be loving and uplifting words, and not critical, gossiping, destructive, hurtful words. True, we won’t be perfect. Our words will still be careless and thoughtless at times, and we’ll have to apologize and make amends to those we have hurt. But, by and large, if we stay close to the heart of Christ, your heart and my heart will become a good treasure, and the words that come out of our mouths will bear the mark of our hearts.

And then, on the day of the judgment, we won’t be shaking in our boots quite so much!