Last shabbat I taught on the parables of the fig tree and the barren trees, looking at the parables from a Jewish point of view. I mentioned that a plant in order to give good fruit, it needs to be planted in good soil with water access and that the fruit produced is a source of nourishment. This morning on my routine commute to the city centre I started to ponder on the issue of fruit and a comment I made in the teaching. I said that in our congregation we try our best to refrain from becoming fruit cakes. That is an expression I normally use to describe people that go all weird and hyper spiritual, out of context and on non Torah base practices, that abound in Christianity and “messianism” and Hebrew Roots and Judaism, no one is free from this craziness.
So as I was driving I could not help to make the parallels on a fruit that is picked from the tree when its ripe, there is nothing like a fruit that has ripen in the tree its sweeter more filling and carries more nourishment and essential natural components for our well being. Just try to google search on this and you will find plenty of evidence in the intergoogle. I know the difference in tomatoes ripped in the plant and camera ripped tomatoes, same with mandarines and oranges, pomegranates, and my favourite fruits, figs and pineapples. I can tell a ripped pineapple in the plant from outside the fruit shop, it permeates its aroma all over. The extra facet of the teaching that came to me in the car is: Just as fruit ripens in the tree and it nourishes you, so are the fruit of the spirit. At the right time at the right place when you share the fruit of the Spirit it brings life to those partaking from it.
However, if you take the fruit and add other ingredients such as sugar, flour, eggs, yeast, spices etc you end up with a fruitcake. As the fruit is cooked and processed it looses its value, its vitamins are oxidised and become non effective the same for its natural sugars they loose their flavour. Components that can be tasted in the natural fruit are lost as you heat them up in processing it and these essential volatiles are lost. This is the same in the Spirit, take the word of the Torah and working of the Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, mix it with Greco-Roman practices and human thought process. Add to it a pinch flowery speech and you get new dogma and teachings that no longer bring nourishment, they may taste good but are not life giving. Repeat this process several times and it becomes a truth and the norm, however it is still a fruit cake no matter how you present it.
As I mentioned earlier, that a plant in order to give good fruit, it needs to be planted in good soil, we are the plant, the good soil is the Torah, the living water is Yeshua and the light that allows the good soil and water to produce good fruit is the Ruach. The chemistry that puts it all together, walking in the spirit of HaShem, He is the source of the good fruit. The good fruit does not need processing it should be enjoyed as it is given at its season.
Shalom
