The Tree, and the Two Houses
43 “For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit. 44 For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45 The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. 46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things which I say? 47 Everyone who comes to me, and hears my words and does them, I will show you who he is like. 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it was founded on the rock. 49 But he who hears and doesn’t do, is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”
The sermon closes on fruit, speech, and two builders — and the difference between them is what they did about the digging.
“For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit.
The closing images are in Matthew's account Matthew 7:15–27, where the tree is applied to false prophets. Here it is turned inward, on the hearers, and it runs straight into a sentence about the heart.
For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.
The test is not what a tree looks like but what comes off it. A bramble can be mistaken for a vine at a distance in poor light; nobody makes that mistake in autumn.
The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
This is the fruit specified, and it is speech. What overflows in a person's talk is what they are full of — not the sentences they compose carefully, but the abundance, the surplus that comes out when there is no time to select. The word treasure is a store, something accumulated over years and drawn on without thinking.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things which I say?
The question is the hinge of the ending and is asked without softening. Calling him Lord is the correct address; it is what a disciple says. The problem is that the word claims an authority the speaker is not submitting to, which makes it not a small failure but a contradiction in terms.
Everyone who comes to me, and hears my words and does them, I will show you who he is like.
Three verbs: comes, hears, does. The parable is about the third one.
He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it was founded on the rock.
This account's version differs from the other in a way that changes the picture. There the two men choose different sites, rock or sand. Here both may be building on the same ground, and the difference is that one dug and went deep until he reached rock. Excavating through soil to bedrock is slow, expensive, invisible work that adds nothing to the finished house. Nobody admires a foundation.
"When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it." The storm is not a special judgment; it is weather, and it comes to both houses equally.
But he who hears and doesn’t do, is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”
Not a bad man, and not a man who heard nothing. He heard. He built. He simply did not dig, and the two houses looked identical until the water came.
And immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. The sermon that began by blessing the poor ends with a collapse, and the whole difference between the two lives is what was done underground where no one could see it.
settled What this mark means