Stewed Fruit

I’m amazed how things happen together to provide an additional meaning to something.  The other day I was listening to a piece on the radio about a shepherd.  As he told how he had learned from his grandfather, and how his son was now learning from his father, he used the phrase, ‘the seasons have come full circle’, and my eye fell on some plums in my kitchen.

Most fruit – I apologise to banana-lovers – are generally spherical in shape: plums, oranges, apples ... lemons, too, at a stretch of the imagination; and even the banana gets included if you think in just two dimensions and consider the cross-section of them all, which is roughly circular.  So the term ‘coming full circle’ is a fruitful one <groan>.

Just as amazing is the discovery of over 150 references in the Bible to fruit, and it’s worth thinking about the meanings that some of them present to us.

I have already spoken about things being fruitful; in the first chapter of Genesis we read of “trees bearing fruit with seed in it” (vv. 11,12 &29), indicating that the purpose of fruit is to continue the species.  In the next chapters later we find that fruit was good for food (2:16, 3:6).  Further in the Books of the Law, Leviticus chapter 19 explains the concept of ‘first fruits’, by which the first of the crop should be offered to God rather than eaten.  So fruit can be a gift … do you remember the expression, ‘an apple for the teacher’?

Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes move us into metaphor.  Man is described as “like a tree, yielding its fruit at the proper time” (Ps.1:3); there are references to “the fruit of their labour” (Ps. 78:46 and Eccl. ch.2), and Psalm 127 speaks of sons being “the fruit of the womb” (v.3).  Proverbs give us fruits of the righteous, his words, his speech, and a person’s mouth and tongue (11:30, 12:14, 13:2, 18:20&21).

In the New Testament, Jesus used many of these expressions in His teaching.  He often spoke of fruit in the sense of our behaviour, thus “you will recognise them by their fruit” (Mt. 7:16), and “fruit that proves your repentance” (Lk. 3:8).  Sometimes He referred to the disciples’ evangelistic obligations as in John ch. 15: “every branch that bears fruit”, “the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine” and “bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples” (vv. 2,4 & 8).

Paul also used fruit as a metaphor in many of his letters.  We all know about the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), and similarly the fruit of the light (Eph.5:9), to which we can add the reference to “the gospel bearing fruit and growing among you” (Col. 1:10).  James, too, referred to fruit, writing about “the fruit that consists of righteousness, planted in peace among those who make peace.”

I wouldn’t expect any of my readers to learn all these references … indeed, to see that as an objective, though laudable, would be to miss my point.  But there are countless things around us that are circular - quite apart from looking at the fruit stall on the market - so when you see circles try to remember just some of these meanings, and think how they might link something divine to your own lifestyle.