Do you remember when you were a kid and your hand used to cramp after coloring or writing for a little bit? My memory has just been vividly refreshed. Oh, and by the way, my handwriting is atrocious. I attribute both of these things to the very little time I actually have to put pen to paper these days. Most often I only write things down if I’m making a “to do” list. Everything else gets typed on my computer. It is much faster, more legible, and easier to organize.

So, you can imagine my surprise when, after writing for about ten minutes my hand began to cramp. I had to take a little break. When I stood up, I realized that my neck and shoulders were a little stiff too. What’s wrong with me that a few minutes of writing causes my body to revolt? Ugh. As I stretched and looked at my hand I noticed that little red mark on my middle finger where I grip the pen was starting to return. I haven’t seen that callous since 2nd grade.

Enough about my ailments. As I was copying today I noticed echoes of my favorite New Testament passage John 15:1-8 in the words of another John, speaking in Matthew 3:7-10. What struck me (beyond the similarities) was the audience in Matthew. John is out in the desert, baptizing people for repentance and some of the Pharisees and Sadducees come up wanting to get baptized.

The fruit he tells them they need to produce is fruit of repentance. These guys were counting on two things to produce fruit: their genealogies and their deeds. Since they could trace their families back to Abraham and since they obeyed the law, they believed that God was then contractually bound to do good by them.

John is saying that they’re missing the point. The fruit that God is looking for doesn’t come from pedigree or works, but from the posture of the heart. Repentance is the key. Without understanding and acknowledging that nothing – including our family history or our best efforts – can put us in the good graces of God except His generosity, all our words and actions are empty. They need to understand, we need to understand, I need to understand that I am in no place to try and earn or bargain my way into a relationship with God.

However, because He loves me if I just admit that I need Him to rescue me from the mess I’ve made – good intentions or not – He will swoop down and lift me up. I think we have a tendency to forget that. Especially those of us who have been doing this Disciple of Christ thing for a while. When we were younger, we knew the pain of our mistakes. Over time, though, a callous began to form and those mistakes didn’t hurt us so much. Then we moved on to other kinds of screw ups that were easier to hide, more palatable. Maybe what we need to do is ask God to make it hurt again? Then maybe our fruit will be born of repentance.

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