Kings, wolves, sheep and fruit
In the 7th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus warns of the false prophets that would come in sheep’s clothing but hold the heart of ravenous wolves. The danger of such a tyrant is that their actions may seem appealing, they may speak in terms that the followers want to hear and may even make promises that some passionately want to see come to prominence. In so doing, such false prophets will flagrantly distort truth, divert accountability, and presume to be above scrutiny in order to infect the culture with their particularly vile evil. They may even incite violence, stoke hate, and fuel fear to promote their demonic agenda. About such false prophets, Jesus warns that the wise will know them by the fruits they bear lest the faithful be blinded and deluded by their evil!
In Christ’s days it was easy to understand such false prophets as the false messiahs who would occasionally pop up, the corrupt religious leaders who cared more about imposing their perverse form of coopted nationalism that both keep them in power and acquiesced to the unholy dominance of Rome, and the dictatorial regime of Rome itself that used heavy-handed military rule under the delusion that such authoritarian tactics were good for the people.
Yet, consider the fruits. Israel remained a conquered nation that was disgraced and humiliated by its unwanted occupier, Rome. The presumption of peace was really a lack of conflict borne out harsh restrictions on freedom, controlling justice, stoking hate, and a culture of fear. The religious leaders in Palestine during the life of Jesus were largely puppets of the State and pretentious personalities more concerned with attention and power than serving God. The fruits of the people whom Jesus found lacking were demonic fruits of fear, hate, occupation, control, domination, and restriction.
In writing to the church of Galatia, the Apostle Paul also spoke about bearing fruit. He states that the fruit a Christian is to bear and promote must be measured in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He would also contrast these positive attributes to what Paul would call works of the flesh. These evil attributes of sinful behavior include fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissentions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.
Nearly two centuries later, a true prophet would rise up and bear the good fruit of the Gospel. Not only did he produce the fruits of the spirit and bear the good fruit expected of a true prophet of God, he also boldly called out the works of the flesh and the bad fruit of leaders who were nothing more than ravenous wolves disguised in sheep’s clothing that were determined to tell the people what they wanted rather than the truth of God! His name was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today we live in a world where celebrating Dr. King’s Dream is more vital than perhaps at any other time since the early days of the Civil Rights Movement when this modern Christian prophet rose to prominence and proclaimed the gospel of unity, equality, justice, and freedom. Assaults on the truth, the prioritization of partisan political pronouncements, and the culture of hate, anger, revenge, and control that has permeated our culture are vile violations of everything that Dr. King represented, everything he lived for, and everything he died for.
Today, let all set aside the politics and hatred so that Carlsbad can come together in singular worship to proclaim Jesus Christ and remember Dr. King. The Church Observance begins at First Presbyterian Church at 2:30 PM.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Kings, wolves, sheep and fruit
