“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” – 1 Corinthians 15:20
Dear Choir,
Today’s scriptures create a picture of divine wisdom about the fruitful life and where we place our trust. Each reading builds upon the others to reveal a gospel-centered truth about our calling as worship leaders.
Jeremiah 17:5-10 plants the seed of understanding with its stark contrast between two ways of bearing fruit. “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals,” the prophet declares, likening them to a barren shrub in the desert. But those who trust in the Lord become “like a tree planted by water,” bearing fruit even in seasons of drought. As musicians, we know the difference between producing sounds from our own resources and bearing fruit that flows from the living water of God’s presence.
Psalm 1 confirms this image, showing us how such fruit grows. The one who bears godly fruit doesn’t just trust in the Lord – they “delight in the law of the Lord,” meditating on it day and night. Like Jeremiah’s tree, they are “planted by streams of water,” yielding their fruit in its season. What a rich metaphor for worship ministry! When we root ourselves in God’s Word, the fruit of our praise grows organically from that deep source.
Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 bring these agricultural metaphors to full bloom in Christ. The resurrection isn’t just a doctrine we sing about – it’s the very foundation of our faith and ministry. “If Christ has not been raised,” Paul argues, “your faith is futile.” But Christ has indeed been raised, becoming “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Just as Jeremiah’s tree and the Psalmist’s faithful one bear fruit because of their connection to living water, Christ’s resurrection is the first fruit that guarantees the harvest to come. Our music springs from this same source – rooted in trust, nourished by God’s presence, bearing fruit in its season because we are connected to the Firstfruit of new creation.
Finally, Luke 6:17-26 radically redefines everything we thought we understood about bearing fruit. Just when Jeremiah’s image of the flourishing tree and the Psalmist’s prosperous believer might lead us to expect fruitfulness in abundance and visible success, Jesus reveals the surprising way God’s garden grows. Standing on a level place – where all human distinctions fall away – he pronounces God’s cultivation precisely in those who appear to be withering in the desert: the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the rejected. The truly fruitful life, Jesus reveals, might look more like a pruned vine than a flourishing tree. Those who seem cursed by worldly standards are the very ones bearing the fruit of God’s kingdom. This revelation helps us understand more deeply what Jeremiah meant by trust, what the Psalmist saw in meditation, and what Paul recognized in Christ’s resurrection as the firstfruits. True blessing and genuine fruitfulness flow from being united with Christ, who himself became poor that we might become rich, who hungered in the wilderness that we might be filled, who wept at Lazarus’s tomb that we might know the joy of resurrection. This is the deeper wisdom of God’s kingdom – that in Christ, our very poverty becomes the soil of blessing, our hunger the seed of satisfaction, our tears the water of new life.
Reflection:
1. How does Jeremiah’s image of a tree bearing fruit compare to the kind of fruitfulness Jesus describes in the beatitudes?
2. In what ways is our choir called to bear fruit that looks more like Christ’s “firstfruits” – through suffering and death before resurrection?
3. What might it mean for our music ministry to be truly “fruitful” if we take seriously Jesus’s redefinition of blessing?
Prayer:
Living God, plant us deeply by Your streams of truth. May the fruit we bear in our music ministry spring not from our own resources but from our rootedness in You. Let our songs flow from hearts united with Christ, anchored in the hope of resurrection, proclaiming the gospel-shaped values of Your kingdom. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” – Proverbs 11:30
Josh Cehulik 