The Pineapple Story

I’d like to tell you a story. A funny story that’s true.

It’s the story of Otto Koenig, a missionary to native peoples in the jungles of Dutch New Guinea (an island north of Australia). Otto’s job was to live with a tribe, learn their language, and translate a Bible for them. In the process, he would also bring them the Gospel–– the
message of salvation in Christ.

The natives lived way back in the bush. After living there a while, Otto realized how much he missed having fresh fruits and vegetables, which is kind of a surprise to me. I figured that there’s already lots of fruits and vegetables when you live in a jungle.

Anyway, Otto decided to plant a garden and grow some pineapple bushes. The jungle people had heard of pineapples, and they had tasted them, but they didn’t have any means to get any. So Otto brought in 100 plants from another missionary station. He got a local man to work at planting the pineapple shoots for him. Of course he paid the man, in salt or whatever he wanted for the days he worked.

Now it takes a long time grow pineapples, about three years before you get any fruit. When that time came, right about Christmas time, Otto and his wife would take walks to look for any pineapples that might have gotten ripe. Pretty weird, but they never found any! It seemed that dozens had vanished just as they got ripe. He figured
the natives were stealing them!

He was shocked! He came up with a new plan to go and the spot ones that were almost ripe, and then come back in a few days to pick them. But they were gone too! Now they were stealing them before they got ripe. This made Otto MAD!

“Yep, these guys are real artists! Steal it before it’s ripe or the owner gets it.” He was HOT! There he was, a missionary, getting mad at the people he’s trying to serve! He said, “Look you guys! I have been waiting for these pineapples for three years. So far, I haven’t gotten any of them. Now there are others getting ripe. If any more of
these pineapples are stolen, no more clinic for you.”

His wife was running the clinic. She was fixing wounds, treating illnesses, and giving them all their medication free. Otto and his wife were knocking themselves out trying to help these people, taking care of their sick, and saving the lives of their babies. But one by one, their pineapples were getting stolen!

Otto felt he had to stand his ground with these people. He couldn’t just let them run all over him. But that was not only reason he was angry. He was angry because he wanted to eat those pineapples!

So Otto decided there would be no more clinic. He would let the native’s sick babies die. It seemed like they couldn’t care less. Like life was cheap to them.

But the people with bad pneumonia were coughing and begging them for medicine. Otto would say, “No way! Remember? You stole our pineapples!”

“I didn’t steal them,” they would argue. “It was the other guys that did it.” They’d go on coughing and begging. After a while Otto and his wife couldn’t take it any longer and reopened the clinic. Right away, they started stealing pineapples again! This was very discouraging for Otto. “Man! These rascals!”

But finally, he found out who was doing it. It was the guy who had planted them! Otto confronted him. “Look, buddy! What are you doing stealing my pineapples? You’re my gardener.”

He said, “My hands plant them. My mouth eats them. That’s rule of the jungle.” The man had never heard of the idea of paying him for his digging services! He said, “They are all mine.”

Otto shot back, “Oh no! They’re mine. I paid you to plant them.”
But he just couldn’t understand how that made them Otto’s plants. Otto thought, “Well, what do I do now? It’s the rule of their tribe. I’d better learn to live by their rule.”

So he said, “All right, I’ll give you half of these plants. Everything
from here to over there is yours. But these are mine.” It sounded like he was in agreement with Otto’s new plan, but the pineapples still got stolen.

“Hey,” he thought, “let them have those pineapples. I’ll get some new ones. I’ll have to wait 3 more years, but it’ll be worth it.” It was very hard for him to do.

Finally he said, “Look, I’ll give you these pineapples and then I’ll start over. Now you make your own garden and you take all these pineapples out of my garden so I’ll have room to plan new ones. I don’t want your pineapples in my garden if you feel they are yours.”

So they said, “Too-wan (which means outsider, foreigner) you will have to pay us.”

He said, “Now, look here!” They said, “No, no! You are asking us to move your pineapple bushes and that is work.”

“NOW they are mine huh?” he thought. He said, “All right, I’ll pay you one days work. Get these pineapples outta’ here!”

They said, “We don’t have a garden ready. Will you pay us to get it ready?”

He said, “Forget you guys!” He was fed up with them! Otto went home and told his wife. “This is impossible! I’m just going to pay
some guy to root them all out and throw them on the trash heap.” So they did. It was hard to do. They were good pineapple bushes.

Then he bought new plants. He said, “Now look, you guys. I’m going to pay you to plant these, but I eat them, me and my family only. You don’t eat any.”

They said, “You can’t do that. If we plant them, we eat them.”
“Why didn’t he just plant them himself,” they asked. Otto said, “Look, I don’t have time to mess with a garden. I have too much to
do. There are so many of you, and there is only one me. I want you to plant them, and I will eat them.”

He said, “I’ll pay you. What do you want? Look, I’ll give you
this nice knife if you’ll work for me.”

They thought, “He’ll pay us that knife so he can eat our pineapples.” They agreed.

During the next three years he reminded the guy who planted them, “Look! Who is going to eat these pineapples?”

He said, “You are.”

Otto said, “Fine! Have you still got the knife?”

He said, “Yes.”

Otto said, “Well take good care of it.” If he lost the knife Otto was in trouble again. The pay is gone.

Finally, after three more years the pineapples began to ripen. He and his wife walked through the garden again. “Hey, pretty soon we are going to have a crop.”

They thanked God that He was providing for them. But what do you think happened?

Every one of them was stolen! He’d see the natives go through the garden in the daytime and spot the ripe ones. At night they go right to them!

“What am I going to do? We can’t cut out the clinic. Let’s cut out the trade store.” This is where they got their matches, salt, fish hooks, and things like that. They used to do without them. That won’t kill them.

He said, “Okay. You stole my pineapples again, so no more store.”
When they closed the store the natives began to say, “Let’s leave. If he’s not going to have a store, there is no advantage for us being here with him. We might as well go back to our jungle houses.” So they left and went to live in the jungle.

So, there he was, sitting by himself eating pineapples. No people, no ministry. He said to his wife, “Look, we can eat pineapples back in the States. We didn’t come here to eat fruit!” Otto said, “Get them all back. We will open the store next Monday.”

Now the natives were coming back, but there was still a problem—how is he going to enjoy these pineapples? There must be a way.

Then he had an idea! A guard dog! He got the biggest German Shepherd he could get on the island. They were afraid of him. They had never seen a dog that big. They had little, mangy diseased dogs that they never fed. Quite a shock to see a wellfed German Shepherd!

That dog did the trick. Most of the people didn’t dare come around anymore. Same result as closing the store though. People didn’t come around. He didn’t have anybody to talk to and couldn’t get anybody to teach him the language. The dog wasn’t working. “We’ve got to get rid of the dog,” he told his wife. With the dog
gone, the people came back, and the pineapples were stolen again.

There must be some way to have both, but he couldn’t figure it out. He needed a break.While home on furlough, he went to a seminar. He learned that we must give everything we own to God. The Bible says if you give, you will have; if you keep for yourself, you will lose. Give your things to God, and God will see that you have
enough.

Otto thought, “Man! What do I have to lose? Might as well give that pineapple garden to God because I’m am not eating the pineapples anyway.” Not a very good sacrifice though. We are supposed to sacrifice something you deem valuable. But He gave the garden to God to see if He could control it.

Once back in New Guinea, he went out in the garden alone. It was a secret. “Lord, see these pineapple bushes? We’ve fought to have fruit from them. We’ve claimed them, and stood up for our rights. It’s all wrong. I see it now. I give them to You. From now on, if You want us to eat any of Your pineapples, fine. You just go
right ahead and give them to us. If not fine. It doesn’t really matter.”

So Otto gave them to God and the natives stole the pineapples as usual. He thought, “See, God. You can’t control them either.”

Then one day they came to him and said, “Too-wan, you have become a Christian, haven’t you?” He wanted to say, “Hey, I’ve been a Christian for twenty years.” But instead he asked, “Why do you say that?”

“Because you don’t get angry anymore when we steal your pineapples.” See what happened here? Now in their eyes he’s living what he had been preaching to them. He’d been telling them to love one another, be kind to one another. But, he’d always been standing up for HIS rights, and they knew it.

After a while, one of the very smart boys started thinking. He said, “To-wan, why don’t you get angry anymore?”

Otto said, “I gave that garden away. It’s not mine anymore. So you are not stealing my pineapples. I don’t have to get angry anymore.”

Another guy started to think even more. He asked, “Who did you give that garden to?” They looked around, “Did he give it to you?” “Did he give it to you?” “Whose is it anyway?” “Whose pineapples are we stealing?”

Then Otto told him, “I gave the garden to God.” They said, “To God! Hasn’t He got any pineapples where He is?”

Otto said, “I don’t know whether He has or not, but I did given that garden to God.” The natives went back to the village and said, “Do you know whose pineapples we are stealing? Too-wan has given them to God.”

They all started thinking about that one. They came back in a group and said, “Too-wan, you should not have done it. Why don’t you get those pineapples back from God?”

“No wonder we aren’t getting the pigs when we go out hunting.”
“No wonder our babies are getting sick.” “No wonder our wives are not giving birth.” “No wonder the fish aren’t biting.”

Then they said, “We shouldn’t steal them anymore if they are God’s, should we?” They were afraid of God.

So then more pineapples began to ripen. The natives said, “Too-wan, your pineapples are ripe.” He said, “They’re not mine. They belong to God.”

They said, “But they are going to get rotten. You’d better pick them.” So, Otto went and got some and let the natives take some.

When Otto and his family sat down to eat them, he prayed, “Lord, we’re eating Your pineapples. Thank you for giving them to us.” All those years, the natives were watching him and listening to his words. They saw that the two didn’t match. But when he began to change, they did too. Soon many natives decided to become Christians.

The principle of giving to God was really working. He could hardly believe it. So, he started giving other things to God.

One day Otto’s son was near death There was no way to get him to a doctor. He suddenly realized that He’d never given his son to God! So he prayed, “God, I give my son to You. Whatever You want to
do is fine.”

It was much harder than giving God the pineapple garden!

Otto got prepared for God to take his son. But that night, the fever broke and his son got well.

Later, the natives began bringing things for him to fix. He said, “God, my time is yours. If you want me to fix harmonicas and pots and shovels out here on the mission field, fine!” He wasn’t getting much Bible translation done, but more and more people were being won to Christ. They kept saying, “Too-wan has become a
Christian. He tells us to love each other and now he is starting to love us.”

One day, while fixing a broken chair, a native saw him and said, “Here, let me help you hold it.” After they fixed it Otto said, “Well, aren’t you going to ask me for any salt?”

He said, “No, Too-wan. Don’t you remember? You helped me fix my shovel. Now I help you fix your chair.”

Otto thought, “Man! That is the first time they did anything for him without getting paid for it.”

What a fun story, huh? I’ve always liked it. But it’s a hard hitting story isn’t it?

Maybe you wouldn’t have gotten so angry about a bunch of pineapples, but what’s YOUR pineapple garden? What rights do you claim as yours? What do you fight to defend? What makes you angry?

Maybe your garden is: your own plans for your life? Or who you’re dating? Maybe it’s money, possessions, time? A husband, wife, or your health? All things we can feel life owes us! Have you given these things to God?

First Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;”

So when you find yourself angry, try to list out your rights that seem violated. The natives violated Otto’s right to eat own ineapples.

What I had to do was transfer my rights to God. I pictured myself kneeling before God, putting all my rights on His altar. He can do with them whatever He sees is best.

All your rights—your whole life—belongs to God. Romans 12:1 tells me that I’m to: “offer my body as a living sacrifice—holy and pleasing—an offering to God as a form of worship.”

Philippians 2:5 says, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross.”

Jesus was serving God by serving us. Paying the price for our sin. What could be more heroic and strong than that? So is God saying we should somehow learn not to care at all about things, jobs, cars, wives?

NO! He’s not telling us that the things we want in life are wrong in themselves. It’s claiming them as rights that God opposes (selfishness), making them our priority that God opposes. It’s our anger fighting to get what we want that God opposes.

We are Americans. We are suburbans. We love our stuff. We love our entertainment.

What Jesus is saying is don’t worry about those things. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the things you need will be added as well!”

First Corinthians 7:31 is such a great warning to us. There we are urged to “use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”

Don’t we find in this Pineapple story, the great challenge to our own deep spirituality?

Then Jesus said to them all, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

If you want to grow full of God’s Spirit, the way is following Jesus down that road.