Friday
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” - Luke 13:7-9
Jesus told this little story to illustrate the nature of true repentance. It doesn’t take a Biblical scholar to figure the symbolism in this parable. There is a vineyard (the kingdom of God), an owner of the vineyard (that’s God the Father) a caretaker of the vineyard (that’s Jesus), and a tree (that’s us).
The owner wants the tree to be cut down because it hasn’t produced any fruit for three years. The tree in the story is a fig tree. It is a common symbol in the New Testament because figs were a favored fruit by the people of the ancient middle-east and these trees represented blessing and prosperity. Fig trees generally took 1.5-2 years to mature and bear fruit. If the tree in the parable hadn’t produced any fruit in three years, it would be logical to assume that it was never going to. The tree was not doing what it was created to do, produce fruit. You might even say that the tree deserved to be cut down (remember, we are the tree in the parable).
But…the caretaker of the vineyard intercedes for the tree. He goes to the owner of the vineyard and begs him to be patient with the little tree. He tells the owner that he will work with and work on that little tree. He says, in effect, that he is not done with that tree and that he still has high hopes and big plans for the fruitless little fig tree (remember, Jesus is the caretaker).
Are you beginning to see the tenderness and beauty of this simple little story of Jesus?
The primary point of the parable is that you and I deserve to be cut down. We are (spiritually speaking) fruitless little fig trees. But, Jesus is our caretaker! He intercedes for us and works in us and on us. He tends us, prunes us and gradually brings our hearts to a place of repentance.
This is precisely what took place in the story of Zacchaeus, which we were reflecting on earlier this week. Little Zacchaeus certainly didn’t deserve anything from Jesus. God didn’t owe him any favors or kindnesses of any kind. But, Jesus stopped and called him out of the tree anyway (it was a sycamore fig-tree by the way). Jesus called him by name and came over to his house because he loved him and he wanted him to come to the joy of true repentance.
We deserve nothing from God, he owes us nothing! Do you grasp that? Most Christians (especially American Christians) live with the basic assumption that God owes them a certain level of comfort and security. We might not say it quite that way, but it’s true isn’t it? We feel that life is somehow unfair if we aren’t relatively happy and healthy. But the truth is that all of us, just like Zacchaeus and just like the fig tree, deserve to be cut down. We are sinful and undeserving people. But Jesus is our caretaker! He is working on us so that we do not get what we deserve!
Jeff Frazier
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1 comment:
While I understand the symbolism between the tree and me, the notion that if after a certain point I haven't done what was expected of me by God, that I would be forever discarded, makes me sad. I can only assume that the cutoff point is when I die, that if by that point I haven't produced fruit then I no long can and should be discarded to Hell forever. Be joyous! Produced fruit! Beat the cutoff!
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