Lk 13:6-9 A parable: A man had a fig tree in his vineyard, and came expecting to find fruit on it. But he found none, so he spoke to his vineyard keeper. “Look. Three years running I come expecting fruit from this tree and find none. Cut it down! Why waste the space and the soil on this tree?” That one answered, though, saying, “Leave it for one more year, sir. Let me loosen the soil and fertilize it well. If it bears fruit next year? But, if, as seems likely, it does not, we can cut it down then.”
Thematic Relevance:
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Time is running out. The Teacher’s term of teaching is nearly over, and the Owner of Israel grows impatient. |
Doctrinal Relevance:
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The offer is not forever. There comes an end to God’s patience. The immediate message is clearly for Israel, God’s fig tree. |
Moral Relevance:
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Is the fruit of my faith in keeping with His expectations? I often doubt that it is. As such, I ought to heed the warning in this passage as applying to myself at least as much as it did to Israel. |
Doxology: |
With the warning comes grace. Here is the warning given, but a year’s grace is granted. There is still time to turn it around. God of second chances? Yes, He is! Though even those second chances must expire, yet we may rejoice that being forewarned and forearmed, we can avail ourselves of the necessary change. There is yet time to be fruitful in Christ! He has seen to it. |
Hearing this message given on the heels of that which preceded it, what would I have made of it? I am already chewing on His point about repentance, on His saying that my sins are just as bad as these others I thought were worse. He has pointed out the error inherent in my choice of standards by which to measure myself. Now, having made clear my need to repent, He is adding that the time remaining for me to do so is short.
I am unlikely to miss the significance of His choosing the fig tree as His image. I see the reference to Israel in that. I would likely see such a reference even if it wasn’t His intention, especially being connected to the vineyard like that. Vineyard, fig tree. Yes, that’s us: God’s own possession in the world. Aren’t we special? But, the slam He delivers! Where’s the fruit! What use is a fig tree that bears no fruit? Even us city dwellers would understand that bit. We still have our trees, after all. We know exactly where He’s coming from.
Everybody knows how long it takes a fruit tree to take. It’s not like He would come looking for fruit immediately. Every landowner knows that much! It takes time for the tree to be established. But, when that time has come, either that tree had best start bearing fruit, or it will be removed, and something more useful planted in its place. Sure! It’s what we would do on our own land.
So, I’m in New England, and apples would make a more recognizable case. But, the fundamental message is the same. If I own an orchard, and a particular tree has given me no fruit for years on end, that tree is coming down. I can plant another in its place. An older tree that fails to produce is unlikely to start producing again. It’s time for it to go. Plant another. Even if it will be a few years before it bears, at least there’s the hope that it will bear. This one has become hopeless, worthless. If I am to have no profit, no benefit from that tree, I shall not be inclined to waste my resources on it.
Time is running out! I could not have stood there listening to Jesus and have missed that point. Time is running out not just for me personally, but for Israel, for my country! This is where the minds of His listeners have been, anyway, on this business of Roman occupation and Jewish subjugation. Messiah was supposed to come and put an end to all that. This is what we’ve been taught! We are the Chosen People after all! God would hardly suffer us to be humiliated like this. I mean, we’ve got the Temple! His own house! Is He really going to abandon that to the likes of these Romans?
Well, if I am going to give credence to what Jesus is saying, the answer is, “quite probably, if you don’t get your act together.” Israel has failed of God’s purposes. They have become just another nation like all the others. They are no better, and possibly worse. So, they will be cut out of His vineyard, in order that He can plant something more useful.
As usual, this must be brought forward to my own time and place. America is in many ways at the same point Israel found itself. We have felt ourselves a special nation, a city on a hill, planted as a nation to provide safe haven for God’s people. We are not the first nation to have such an opinion of ourselves, nor are we likely to be the last. But, we ought to look to those who came before. Israel thought they were it. They failed and they were replaced. England though they were it. No longer. For America, the call should be clear: Bear fruit, or be cut down. It’s a personal warning. It’s also a corporate warning.
The basic sense of this parable is pretty straight forward. That said, there are a few specifics of the fig tree that might be deserving of a little attention, particularly as one thinks of that other occasion when Jesus made a parable of a real, living fig tree (Mt 21:19, Mk 11:13). His reaction seems shocking. If the tree was not in season, then why punish it for failing to be fruitful? The answer lies in the appearances. The presence of the leaf should have indicated there was fruit as well. This is in the nature of the growth of the fig tree. That it was thus in leaf even though out of season was likely the very thing that drew Jesus’ attention. That the appearance proved a lie, as regards the fruit gave reason to His response.
This is of a piece with what He is saying on this occasion. The fig tree was a well established symbol of Israel. Like the fig-tree, Israel had the appearance of something that should be bearing fruit. They had all the trappings of the true religion. But, where was the impact? Where were the lives changed? Where were the ambassadors of this God they worshiped? They had the trappings, but they lacked the character. In that later parable of action, the message must be understood as saying, “Time’s up!” Here, time is close to being up, but there is yet hope of a last-second reprieve. There’s still a chance, however slim, that this tree might yet bear fruit.
Another aspect of the fig tree, one which I would suppose it shares in some degree with every fruit tree, is that it takes a few years before fruit can be expected from a new planting. The NET indicates that it would be three years or so after planting before one had reasonable expectation of finding fruit on the tree. For the purpose of this parable, we ought, then, to suppose that those initial three years have passed before the three spoken of. It is not that the owner has been coming before it could be reasonably expected that there would be fruit. He has not come out of season.
The Wuest translation brings this out. The fig tree was “one already planted in his vineyard.” It was established. It had been fed and tended for some years already. He comes, then, anticipating some return on His investment. In the case of Israel, that investment could be measured in centuries, millennia even. They had been raised up for the very purpose of representing God to the nations. It was for this that He had Himself made of them a nation who had previously been but wandering, nomadic tribes. He had moved with such power on their behalf, over and over again. He had cared for them, corrected them, disciplined them when necessary. He had done everything there was to be done to see them grow in godliness. Yet, here they were playing power politics with the priesthood. Here they were, the very Son of God in their midst, and they were more concerned with preserving their position than with promoting God’s own.
Geographically, it remains evident even into our own time just how strategically placed that nation is. It is forever at the crossroads, placed to have maximum notice from the nations surrounding it, even those nations far from it. Thus did it receive surprising treatment from Rome. Israel had been granted privileges rarely seen in the regions Rome had conquered. Why? Because it was financially worthwhile to have Israel at peace, so that commerce could flow through her unimpeded. God chose this location with good cause. It wasn’t simply because the valleys were fruitful, the coast nearby, and the mountains a solid defense. It was because Israel was intended to be visible, noteworthy, a beacon in the world from which the light of God might shine. But, they chose instead to horde that light, and made it a matter of national pride rather than national purpose.
This, too, lies behind the parable Jesus speaks. “Why does it also render the ground useless?” This is the translation we have from Darby, and it brings out something all but hidden in most of the others. The NASB, for instance, speaks only of it using up the ground. That, at least to my eyes, only addresses matters of space. It’s taking up space that could be used for something else. It’s like an urban renewal issue. But, the full sense of what Jesus is saying goes deeper. It’s also the matter that this worthless tree is sucking nutrients from the soil that could be used by some other, more beneficial planting. It has rendered the otherwise productive land not merely idle, as concerns returns, but downright useless.
In other words, the question comes across something like, “Why waste the space and the soil on this tree?” Why feed it at all? Why suffer it to continue existing? It is worse than worthless. It not only gives me no return itself, but also prevents others from providing me with a return.
We are then presented with the keeper of the vineyard, Who is the Vine, the Shepherd, and many other offices besides. He is our Advocate, and that is clear in His response to the Owner. “Give Me one more year to work with this tree, Sir. Yes, I know that chances are meager, but let Me have this last bit of time to try and nurse it to health.”
Hear the mercy in that plea! The Keeper recognizes that there is little to no chance that He will succeed. Again, I can turn to the notes in the NET, which point out the wording of verse 9, which are rather weakened by translation (even their own translation). The ‘fine’ of the NASB, the ‘very well’ of the NET, those words are not there. His proffered hope of fruit is simply, “If it bears fruit next year…” The ellipsis is to be understood, though very few of the newer translations let it stand. It is a possibility offered, but not one in which even the speaker puts much stock. The greater likelihood lies in the opposite, “but if not,” which is stated in such a way as to make its greater likelihood plain, although not so in the English. In other words, “Yeah, I know it’s not likely to do any good, but let Me try anyway. We can always cut it down next year, and no harm done.”
So, the message is clear enough. You’ve had My ministry active in your midst for three years now. I think we might include John’s ministry in this measure as well, given the remaining year that is noted. At any rate, you’ve had more than enough time to recognize that the kingdom of God is imminent, and to prepare yourself for its arrival. Yet, you have done nothing. You have not repented, in spite of the repeated cry. You have not changed. You have not ceased from your sins and your conniving. You have done everything in your power to make sure the message doesn’t have any impact on you. But, time is running out.
That’s the message here. Time is running out. The offer is not forever. It is approaching that midnight hour that always seems to loom as the cutoff point in our thinking. Act now! This offer won’t last. But, our Advocate has bought us a year. The offer should already have expired. We have no reason to expect any further leniency. Yet, it is there. Mercy triumphs, and He has gained us a year in which to show response to His ministry. There is yet time to bear fruit and live. He has done this for us! And yet, as history shows, the number who will avail themselves of what He has done is minimal. The number who still come to God with bare branches and think they will be pleasing to Him when they come is staggering.
The message is corporate, but the message is intensely personal. It is not a national choice that will bring the change. It is a nation full of personal choices. Listen! This needs to become a matter for our own consideration. It’s not just a denunciation of Israel as she was at the time. It’s a denunciation of our own failures. We, too, have been a nation that thought herself – even knew herself – to be chosen of God for glorious purpose. We are not the first nation since Israel to feel this way. I doubt we shall be the last, unfortunately. Were we the last, it would be because we had succeeded in our purpose. But, looking around at our nation today, I cannot feel that way. We are failing of our purpose, and failing rapidly. We don’t even believe it ourselves, anymore.
We have failed to maintain our moral compass. We have allowed other viewpoints to shape our own, and so the nation that was once a light on the hill has been dimmed. We have become so fearful of offending others with our moral stance that we no longer have a moral stance, not even within ourselves. We think we can be amoral, above such distinctions. But, the truth is that we have simply become immoral, a much worse estate. There can in reality be no such state as amoral. It is a false construct.
As a nation, then, we ought to hear this message Jesus delivered to Israel as if it were today being delivered to us. Time is short! Either start bearing fruit or expect to be cut down. But, it’s not something we can legislate. It seems to me we’ve allowed the church to become as distracted by politics as ever the Sanhedrin was. It’s not about legislating morality. It’s about establishing morality. It’s about choosing morality. It’s about training the next generation in the ways of morality. But, we cannot train what we do not choose. We cannot establish as the norm what we refuse to do ourselves.
If America is to be restored, it must happen one individual at a time. A nation cannot repent, cannot, in truth, apologize for past failures. A nation cannot seek forgiveness. It is not a being, not an entity, that it should act so. Indeed, it is an eroding of personal responsibility when the nation seeks to do these things. It gives the individual an excuse to ignore his or her own failings. How greatly we need to set aside the sins and offenses of our forebears! Whether they were those who acted in bad faith or those who were wronged, their time is passed. We have enough and more to concern ourselves with in our own choices, our own actions. Let us choose to live honorably, in righteousness, dealing with each man fairly, and those past wounds can see to themselves.
I’m sorry, but apologizing for the past will not improve the present. It changes nothing. It does not make the apologist somehow more honest and trustworthy. It may well make him less so. After all, one who is so busy apologizing for others has no time to look to his own condition. We need to stop playing this game! We need to stop looking at everybody else past and present, and start looking right square in our own eyes.
What are those things I need to repent of? What is it that prevents me from bearing fruit? What must I do to be saved from the fire? Honestly, I don’t care if you are the most abject reprobate or an elder in the church. The questions are the same either way. We are plagued by elders who no longer recognize the need to repent. We are plagued by leaders that think more like a CEO than an under-shepherd in God’s employ. We have allowed the world to tell the Church how to operate. Since when does that even make sense? Shall we then cede the setting of moral standards to the scientific community? To the entertainment industry? Both of these offer themselves as moral guides. Who is the fool that would commit himself to their leading? If the Church is to take up the reigns of moral guidance once more, she must show herself subject to that guidance. It must happen in the leadership. It must happen in each individual member of the congregation.
As I said, the call is still going forth: Bear fruit or be cut away. If we truly think ourselves to be the church of the endtime, surely we ought to hear this with fear and trembling. Surely, we need to be on our faces, crying out like David, “Search my heart, Oh God. Show me where I am yet pursuing my own wicked ways, and cleanse me of those things. Mold me and make me after Thy will. Change me, Oh Lord, for I am sin sick and needy. Make me like You, that You might have fruit of me.”
