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THE
PARABLE OF THE GARDENER AND THE FRUITLESS FIG TREE
(Luke13:1-9)
1
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. SUMMARY
In
his teaching, Jesus frequently used the fig tree as an example.
It was widely cultivated throughout Palestine and it symbolized
the good life. However,
Jesus used the image of the fig tree to warn of the danger of spiritual
fruitlessness. The leafy
but fruitless fig tree illustrated how Israel had a showy religion that
deserved judgment. This
parable in Luke should not be confused with the parable and the miracle
of the fig tree that Jesus cursed recorded by Matthew (21:18-22) and
Mark (11:12-25). The common
factor between these two parables is the fact that there were no figs
on either tree. Both the
acted parable of Mark and the spoken parable of Luke have the same lesson:
the fig tree represents the nation of Israel, unresponsive to Jesus,
and thereby bringing upon itself destruction. This
parable of the gardener and a fig tree without fruit occurs only in
Luke’s gospel. The owner
of a vineyard orders his gardener to cut down an unproductive fig tree
because it is occupying valuable space but he agrees with the gardener’s
plea for one more chance. Fig
trees usually did not need manure.
The tree not only produced no fruit; it also made good soil useless. Fig trees were planted in spare corners of vineyards and it
was natural to expect signs of fruit after three years. As fruit could not be taken from a tree during the first three
years, this tree was probably about seven years old (Leviticus 19:23-25).
As it was a well-established tree, surely it would bear after
another year if it were ever going to. THE
VINEYARD AND THE FIG-TREE REPRESENT ISRAEL
The
God of Israel is the owner of the vineyard.
The vineyard and the fig tree are usually taken as symbols of
Israel (see Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 24:3; Hosea 9:10; Joel 1:7).
To dwell under one’s vine and fig tree was an Old Testament emblem
for prosperity and peace (1 Kings 4:25; Micah 4:4).
Jesus chose the vine to illustrate the spiritual union that exists
between himself and his followers (John 15:1-6).
On the other hand, the rebellious people of Israel are compared
to “bad fruit” and “a corrupt wild vine” (Isaiah 5:2,
4; Jeremiah 2:21). So
the fruitless fig tree is a symbol of an empty profession of righteousness
without right living. It
represents any religion that produces plenty of leaves but no fruit;
it has plenty of religious activity, but is of little use to anyone. Paul
described Israel’s favoured position with God:
“Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory,
the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the
promises. Theirs are the
patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ.”
(Romans 9:4-5) God expected exceptional fruit from a nation with exceptional
advantages. But Israel
disappointed God. Israel
in spite of all her privileges was like a tree that produced no fruit. The “three years”
(7) may represent, as a symbol of completeness, the opportunities
given to Israel. But the
fig tree was fit only for destruction and a more fruitful tree could
use the ground it occupied. The
gardener gained a stay of execution, but it was not forever.
The tree was given an extra year of grace (8) as the owner was
prepared to feed it and give it another chance.
So God was prepared to give Israel an opportunity for repentance,
“If it bears fruit next year, fine!” (9).
If Israel failed to respond, its fate would be its own responsibility. Both John the Baptist and Jesus warned Israel, “Every tree
that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the
fire.” (Matthew 3:10; 7:19) The
servant in the parable who advised patience may represent Jesus as an
intercessor to God for undeserving Israel (Hebrews 7:25).
Historically, the reprieve probably represents the early ministry
of the Church in Palestine but Israel failed to recognize her season
of opportunity (cf. Luke 12:56; 19:41-44).
Jesus foretold the fate of the fruitless nation of Israel. REPENTANCE
SAVES BUT FAILURE TO REPENT LEADS TO DESTRUCTION
The
story invites us to consider the grace of God.
The lesson is taught that those who are spared for a (short)
time should not miss the opportunity of repentance.
The parable pictures the failure of Israel to respond to God’s
patient dealings and foreshadowed its coming judgment in AD 70.
The parable makes again the points made in verses 1-5: God is
slow to punish but final judgment comes on those who do not repent.
Finally the tree (Israel) was cut down.
The patience of God offers an opportunity for repentance (Romans
2:4; 9:22; 2 Peter 3:9). THE
TIME TO REPENT IS NOW
(1-5) Jesus
said God’s judgment is coming and people would be wise to make their
peace with God. Two incidents
and a parable illustrate this theme of timely repentance.
Two warnings were based on recent incidents about which we have
no definite information (vv1-5).
The third is the story of the barren fig tree in which Jesus
emphasised the urgent need for a genuine response to his coming.
Repentance
means a change of mind and a change of direction or action,
away from sin and selfishness and towards God.
The word “repent” is also translated “turn from your
sins”[1]
and “turn to God.” [2]
Repentance is both a once-for-all decision (to accept Christ as Saviour
and Lord) and a day-by-day decision (that keeps putting away sin).
We should spare no effort to get right with God. UNDERSTAND
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Regrettably,
the Jews shut their eyes to the signs of the times and stumbled toward
the disasters of AD 66-70 when their rebellion against Roman rule was
ruthlessly crushed. They
recognised the signs of the weather, but they refused to note the signs
of the approaching judgment, with their own need for repentance.
Jesus said, “You know how to interpret the appearance of the
earth and the sky. How
is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?”
(Luke 12:56) He said that if we read the signs of the times properly, we
should see the necessity for the right kind of change.
If we see a black cloud, we can prepare for rain.
Christ’s message is a preparation for God’s judgment, yet many
ignore it today. SIGNS
CAN BE MISREAD
How
should we interpret atrocities (1) or disasters (4)?
Was it morally right for a just God to allow his innocent worshippers
to be slaughtered by a pagan tyrant?
If people might have been safe anywhere, or at any time, surely
it would have been at God’s altar, offering sacrifices to him.
Thus the Jews accepted that the victims of the two catastrophes
were under some special judgment of God.
But Jesus said that they were not necessarily the worst men in
Jerusalem. He stressed
that if his hearers don’t repent, they also will die at the hands of
the Romans (3). He
affirmed the prophetic principle that societies and organizations (like
churches) experience the judgment of God in history. (See Jeremiah chapter
18) Jesus foresaw and
foretold the destruction of Jerusalem (cf. Luke 21:21-24).
The Jewish nation as a whole was sinful in God’s sight and it
would suffer the fate of sinners if it did not repent.
SUFFERING
AND SIN: A COMPLEX PROBLEM
The
devout Galileans who died were probably protesters against the Roman
governor Pontius Pilate who had used temple funds to finance an aqueduct
into Jerusalem. The incident
was typical of Pilate’s brutal and arrogant policy.
It only took a small spark to kindle into a blaze the smoldering
Jewish resistance to the hated Roman rule and a garrison was always
kept in the Tower of Antonia in Jerusalem to quell disturbances. The
Jews thought Pilate’s victims must have been great sinners to suffer
such a dreadful death and thought the same about some victims of a building
accident (Job 4:7). Sometimes
asking an abstract spiritual question may be a way of deflecting attention
from our need to repent. However,
Christ did not discuss the current retribution theory accepted by the
Jews that individual disaster was a punishment for sin (see John 9:2).
Instead he answered their question by asking a question and rather
than discuss Pilate’s sins, he discussed the sins of those questioning
him. He
put the record straight: it’s not a matter of “lesser sinners” and “worse
sinners”. Rather we are
ALL sinners and therefore we ALL need to repent (5).
Rather than speculating on others’ guilt, his listeners should
regard the fate of others as a warning that called them to repentance.
Repentance, he said, was the urgent demand of the present. DISASTER
MAY HAPPEN TO ANYONE
Humanity
is exposed to the changing circumstances of life, and good and evil
are mixed together. Jesus
taught that disaster could happen to anyone because we all are sinful
and we live in a broken world.
Personal tragedy is often inexplicable.
God does not always intervene to protect the innocent from disaster
so being killed, or not being killed, is not a measure of a person’s
unrighteousness or righteousness.
Anyone can be killed and only God’s grace causes anyone to live.
Death is the common experience of everyone and only repentance
can bring eternal life. There
is a connection between sin and suffering but it is the sin of the whole
of humanity that is linked with the suffering of the whole of humanity.
Sudden catastrophes remind us of both the brevity and the uncertainty
of life; how soon our own day of grace might end.
Thus the suffering of others is both a warning and a call to
repentance to be taken to heart by all of us. So
it wrong for us to “play God” and make judgments about the misfortunes
of others. The answer of
Jesus is a reproof of the habit of hastily judging the character of
others by what happens in their life.
Job’s friends made that mistake when they said Job’s afflictions
were a result of his sins. If
that argument is true, how do we explain the sufferings of the OT prophets,
the NT apostles and Jesus himself? WE
ARE ALL DEBTORS TO GOD’S MERCY
In
verse 4 Jesus used the Greek word for “debtor”, translated
“more guilty”, meaning “one who is obligated to do something
or one who is guilty or at fault”[3].
Matthew renders the same word in the Lord’s Prayer as “Forgive
us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (6:12).
We are in debt to God because we have broken his laws.
The victims of the two incidents perished physically but all
who do not repent face spiritual death.
Jesus’ point is that all his hearers are debtors to God’s justice
and depend on God’s mercy. NATIONAL
PRIVILEGE CARRIES NATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Israel
listened to God as most of us tend to, absorbing the message selectively,
understanding only what fitted her own ideas.
Israel mistook God’s patience (vv7-8) to be his approval and
was blind with obstinacy and pride. The nation had, in fact, only 40 years to live but made its
choice soon after these words of Jesus were spoken. ‘“Shall I crucify
your king?” Pilate asked. “We
have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.’ (John 19:15).
In
70AD Jerusalem suffered a fate far worse than that of the slaughtered
worshippers (vv1-3) or those involved in that fatal accident on a building
site (vv4-5). Under the
competent Roman general Vespasian about 1 million Jews died and 97,000
went into slavery.[4]
Finally the tree (Israel) was cut down; its day of grace came
to an end. Jesus emphasised
that national privilege carried national responsibility.
How could a “chosen people” perish?
Israel existed only while she fulfilled the historic purpose
for which God had brought her into being. Professor
Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) in his panoramic survey of history from ancient
times until the present, concluded that there is a moral basis to history.
Of fourteen major civilizations that have collapsed, he suggested
that they were instruments “which God could no longer use.”
The Bible affirms that God is the sovereign lord of history. OPPORTUNITY
IS LIMITED AND DOES NOT LAST FOREVER
The
idea of deferring God’s judgment so that people may have an opportunity
to repent, runs throughout Scripture.
Before the flood, a period of 120 years was fixed (Genesis 6:3);
Abraham prayed for Sodom (Genesis 18:24); the destruction of Israel
by the Assyrians was foretold by the prophets; the destruction of Jerusalem
by Babylon was forewarned by Jeremiah; the fall of Jerusalem did not
follow until 40 years after the ascension of Christ; and the return
of Christ is delayed by the patience of God (2 Peter 3:9). Israel’s
rejection by God is temporary until all those who are going to be saved
from the Gentiles come to trust in Christ.
Then salvation will come to many Jews through a response of faith
in the gospel of Christ. Israel will flourish again for not even our backsliding can
frustrate God’s loving purposes (Romans 11:11-36). Meanwhile the Church in the age of grace is grafted into
the tree of Israel. But
the same holy love has the same expectations of Christians and the same
commitment to believers. GOD
WILL NOT TOLERATE FRUITLESSNESS INDEFINITELY
Jesus
often used the image of a fruit tree to represent individual responsibility
(Matt. 7:19; John 15:6). People are compared to trees and their work
to fruit. God is gracious
and longsuffering toward people and encourages us to repent and be fruit
bearing. He has every right
to cut us down, but in his mercy he spares us.
However, we must not presume upon the love and kindness of God,
for the Day of Judgment will eventually come (Acts 17:30-31).
All unrepentant sinners will perish (5) even though in God’s
mercy the judgment may be delayed.
If we allow God’s apparent inactivity to blind us to that, we
have only ourselves to blame. There is a limit to the patience and mercy of God. If
God’s call to repentance meets with no response, then judgment is to
be expected. EVERY
PRIVILEGE CARRIES A RESPONSIBILITY Jesus
repeatedly reminded people that they would be judged according to the
knowledge and the opportunities they had.
More knowledge brings more responsibility.
He said, “But the one who does not know and does things deserving
punishment will be beaten with few blows.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded;
and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be
asked.” (Luke 12:48)
Careless behavior will be punished and responsible behavior will
be rewarded. There are
varying degrees of punishment and reward.
All punishment will not be equal because those who are entrusted
with more responsibility and fail will have more guilt. We
too are like the fig tree and God expects to find us fruitful.
This can only happen when we repent and turn to Jesus Christ.
God patiently waits for fruit to appear giving people every possible
chance to produce fruit. As
Christians we are to bear the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians
5:22-23. Fruitlessness
and uselessness invite disaster.
Mercy and grace are extended to those who do not bear fruit but
if fruit does not show in a person’s life, eventually judgment will
come. It is not possible
to bear fruit apart from the Vine (Christ) for apart from him we can
do nothing (John 15:5). THE
SECOND CHANCE AND THE FINAL CHANCE
This
parable has been called the parable of the second chance because it
teaches that God offers people a second chance as the apostles Peter
(John 21:15-19) and Paul (Acts 9) can testify.
Likewise Christians should give one another a second chance.
For example, Paul later changed his mind about John Mark after
a contentious difference of opinion with him and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-39;
Colossians 4:10). God
leaves the door of repentance open, human free will is respected, and
sinners are warned that it is none but themselves who make inevitable
their own destiny. The
parable also makes clear that there is a final chance.
While the mercy of God gives us a second chance, it is folly
to presume upon the grace of God. If
we refuse opportunity after opportunity, if we continually reject God’s
appeals, we shut ourselves out of God’s kingdom by deliberate choice.
May God save us from such a position!
National and personal sins, if not repented of, will lead to
national and personal destruction. THE
PARABLE HAS AN APPLICATION TO THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN
“To
say that a person might disobey and be none the worse would be to say
that no may be yes and light sometimes darkness.”
God loves us too much to allow us to disobey and “be none the
worse.” We should mark
those critical moments in our lives to which the future is linked and
on which it turns. Jesus
emphasised that fruit must be present (Luke 8:15).
A visible change must be seen in the life of one who claims to
be a follower of Christ. If
there is no visible change that person, like the fig-less fig tree,
will be judged. Let us
start living for God and bear the fruit that reflects his patient care
of us. Bishop
J. C. Ryle comments, “Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, church membership
and a diligent use of all the outward means of Christianity will not
save our souls. They are
leaves, nothing but leaves. Without
fruit they add to our condemnation. We must bear fruit or be lost for ever.”[5]
While good works does not save us, good works are an evidence
of salvation. FOOD
FOR THOUGHT
A PRAYER
O
God, spare us from living fruitless and useless lives.
We pray for grace to dig around and manure our own spiritual
lives so that we may be filled with the fruits of righteousness that
come through Jesus Christ. May
my actions match my privileges.
Grant my nation space to repent. Jim
Peacock MA (Hons), Diploma Of Teaching. |
