“Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing 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 13:6-9 NIV
Jesus spoke this parable in the context of the report about Pilate’s heinous cruelty to the worshippers he had killed. What did a fruitless fruit tree have to do with their report about Pilate’s behaviour? Was He addressing the wrong attitude of those who told Him about the incident? What was it in their hearts that He was exposing?
Fruit! God is looking for fruit… but…Why did Jesus specify, in His story, that the fruitless tree was a fig tree? Did it really matter what kind of tree was about to be cut down because it bore no figs?
Yes, it does! The Holy Spirit, the author of God’s Word, sometimes used trees as symbols of Israel, for example, the vine and the fig tree. Jesus’ examples were never random. Is it not significant that the first mention of the fig tree is in Genesis 3?
The guilty pair tried to hide their nakedness from God by using fig leaves as covering! On one occasion, Jesus cursed a fruitless fig tree which immediately died, to the surprise of His disciples. Was He illustrating that His people, Israel, the fig tree, were fruitless in their pursuit of acceptance with God by their futile self-efforts, and in danger of judgment?
Israel’s leaders, the learned ones, were equally fruitless because of their hypocrisy. Their outward “holiness” hid their wicked and greedy hearts. The Father searched in vain for fruit that would reveal the nature of the tree but there was nothing on them but leaves, the useless outer covering that hid nothing.
So, in Jesus’ parable, a fruitless fig tree was of no value in His garden. It was occupying space, using up water and nutrients, and giving nothing back in return. Even in these circumstances, there was a touch of mercy. The gardener requested one more season. “Let’s give the tree another year. I’ll do my best to see that it bears fruit.”
Isn’t that just like the Lord! In His mercy, He provides every opportunity for fruitless, guilty people to repent, to reign to Him and His way! Note that Jesus was speaking to His own people…the fig tree…Israel. However, even for them, there was a cut-off point when God’s mercy towards these unrepentant people would come to an end. His justice, like His mercy, must be fully met since He is God.
israel’s guilt was at its greatest because they had failed to recognise that God had come in person to rescue them from their self-imposed doom, and to re- establish His reign on earth.
They had refused to acknowledge that Jesus was God or to submit to His authority. They stood on the brink of being cut down. His compassion for His people led Him to lament their fate, recorded in this very same chapter…
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Luke 13:34-35 NIV
The tragedy of Israel was that they refused to heed Jesus’ warning. Despite His words, despite the delay in His judgment, they killed Him for telling them the truth. The old “fig tree” was indeed cut down but…from the stump came another tree, a new tree, a race of Jew and Gentile, supernaturally born of God and blended together to become God’s true “fig tree”.
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ…He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit…And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:13, 17-18, 22 NIV
The old fig tree, with its fruitless efforts at self-righteousness, had to give way to a new “tree”, a race made up of Jew and Gentile who would bear the fruit that He desired through its union with Jesus.
In John 15, Jesus changed the metaphor. The vine, another symbol of Israel, depicts a union between vine and branches so intimate that the life of the vine, flowing into the branches, produces the fruit of the vine.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener…Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:1, 4-5 NIV
Now, we must ask ourselves…”Am I a fruitless fig tree ready to be cut down, or a branch in the vine that bears the fruit of the vine?” Am I an active part of the fig tree, made up of Jew and Gentile, that bears witness to the nature of the tree?
Jesus said…
“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
Matthew 7:18-20 NIV
To be continued…