This week's gospel reading is here.)
Jesus had a strange relationship to fig trees. One of the most negative uses of divine power recorded in the Gospels occurs when he curses a fig tree that has no fruit on it, though the writer tells us it was not the season for figs. Now, after reminding his listeners that they are called to repent and return to the Lord, he tells this mystifying parable:
‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”'
We will play with this parable this week, seeking to understand what Jesus was saying about the ways of God and his own mission of redemption. Parables invite us to wonder and question, to interpret them one way and then turn them upside down and see them entirely differently. So let’s start with the first question that pops into my mind: Why is this fig tree planted in a vineyard? Do fig trees belong in vineyards?
Who or what does the fig tree represent? Is it the religious system into which Judaism had evolved by Jesus’ time, a constrained and codified system of sacrifice and legalism? Or is that represented by the vineyard?
Who is the “owner” – God the Father? Or is the "owner" the prince of this world, the evil one, who claimed to have been given dominion over the earth? That changes the way we look at the parable. And is the gardener Jesus? Or let’s flip it: is Jesus the fig tree who, after three years of ministry, still isn’t seeing the kind of fruit he was hoping to? Is cutting the fig tree a reference to his own death?
Going beyond what Jesus may have meant, how does this parable play if we put ourselves into it? Our churches? Are we bearing the kind of fruit the Gardener wants? Are there any areas of our lives in which we are “wasting the soil?” Are we planted in the right place?
There is no one right answer or one right interpretation. Jesus taught in parables to invite his followers to see things in new ways, from new angles. Read the parable over to yourself today, and see what fruit emerges. And then do it again tomorrow – it may yield something entirely different - sort of like finding a fig tree among the grapevines.
Jesus had a strange relationship to fig trees. One of the most negative uses of divine power recorded in the Gospels occurs when he curses a fig tree that has no fruit on it, though the writer tells us it was not the season for figs. Now, after reminding his listeners that they are called to repent and return to the Lord, he tells this mystifying parable:
‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”'
We will play with this parable this week, seeking to understand what Jesus was saying about the ways of God and his own mission of redemption. Parables invite us to wonder and question, to interpret them one way and then turn them upside down and see them entirely differently. So let’s start with the first question that pops into my mind: Why is this fig tree planted in a vineyard? Do fig trees belong in vineyards?
Who or what does the fig tree represent? Is it the religious system into which Judaism had evolved by Jesus’ time, a constrained and codified system of sacrifice and legalism? Or is that represented by the vineyard?
Who is the “owner” – God the Father? Or is the "owner" the prince of this world, the evil one, who claimed to have been given dominion over the earth? That changes the way we look at the parable. And is the gardener Jesus? Or let’s flip it: is Jesus the fig tree who, after three years of ministry, still isn’t seeing the kind of fruit he was hoping to? Is cutting the fig tree a reference to his own death?
Going beyond what Jesus may have meant, how does this parable play if we put ourselves into it? Our churches? Are we bearing the kind of fruit the Gardener wants? Are there any areas of our lives in which we are “wasting the soil?” Are we planted in the right place?
There is no one right answer or one right interpretation. Jesus taught in parables to invite his followers to see things in new ways, from new angles. Read the parable over to yourself today, and see what fruit emerges. And then do it again tomorrow – it may yield something entirely different - sort of like finding a fig tree among the grapevines.
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