3-15-22 - Figs in a Vineyard?

You can listen to this reflection here.

Jesus had a strange relationship to fig trees. One of the most negative uses of divine power recorded in the Gospels comes when he curses a fig tree that has no fruit on it, though the writers tell 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, exploring what Jesus was saying about the ways of God and his own mission of redemption. Parables invite us to ask questions, 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 the fig tree planted in a vineyard? Do fig trees belong in vineyards? Is the vineyard the world? Is Jesus saying his followers are to bear fruit in challenging circumstances?

And 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 “man” – God the Father? Is Jesus the gardener?

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? Or is he talking about his often-clueless disciples?

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 we planted in the right place? Are there any areas of our lives in which we are “wasting the soil?”

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, like finding a fig tree among the grapevines.

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