Luke 13:6-9 (NIV) Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted 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.'”
This parable ties in closely with Jesus’ teaching in the preceding verses. There He was teaching about the need for the people to recognize their sinfulness, and to repent right away. This parable shows the reason for the urgency.
In the parable, the vineyard owner has pronounced the doom and destruction of the fruitless fig tree. It has not borne fruit for several years, and is just using up soil that could be used more productively by a different tree. The owner is past the point of deciding what to do about the tree; the decision has already been made to cut it down. All that remains is for the gardener to act on His command.
But the gardener prays for mercy, for a single year of reprieve. He does not argue for the tree’s fruitfulness – he agrees that it is barren, and that it has been so for a long time. All he asks for is a single year during which he will pull out all the stops, take extraordinary measures, and see if the tree will respond. If the tree does not respond, he is willing to concede that the case is hopeless, and will willingly allow the owner to cut it down.
The surprising thing about this parable is who the cast of characters turns out to be. The owner of the vineyard is God the Father. The vineyard is God’s people, and the fig tree is the Jewish leadership who, despite an impressive outward show of leaves, had no real fruit. (See Matthew 21:18-19, where Jesus applies the same imagery.) And the gardener is Jesus.
In the real world, God had already pronounced His doom on the leaders of His people, and His hand was already raised to strike them, especially as He saw the way that they were rejecting Jesus, His Messiah. But Jesus’ heart broke for these leaders, and He was interceding for them. He was busy putting forth exceptional effort on their behalf, not writing them off or pulling back, but actively engaging with them, doing miracles before their very eyes, and confronting them with their sinfulness, and with the truth of God’s now-arriving kingdom, trying with all that was in Him to help them to see the truth, repent, and begin to bear real kingdom fruit before it was too late. This effort would ultimately climax in Jesus’ death and resurrection, paying for the sins of the world (even of those leaders, if they would only repent). If they did not respond to all of that, then Jesus would cease His intercession, and agree with God’s judgment that they had to be taken out.
Of course, history shows that they did not repent, but grew more determined to oppose not only Jesus, but His followers who continued His work as well. And God’s judgment did fall in AD 70, when General Titus destroyed the city and tore the temple to the ground.
Father, this is a fearsome thought, but demonstrably true. The most ironic part of the whole thing is that these leaders ended up plotting and carrying out the murder of the one who was standing directly between them and Your judgment! Their murder of Jesus and their persecution of His followers clearly demonstrated once and for all that Your judgment on them was fully justified. I praise You today for Your infinite wisdom and grace. Amen.