Parable: The Barren Fig Tree

Read Luke 13:1-6

The parable, simple as it is, has produced some very intricate commentaries on the nearly inexhaustible patience and longsuffering of God having a terminal point.  That could be the thrust here.  What if the parable is strait forward?  What if it is as simple as it appears?

What if the message from the worker that tends these trees is just, let’s give it a little more time.  Let’s put more effort into nurturing this tree.

By let’s, the worker is seeking grace from the owner so that he can do this extra work.  He is asking for extra work to nurture a tree which by all standards should be cut down.  At least in cutting it down, you get a little firewood and can try something else in its place.

The parable says:  Let’s not give up yet.

If we get allegorical, we have all kinds of issues.  Who is the owner and who is the worker?  If the owner is God, why is he ready to chop down the tree?

If the worker is God or Jesus, who owns the orchard?

If this is a discussion between Father and Son, are we ready for such high level discussions?

Many have taken what might be some circuitous routes to answer these questions, sometimes comparing this with parables about the vineyard and its workers and oft times throwing Israel itself into the mix, but what if the message is simply, “Let’s take a little more time and a reasonable amount of effort to give this tree another chance to produce fruit.”

We might think that this is about evangelism. We should go to the far ends of the earth and deliver the gospel, baptize, and make disciples.  We should, but I suggest that this parable looks at the unfruitful person who has already professed belief in God, and for us, in Jesus.

The Hebrew people were to bless the world.  God blessed them and they in turn were to bless the world.  They didn’t do a very good job of that.  They could barely keep themselves intact as they turned away from God time and time again.

Through Jesus, God’s promise to bless the world through the seed of Abraham is fulfilled, but the Hebrew people had their issues with living up to being God’s Chosen People.

This is not a pick on the Jews moment for we too do not always live up to our God given potential.  We have talked before about the one who has been given much.  The bar has been set high for that person.  We get that.

But what about the people who don’t?  Is it just too bad, so sad for them?

God desires that none perish and that all come to repentance and life if Jesus Christ, but what if people stop at repentance?  They got saved but they are not producing much fruit.  To use Paul’s analogy, they did not build well upon the foundation of Salvation in Jesus Christ.  They are saved like someone running out of a burning building with only the clothing on their backs and no renter’s insurance.

Are we content to leave them there?  Are we content to leave them where they are?

We might be thinking, if the tree gets chopped down, then this must be about salvation.  That’s possible, but we don’t have much direction about the unsaved producing fruit, other than bad fruit.

Fruit is about what we do with what God has given us, but in this case it’s about what God has given other believers.

So should we break out our pointing fingers and go around inspecting other believers to make sure that they are making their fruit quota?  No.

What does the worker do in this parable?  He nurtures.  He is going to water and fertilize.  He is going to go that extra mile to give this tree a chance to join the ranks of those that produce fruit.

That’s where life and life abundant reside, plus there are some rewards down the road.  Life really becomes life when we start producing fruit.

The problem is often that many see salvation as the finish line. I have steered away from hellfire and damnation sermons because a profession of faith rooted in fear hardly prepares the new believer for discipleship.  

Salvation seems to be the finish line having walked the aisle and said the words.  It’s game over.  Now what?

 It is the finish line for sin and death having a say in our eternal condition, but it is really the starting blocks for life.

Which brings us to 25-mile hikes with heavy equipment.  This is where Paul and the Marine are very much in agreement, at least in attitude.  Paul told everyone to carry his own load but that we share on another’s burdens. 

Every Marine is expected to carry his own load, but if a Marine is not keeping up on a long march, the other Marines don’t just shake their heads and keep on going.  They start to take part of his equipment and take turns carrying it.  Everyone finishes. 

It’s a crazy attitude that you expect everyone to do more than they can but if they can’t, you won’t let them fail.  They are part of your team.  This is a way of life for the Marine and the believer.

Now at boot camp, it might be a different story.  If you can’t hack it there, then you don’t need to be a burden to others later.  But for the one who has earned the title Marine, you get them to the finish line.

We as Christians have not earned a title.  We have a fantastic gift, but we should share the same attitude.  We will go the extra mile for our fellow believers.  We are expected to carry our own load but we are expected to help others with their burdens. 

What does this all mean in day-to-day life?

If we have fellow believers who are not fully living, we need to help.  Sometimes that help is just prayer.  Sometimes it is encouragement.  

Sometimes it is walking with a fellow believer through a tough situation. 

Sometimes it is speaking the truth in love, not in condemnation.  

Remember, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.

We have a nature that says, “don’t meddle.”  But a little meddling is required.  Connection among believers is needed to produce the fruit that we should.  If your gift is intercession, the person that you are nurturing in your prayers may not even be aware of your efforts. 

But if you are an encourager, then they will surely know.  If you see a gift in a person and you offer to mentor them, then they will surely be aware of that connection. 

The DISCONNECT NOTICES that we have put out many times are not reaching out to the lost, but to the believer who is not living out the fullness of their salvation.  The goal is not people in the pews—though that is often a byproduct—it’s connecting the body of Christ so that together we can produce the fruit that we should be producing.

I am going to make a bold statement here.  It might seem absurd to you, but if every person who has professed Jesus as Lord and has received this wonderful gift of salvation would put what God has given them to work and help others to put what they have been given to work, our country would be changed in that instant.

We would be changed.  It would make no difference who was in the White House or Governor’s Mansion or the halls of Congress.  This entire nation would be changed.

For there are more Christians living outside of church bodies than gather on Sunday mornings.  They have grown comfortable there.  Apathy has crept into their response to salvation and they are not producing fruit for the body of Christ.  We could just say, “Shame on you!”

What if we nurtured them and helped them produce fruit for the body of Christ?  What if we called them home?

What if we didn’t give up on them?  What if we didn’t leave them in their apathy, and discontent, and disconnected state?

What if we nurtured them?

What if we said, “Let’s give it a year with some extra effort and see what happens.”

It’s challenge time.  Who’d a thunk it?

Everyone here knows someone that is disconnected from the body of Christ and needs to come home and needs to produce fruit for the body of Christ and needs to know what living to the full really means.

We all know someone.  The challenge is that you take a year—summer to summer—to invite this someone home.  They may not even live here.  It could be an old college friend or someone that you grew up with who knows the Lord but has forsaken the fellowship of believers and they need to come home and join the ranks of those who produce fruit.

We are still reaching out to the lost.  That’s our commission, but part of that commission deals with those who have been saved.

We are told to make disciples.  We are to help people follow Jesus.  We are to help people love one another.  We are to nurture believers so that they too produce fruit for the Lord and the body of Christ.  It’s not get them to profess their faith and then check them off the list.  Mission Accomplished!

We are still working on our own discipleship and some balk at helping or nurturing or mentoring another believer, but in so doing, we actually grow in our own maturity and produce more fruit.

I challenge you to pick a person or family and write their name on your bulletin.  When you write it, that’s the beginning of a commitment.  When you get home, put that name somewhere that you will see it daily.  Pray for that person or family.  Reach out to that person or family again and again.

Don’t water the tree this August and think that should do it until next summer.    We water and add fertilize and water and we don’t give up.  You can get Miracle Grow and water and fertilizer at the same time if you want.

Here’s the thing.  We don’t give up.  We nurture for a year.

Now, some here might think that this is a trick.  I know what he’s going to do at the end of that year.  He will ask us to pick another family.

And if I did, how bad would that really be?  This commission that we have is for life.  We reach out to the lost and we call believers home—we are part of making disciples.

Here is the thing.  We don’t give up.  We nurture for a year, and at the end of that year if you have been faithful in your prayer and nurturing; you will be looking for the next person or family to help them find their way home to the fullness of life in Christ.

Do this for a year and I won’t need to ask you to do it again.  The Spirit of God that lives within you will be reminding you.

We still cast a broad net wherever we go.  We reach out to many with good news and God’s love, but we pick only one or a family to truly nurture back into the body of Christ for a year.

Let’s give it a year and see what happens.

We could say, they should have done this on their own but they didn’t.  But that’s not our counsel.  Pick a person or a family.  Give them some extra attention or nurturing if you will and do it for a year.

Let’s give it a year and see what happens.

Amen.