Luke 13:9

Luke 13:9

The first thing which strikes us, perhaps, in this transaction is its individuality. There must have been many vines and many fig trees in the vineyard; but the story is told as if the whole vineyard were for that one tree alone, and as if the great Proprietor concerned Himself only with it. The inference is evident the whole Church spreads its provisions for you. As much as if you were the only member in that Church, the whole circuit of its ordinances is for you. Personally, distinctly, separately, God deals with you; He visits you; He examines you; He expects from you; He is grieved or He is pleased with you. It is all in the closest individuality. It is not, "Is this a fruitful Church?" but, "Are you a fruit-bearer in this Church?"

I. It is a very humbling recollection, those years of love and care, those years of unfaithfulness and emptiness which God all along has been counting. The true measure of the emptiness is the extent of the culture. Had the dressing not been what it is, the wonder would have been less. But when we think of all that hand has done all the cherishing and the watching and the pruning and the training, then we can estimate that dismal word, "None, none." "He sought fruit, and found none."

II. But here the question forces itself upon us, "What is fruit?" For I can hear some one saying, "I know that I have borne very little fruit, but I hope it is not none." What is fruit? What is it which is to a man what the figs are to the fig tree? I answer: (1) It would be something appropriate to his nature, accordant with his being "For men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." And what is the nature of the being of a man? Physical, intellectual, impassioned, spiritual. Such, then, must fruit be, real and tangible, visible and felt, reasonable, thoughtful, balanced, affectionate, earnest, spirit going forth to spirit, assimilating itself to God. (2) It must be fruit in its season. We do not expect man's fruit at child's age. (3) It is not fruit until it is for the Owner's sake. It is not fruit-growing in thought, word, or deed, for itself or for you; it is something for God, something thought, said, done, for the sake of God. (4) It must be in its nature sanctified, drawn from the Father, received through the Son, matured and mellowed by providences, full of love.

J. Vaughan, Sermons,1868, p. 133.