Luke 13:6-9

THE SPIRITUAL GROWTH OF LIFE

‘A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.… And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also … then after that thou shalt cut it down.’

Luke 13:6

Let us take as the basis of our thoughts the parable of the barren fig tree. Planted in a corner of the vineyard, protected by its walls, nourished by its properly prepared soil, there stands a fig tree. For two years the lord of the vineyard has come, eagerly expecting to see the promised fruit—for two years he has suffered disappointment. On the third year his patience is at an end—the tree is a failure. It is exhausting the soil and hindering the other plants. ‘Cut it down,’ is the order. But the vine-dresser, identifying himself with the tree, pleads for it that for one more year it may just have another chance.

I. The Creator and the creature.—Notice, first, the touching thought of the Creator for His creature. We were endowed by God—even if we sometimes forget the fact—with wonderful capacity of soul and mind and body and spirit. May I quote the splendid and solemn words of the Scottish Catechism: ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever’? With these words in our ears we have the scope of our desires and ambitions. Yet how feeble and lustreless our lives are!

II. Protecting grace.—But notice that we are taught that our life has been planted in a vineyard with its own special protection, the vineyard of God’s Church, where we were planted at our baptism. Every gift that was needed has been bestowed upon us; and yet, when we look at our lives as they really are, can we say that they show any signs of growth? When we take great words on our lips, and join in great acts of worship, do we not realise that there is, perhaps, scarcely any prayer which we Christians ought to have more constantly in our hearts than this: ‘From all hypocrisy, good Lord, deliver us’? And if we, in our best moments, feel thus, can we measure the disappointment of the Lord Who made us, the disappointment of God at the work of His hands?

III. Unprogressive life.—Notice the barren fig tree cumbers the ground. Its life is unprogressive. We are all so apt to sleep; we cumber the ground and do mischief. An unprogressive life checks enthusiasm, and tempts men to doubt whether there is any reality in our conviction. Have you, for example, sometimes watched the effect upon young and ardent minds, fresh from the hopes of their confirmation, of the phlegmatic character of their parents? Truly, we could not be surprised if God, when He came to visit our lives, said, ‘Why cumbereth it the ground? Cut it down.’

IV. The patient God.—How is it that God is so patient? It is because the Vine-dresser is pleading for the barren fig tree. The Son of man is identifying Himself with the plants of his vineyard. If we would only honestly confess our sins we should bring ourselves within the protection of that all-prevailing Master. But that is only the first step in being saved. It is only by growing and progressing in the Christian life that we obtain the assurance that in the end we shall be spared. God’s forgiveness gives us another chance; but it depends entirely on how far, day by day, we submit to Christ’s will, and give ourselves to Him, whether we shall be accepted.

V. Aids to growth.—Of aids to growth there are:—

(a) Faith.—Faith is rising above all circumstances, duties, and occupations, and seeing steadily ahead one great purpose, the doing of Christ’s will.

(b) Prayer.—This is the inward activity of faith. If our prayers are to be the means whereby we secure our abiding in Christ, they must concern themselves mainly with the desire to bring all our capacities to God.

(c) Self-discipline.—It is plain that if we are to be the companions of Christ we must accept the conditions of companionship He has laid down. We must take up our cross and follow Him. The life that is not marked by continuous self-discipline is not marked by the love of God.

(d) Sacrament.—Lastly there is that wonderful sacrament of the Holy Communion. How is it standing with you in regard to your communions?

So then, by prayer, faith, self-discipline, and sacrament we come humbly to make sure of our abiding in Christ. On such a life the Creator, looking down, can see that it is good, and can rejoice in that which He has made.

—Bishop C. G. Lang.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE BARREN FIG TREE

It was to bring home to the consciences of the Jews, who told our Lord of the Galilæans being slain, the great lesson of their own need of repentance that He told this parable.

I. A fruitless fig tree.—Fig trees are common in Palestine—sometimes by the roadside, sometimes in among the vines on the hillsides. This was where this particular fig tree was planted. Why did the owner plant the fig tree? For ornament merely? No; he expected something from it, and so he came at the proper time to look for his figs. But how disappointed he was! Same again the next year—the year after, too! See now what he orders (Luke 13:7). ‘Cut it down.’ It was ‘cumbering’ the ground; it was doing mischief; it kept the sun off other things; it was taking the virtue out of the land all for nothing! Yet it was not cut down at once. The dresser pleaded for it. ‘Give it another trial—another chance—perhaps there will be figs next year.’ And so the tree was spared a little longer.

II. A fruitless nation.—How prominent was a fig tree among the vines on the hillside! Everybody could see it with its large green leaves. Our Lord once worked a miracle on a fig tree to teach a lesson to the Jewish nation (Mark 11:12). This parable too had a lesson for them. The Jews, like this fig tree, stood out prominently. They were God’s ‘peculiar people’ (Deuteronomy 14:2). The Jews were made great among the nations for God’s glory (Deuteronomy 4:6). But how like this barren fig tree they had been! Had they, then, borne no fruit? What about their strictness in keeping the Law? (Matthew 23:23)—their almsgiving? (Matthew 6:2)—their long prayers? (Matthew 23:14). What sort of fruit does the Bible call these? (Hebrews 9:14). ‘ Dead works.’ These withered fruits were not the good fruit expected by the God of the Jewish nation. God had sent them Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others, and now His own Son; but the nation was barren, and worse than barren (Matthew 23:13; Matthew 23:15; Romans 2:24). They were doing mischief—‘cumbering the ground’; instead of drawing the heathen nearer to God they were bringing discredit upon their religion. What a warning to them was this parable! The axe was uplifted to cut down this Jewish tree. Is there nobody to speak for it? Yes; Jesus Himself. The blow may yet be turned aside, but on what condition? (Luke 13:5). If it repented and bore good fruit. Yet the axe fell just as Jesus said it would (Luke 19:43). God gave them forty years for repentance, and then the blow fell. The death of those Galilæans was a sort of foreshadowing of the terrible catastrophe. How many Jews perished! Jerusalem was utterly destroyed; multitudes perished in the Temple courts: their blood ‘ mingled with their sacrifices’! The fruitless tree was at last ‘cut down’!

III. Fruitless lives.—But a church, a nation, is made up of men and women. Then what a church or a nation is will depend on what the individual members are. Each one of us responsible to God for the fruit he is bringing forth.

(a) See what God expects of us. Just what the master looked for from the fig tree (Colossians 1:10). Fruit. The ‘fruit of good living.’ See what lovely fruits we can grow if we will (Galatians 5:22).

(b) But is God disappointed with us? What will make Him displeased, disappointed? If we are bearing none of these fruits? But if we are bearing none of these, we are bearing other fruit—bitter, poisonous fruit—sin, and there can be only one end to all this. What is that? (Romans 6:23.) Such men are cumbering the ground. What is the sentence, then, they may expect? ‘Cut it down.’

(c) But who has to cut down the barren fig tree? (Luke 13:7.) Yet the dresser of the vineyard pleads for it. So He Who is to be our Judge (John 5:22) is our Intercessor—pleads for us to be spared—to be given another chance (Hebrews 7:25).

How good God is! how forbearing! how anxious that sinners should repent! See how he warned men before the Deluge (Genesis 6:3)—how he warned Nineveh (Jonah 3:4)—how anxious to spare sinners! Are we despising God’s goodness? See what it ought to do for us—‘Lead us to repentance’ (Romans 2:4). Perhaps we are having our last chance now! Let us make the most of it.

—Rev. Canon Watson.