Luke 13:1-9
1At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish just as they did.”
6Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the man working the vineyard, ‘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?’ 8He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.’”
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This passage is in the middle of a section of several parables in which Jesus issues warnings, and calls for repentance. The warnings are often that the end will come as a surprise, and this passage starts with two sudden disasters that must have been well-known at the time. The point seems to be “Don’t wait to get right with God, as you may be done tomorrow.”
The parable of the fig tree puts some specifics on what repentance is. It is not just paying lip service to the Lord. Rather, it involves fruits, which is surely an analogy for good deeds. Of course there are many examples in the gospels of what Jesus thought were good and bad deeds; some of them are in the passages that come immediately before and after this passage. The Lord will apparently give someone a second chance to repent and bear good fruit; but he will apparently not wait forever.
This raises that old question of faith vs. works. Which makes us right with God? Here I am guided by some very good sermons Pastor Mark recently gave. As we learn in Romans, it is faith in the triune God that reconciles us to him. But that reconciliation, that faith, should naturally and simultaneously spur us to do good. It doesn’t all happen at once. As faith grows, so does the impulse to do good. That faith gives us the golden rule, a commandment that other people matter as much as we do.
Prayer: Lord God, have mercy upon us. Faith is a gift—but we can ask for it, and we do. Let our hearts be good soil, so that our faith is not sterile, and our lives become a living gift for others, and for you. Amen.
—Max Fritzler