Luke 13:6-9

This parable is just as much for us today as it was for those people then and it gives us a great deal of insight in regard for God's purposes for us. The man in the parable is God, Israel is the vineyard, or it could be the church, the fig tree is us, the dresser is Christ. The fig tree is considered to be hearty and productive for the Palestine area. It has a very good batting average for producing fruit, not merely surviving, but it will produce fruit.

You might remember the time that Jesus came along and cursed the fig tree because it did not have any fruit on it. People get upset that He was cruel and mean. Christ never did a cruel, mean thing in His life, or even against God's nature at all. When He cursed the fig tree it was because it should have had fruit on it, but it did not and so it withered and died.

We are the fig tree and we are in a position where God expects that we should have a much better than average chance to produce fruit. Jesus repeatedly warns us that we are going to be judged according to what we do with our opportunities.

There is a man by the name C.E.M. Joad and he was a biblical scholar of a number of years ago. He made this comment in regard to we human beings: "We have the powers of God and we use them like irresponsible school boys. Never was a generation entrusted with so much as ours, and therefore, never was a generation so answerable to God."

Salvation is not the issue in this parable, but the parable teaches us again that uselessness does invite disaster. No fruit, cut it down, God says. Jesus intercedes, and He said, no let me dung it about one more time and let us see what they do. So we are seeing here that it is not merely a matter of survival. The tree's sin was that it was not producing anything. It was taking up space in the ground. It was taking up rain from the heavens. But it was giving nothing back!

Are we not obligated to God to give Him something back on His investment? Yes we are, but we cannot give Him anything back simply avoiding evil. That does not glorify God all that much because it is not going to produce a great deal of fruit. The parable does show us that Christ, as the dresser, does give us the strength to enable us to produce fruit, and in this case, the dung represents His Holy Spirit.

Growth for growth's sake is not the goal—fruit is. Does the tree eat its own fruit? The answer is, to a limited degree, yes. To some extent it does because if the fruit ripens and falls to the ground then the fruit provides a measure of fertilization for the production of more fruit. But fruit's primary use is for someone else to receive a benefit from what is being produced and so the value of what is produced is primarily for the one who owns the tree.

Who owns the tree? God does. The fruit is what? What is its purpose? To glorify Him! This is what we just read in verse 8, that if we produce a lot of fruit, God is glorified. It is our responsibility to give Him back on His investment. That is our obligation, to produce fruit to glorify Him. But, you see, there is a secondary aim in the production of fruit and that is that others are benefited from it.

So we find God is the primary recipient. Others receive the benefit of what the tree produces and the tree itself receives a benefit from what is produced. It is not a matter of producing fruit just for the sake of producing fruit, that is not the goal. The reason for the production of fruit, the reason for God's concern, is that others will benefit and we will benefit as well from that.

Luke 13:6-9

Now this parable is just as much for us today, because it gives us insight into God's purpose for us. The man who had a fig tree in His vineyard is God. The dresser is Christ. And the fig tree, we could say, is either the church or us as individuals.

The fig tree was considered hardy for the Palestine area. It would be normally expected that it would do well there. The climate was agreeable to it. Apparently the right amount of rain generally fell. And it was expected then that it would produce a great deal of fruit.

Now, in this parable here, salvation is again not the issue. The issue is growth. And again, Jesus is teaching us that uselessness invites disaster—a tree producing no fruit when it should be expected to produce fruit.

What was the tree's sin? It was not producing anything. In the analogy here, it was taking from the ground. It was taking from the heavens. But it was giving nothing back!

We sometimes wonder if it is possible for us to have the strength to do this. You see, right in the parable, the dresser is fertilizing us. Christ is giving us the strength to do what we need to do. So, it puts us right in the corner. We cannot go to Him and say, "God, you never gave me what I needed to do this"—because we have been given. And He gives us what He gives us for what reason? So we can produce fruit. Now, what He gives us is called dung, or fertilizer, in the parable there, but I think we get the point. Growth for growth's sake is not the issue. It is fruit that is the issue. The tree was growing, but it was not producing any fruit. That was the issue.