Text: Luke 13:1–9; Mark 11:12–25
Facebook live: Living among the bible trees – Fig trees!
6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
In our part of the world today, figs are well down the list of popular fruits.
In fact, if it weren’t for Fig Newtons, many of us would probably never have thought of them at all.
But in Bible times, in Palestine and the Near East, figs were no novelty for an occasional cookie or jam; they were food on the table the way apples or oranges might be for us today.
Fig trees are among the first plants ever cultivated by humans, long before wheat or barley or beans.
In fact, evidence of their domestication in the Jordan River Valley may be the first discovered example of agriculture.
Fig trees grow well in poor soil. They can withstand drought. And they’re large; they can grow to a height of more than thirty feet and provide welcome shade in hot climates.
It was fig trees and their fruit—or lack thereof—that we heard about in today’s readings.
On this Maundy Thursday night, as we think especially of the fruit of the grape vine, we prepare to receive that blessed gift by continuing our special Lenten sermon series, “Living among the Bible’s Trees.” Today we consider fig trees.
Considering the Fig Trees, We Realize That, Although We Do Not Always Bear the Fruits of Faith as We Should - God brings forth from us Fruits in keeping with repentance.
I. We do not always bear the fruits of faith as we should.
In the readings, we heard both St. Luke’s unique report of Jesus’ parable that used a fig tree, and also St. Mark’s of Jesus’ later experience with a fig tree.
In the First Reading, the parable using the fig tree illustrates the time for repentance that tragedies should prompt.
In the Second Reading, Jesus dramatically enacts a living parable or takes prophetic action related to the judgment that comes when the time for repentance is over.
In that case, the repentance and judgment seem to relate specifically to God’s people’s being full of activity but nevertheless unfruitful.
People sometimes have a hard time with Jesus’ experience with the fig tree on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem. Some say the miracle is unworthy of the Lord, or that an innocent tree was unjustly the target of his wrath.
Yet, Jesus is the Creator in human flesh, with the right to do with his creation as he knows best, and that particular tree, as it was by the road, may not have been anyone in particular’s tree.
What’s more, with the leaves, there should have been early figs, indicators of the later figs to come; apparently, a tree without figs early on also will not have figs later.
The Old Testament is also full of references to figs in related figures of speech. For example, through Hosea, the Lord says:
10 Like grapes in the wilderness,
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
in its first season,
I saw your fathers.
But they came to Baal-peor
and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
and became detestable like the thing they loved.
Hos 9:10
And yet, as he says through Jeremiah,
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”
Jer 8:13
Are we like the unfruitful people God addressed through Hosea and Jeremiah and like the Jews of Jesus’ day, claiming to be religious but without any fruits of faith?
Certainly, we are like them according to our sinful nature, but God calls and enables us to bear fruit.
Do we bear fruit as we should?
If not, apart from repentance, we deserve the same kind of judgment they deserved.
Like the fig tree on the road looked the next time the disciples saw it, God’s righteous wrath could totally dry us up to our very roots because we do not listen to him as we should.
16 Ephraim is stricken;
their root is dried up;
they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
I will put their beloved children to death.
17 My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;
they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Hos 9:16–17
We face temporal consequences, including death, and eternal torment in hell if we do not first turn away from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better than to keep on sinning.
And so, we each must ask ourselves this question as we prepare to come to the Lord’s Table tonight:
“Do I repent of my sins, truly intend to amend my sinful ways, and desire to receive Christ’s forgiveness?”
II. God brings forth from us fruits in keeping with repentance.
God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt, which pointed forward to his delivering his people both from exile in Babylon and, most important for us, from our slavery to sin and its eternal punishment.
After his three-year ministry, Jesus took upon himself the punishment that we deserve and experienced that punishment on the cross for us, in our place.
God forgives our sin, whatever our sin might be.
God forgives it all by grace through faith for Jesus’ sake.
21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
Through the means of congregations today, God calls pastors to serve him by serving his people, as God once directly called the prophet Amos, who had been a dresser of sycamore fig trees (Amos 7:14).
Such workers in the vineyard dig around the trees and put on manure, as it were, and wait another year before cutting down any unfruitful trees.
That is to say, such workers in the vineyard read and proclaim God’s Word to all those gathered in his cleansed house of prayer.
And, as appropriate, such workers in the vineyard apply that Word to individuals in Holy Baptism, in Absolution, and in the Sacrament of the Altar that we celebrate tonight.
For on this night, the night when he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread and wine, and when he had given thanks, he broke the bread, he passed the cup, and gave to them, gave to us, his very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
In each of these means, God brings forth from us fruit in keeping with repentance according to our various callings in life.
As such “good figs,” the Lord plants us by giving us a heart to know that he is the Lord, and so we are his people and he is our God. Jer 24:6–7
The Second Reading might have us think of the figurative figs of forgiving our brothers and sisters in Christ, even as our Father in heaven forgives our sins:
25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Figurative figs are also service to God and one another through our volunteering to our congregation.
Whether or not the literal fig trees should blossom, however else we might be afflicted, yet we rejoice in the Lord and take joy in the God of our salvation. Hab 3:17–18
As we are “Living among the Bible’s Trees,” God calls and enables us to repent of our sin and freely forgives us of our sin for the sake of his Son, Jesus Christ. Considering the fig trees, we realize that, although we do not always bear the fruits of faith as we should, God brings forth from us fruits in keeping with repentance.
By God’s grace, we are prepared and watching for it! Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
I. We do not always bear the fruits of faith as we should.
In the readings, we heard both St. Luke’s unique report of Jesus’ parable that used a fig tree, and also St. Mark’s of Jesus’ later experience with a fig tree.
In the First Reading, the parable using the fig tree illustrates the time for repentance that tragedies should prompt.
In the Second Reading, Jesus dramatically enacts a living parable or takes prophetic action related to the judgment that comes when the time for repentance is over.
In that case, the repentance and judgment seem to relate specifically to God’s people’s being full of activity but nevertheless unfruitful.
People sometimes have a hard time with Jesus’ experience with the fig tree on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem. Some say the miracle is unworthy of the Lord, or that an innocent tree was unjustly the target of his wrath.
Yet, Jesus is the Creator in human flesh, with the right to do with his creation as he knows best, and that particular tree, as it was by the road, may not have been anyone in particular’s tree.
What’s more, with the leaves, there should have been early figs, indicators of the later figs to come; apparently, a tree without figs early on also will not have figs later.
The Old Testament is also full of references to figs in related figures of speech. For example, through Hosea, the Lord says:
10 Like grapes in the wilderness,
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
in its first season,
I saw your fathers.
But they came to Baal-peor
and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
and became detestable like the thing they loved.
Hos 9:10
And yet, as he says through Jeremiah,
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”
Jer 8:13
Are we like the unfruitful people God addressed through Hosea and Jeremiah and like the Jews of Jesus’ day, claiming to be religious but without any fruits of faith?
Certainly, we are like them according to our sinful nature, but God calls and enables us to bear fruit.
Do we bear fruit as we should?
If not, apart from repentance, we deserve the same kind of judgment they deserved.
Like the fig tree on the road looked the next time the disciples saw it, God’s righteous wrath could totally dry us up to our very roots because we do not listen to him as we should.
16 Ephraim is stricken;
their root is dried up;
they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
I will put their beloved children to death.
17 My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;
they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Hos 9:16–17
We face temporal consequences, including death, and eternal torment in hell if we do not first turn away from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better than to keep on sinning.
And so, we each must ask ourselves this question as we prepare to come to the Lord’s Table tonight:
“Do I repent of my sins, truly intend to amend my sinful ways, and desire to receive Christ’s forgiveness?”
II. God brings forth from us fruits in keeping with repentance.
God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt, which pointed forward to his delivering his people both from exile in Babylon and, most important for us, from our slavery to sin and its eternal punishment.
After his three-year ministry, Jesus took upon himself the punishment that we deserve and experienced that punishment on the cross for us, in our place.
God forgives our sin, whatever our sin might be.
God forgives it all by grace through faith for Jesus’ sake.
21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”
22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
Through the means of congregations today, God calls pastors to serve him by serving his people, as God once directly called the prophet Amos, who had been a dresser of sycamore fig trees (Amos 7:14).
Such workers in the vineyard dig around the trees and put on manure, as it were, and wait another year before cutting down any unfruitful trees.
That is to say, such workers in the vineyard read and proclaim God’s Word to all those gathered in his cleansed house of prayer.
And, as appropriate, such workers in the vineyard apply that Word to individuals in Holy Baptism, in Absolution, and in the Sacrament of the Altar that we celebrate tonight.
For on this night, the night when he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread and wine, and when he had given thanks, he broke the bread, he passed the cup, and gave to them, gave to us, his very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
In each of these means, God brings forth from us fruit in keeping with repentance according to our various callings in life.
As such “good figs,” the Lord plants us by giving us a heart to know that he is the Lord, and so we are his people and he is our God. Jer 24:6–7
The Second Reading might have us think of the figurative figs of forgiving our brothers and sisters in Christ, even as our Father in heaven forgives our sins:
25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Figurative figs are also service to God and one another through our volunteering to our congregation.
Whether or not the literal fig trees should blossom, however else we might be afflicted, yet we rejoice in the Lord and take joy in the God of our salvation. Hab 3:17–18
As we are “Living among the Bible’s Trees,” God calls and enables us to repent of our sin and freely forgives us of our sin for the sake of his Son, Jesus Christ. Considering the fig trees, we realize that, although we do not always bear the fruits of faith as we should, God brings forth from us fruits in keeping with repentance.
By God’s grace, we are prepared and watching for it! Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
Lent series, "Living among the Bible's trees" - modified
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