Who is the fig tree gardener?
Another Way of Looking at the Barren Fig Tree Parable
INTRO: In the common interpretation of the Parable of the Fig Tree, we or Israel are the fig tree, and God is the vineyard owner. I want to change how we see things in this parable, as Jesus’ parables are rarely as straightforward as they might seem initially. They are cryptic for a reason. He says more than once that he tells parables to hide his meaning.
“The following is a paraphrase and rework of a published work by Leah D. Schade updated on the Patheos site under the section “ECO Preacher” on March 25, 2019. The article can be found at https://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/2019/03/rethinking-parable-fruitless-tree-luke-13/.”
Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Ephesians 4:7-16
Luke 13:1-9
Is God really the short-sighted vineyard's owner? If so, who is the Gardner in our parable this morning in Luke 13:1-9? Are we the barren fig tree threatened with the ax? Maybe we need to rethink some of that interpretation.
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I stand looking at that tree, shaking my head. How could this have happened? I planted a perfectly good sapling 3 years ago, and now … no fruit. It is a complete waste of soil and space. A hopeless case. Perhaps.
A significant hint of the direction we need to take as we explore the point of this parable is the Gospel Acclamation chosen for today's reading from Luke: “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion that he may live” (Ezekiel 33:11).
With that in mind, let us proceed. What does that fig tree represent? Most commentators will say that the tree represents us or Israel, and the only point of the parable is to 'warn' each of us: You had better get busy bearing fruit, or God will cut you down because “you are a fruitless tree” needlessly using up resources and space!
That’s one take. But if we consider the previous verses, another possible view emerges more it line with this morning's Gospel Acclamation! Luke begins by telling us that some people questioned Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. “Did this suffering occur because they were the greatest sinners in all of Galilee?” they asked of Him.
Note that they didn’t question why these terrible things happened. They wanted confirmation that these people were “great sinners” and deserved it! I believe they were working under the assumption that tragic things happened because a person had done something wrong. And that a vengeful God was punishing him/her for their misdeeds. Their question to Jesus was laced with a poisonous self-righteousness, plus a very misconstrued understanding of God.
In other words, these guys brought this on themselves. And, secondly, implying, aren’t we blessed that God hasn’t yet found a reason to punish us out of His wrathful vengeance? Sadly, we still frequently see these two assumptions in operation today.
What is Jesus’ response to this twisted logic and incorrect vision of His Father?
Jesus will have none of it. I imagine Him thinking: “You think those people got what they deserved? And you’re somehow better than those people, aren't you? They were no worse than you! If that's the way things work, you deserve more to die than they did because of your holier-than-thou attitude!” And then, calming Himself, he says out loud, “Unless you repent, you too shall perish.”
This all reminds me of a memorable scene from the film Unforgiven. A young gunslinger is shaking in his boots in shock and remorse after having just shot a man dead for the first time. In a weak attempt to justify and pump himself up (just like the people questioning Jesus above do), the young man says, “Well, I reckon he had it coming.” The grizzled old gunslinger and gang leader, played by Clint Eastwood, corrects him by replying: “We all got it coming, kid.” Just like I believe Jesus said above. We all should repent while we can because we, too, have it coming. Without God's forgiveness, we, too, will perish.
Notice that Jesus tells them twice: “If you do not repent, you all will perish as they did.”
Why? Because they had two separate things to repent of:
The same normal sins that they and the Galileans whom Pilate killed had committed over their lifetime.
The sin of not “hallowing the Name Of God the Father” by distorting it into a vengeful, self-derived image of how they mistakenly thought God acted.
Thus, to correct this false, vengeful image of His Father, Jesus then tells this parable about the vineyard owner and the fig tree. Like many of Jesus’ parables, this cryptic little story leaves us hanging in the end.
“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but found none. So he said to the Gardener, Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?”
“Wait,” says the Gardener. “Leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then you can cut it down.”
In the common interpretation of this Parable, we or Israel are the fig tree, and God is the vineyard owner. I want to change how we see things in this parable, as Jesus’ parables are rarely as straightforward as they might seem initially. They are cryptic for a reason. He says more than once that he tells parables to hide his meaning.
As this section of Luke is supposed to be about 'repentance,’ let's start by asking: What does 'to repent' mean? The Greek word is metanoia — to change one’s mind. Jesus tells questioners they will perish if they do not change their minds. If they do not change the way they are thinking about sin they remain stuck, believing God just all about wrath and judgment.
We know Jesus uses parables to, unknowingly to His listeners, create a crack in their spiritual worldview. A crack through which they and we can glimpse a truth in the Kingdom of God. Once we have this glimpse, our vision will be forever changed. Things shift, and our reality is altered. This shift gives us just enough room to experience metanoia — room enough to change or turn around our thinking.
Whose mind or thinking needs to be changed in this parable? Who looks at the tree and sees nothing but a fruitless waste of space? Who is ready to pronounce judgment on the tree, chop it down, and see it as deserving nothing but death? It’s not the tree that needs to change. It’s the fig tree owner whose mind the Gardener is trying to change.
This means that those people questioning Jesus in our Gospel reading are the tree’s owners. They are the ones looking at other people affected by tragedy and making wrong judgments about them, ready to chop them down, seeing them as deserving nothing but death because of their fruitlessness. That is their sinfulness.
Do you see? The owner of the tree is not God. The owner is people like us.
This parable is really about you and me. We are the ones whose minds need to be changed. We are ready to chop down that tree without a second thought. We are impatiently making demands, ready to destroy the fig tree because it is not bearing fruit per our timetable!
Sometimes I am that fig tree owner, tapping my foot with an ax in my hand, ready to start chopping. I see nothing good coming from this tree right now. I’m angry, sad, and judgmental and ready to start making wood chips fly. Hand me the ax; I’m ready to chop it down. I’m ready to give up hope.
And then I look at that Gardener and hear him.
What does the Gardener do? He springs to action! He does everything he can to prevent the owner from giving up on the tree. He pleads for the life of the tree. He hauls out the shovel and wheelbarrow. He lays out his plan for replenishing the soil with nutrients. He enthusiastically makes his case for giving the tree just one more year to bear fruit. It may be a lost cause, but he’s not ready to give up yet.
When the Gardener looks at the tree, he sees life and hope. So he does everything he can to preserve whatever potential may be left in the tree. The Gardener sees the tree through the eyes of faith and sees the possibility of new growth despite all evidence to the contrary.
The Gardener does not get distracted by being judgmental and self-righteous. The Gardener does not write off the tree as a lost cause. He gets in there, down in the muck, and gets his hands dirty. He grabs a shovel and starts digging. He rolls up his sleeves, scoops a handful of that smelly fertilizer, and fills it around the tree’s base because the Gardener knows if you throw in the towel whenever something terrible happens. If you write off a person, or a race, or an entire country because you think they deserve what they got, if you’re ready to chop down the tree every time it fails to bear the type and size of fruit you think it should, pretty soon you’ll find yourself surrounded by nothing but a bunch of dead stumps.
We should listen, instead, to the Gardener. I believe He is trying to change our minds, showing us a new perspective, trying to get us to see this tragic situation through faith. The Gardener says: Trust in God, even in the face of fruitless branches. Don’t blame the victims of tragedy. Get in there and minister to them.
This is a practical, down-to-earth faith we’re discussing here that gives second chances. It also matches our Gospel Acclamation: Take no pleasure in the wicked man’s death, instead, (not being a vengeful God) desiring his conversion that he may bear fruit and thus live!
If the vineyard owner is us, who then is the Gardner?
We get a hint from Mary Magdalene, who mistook Jesus for the Gardener when she saw him after the resurrection.
This Parable places Jesus or God The Father as the Gardener.
The Gardner teaches us: Don’t give up on ourselves or others when good things don't happen. Start again. Invest in yourself and help others grow and develop. And above all, God’s grace extends to those who find themselves in fruitless situations.
Grace is in that shovel or wheelbarrow. Grace is in the nutrients that cause us to grow!
The Gardener also says: don’t despair when bad things happen around you. Don’t cower behind closed doors out of fear that the Tower of Siloam may fall on you. Wake up each morning and say: “Okay, world, whatever you have in store for me today: 'Bring it on!' As: 'I will fear no evil, for thy rod and thy staff and thy shovel and thy wheelbarrow full of compost — they comfort me!'
I know that God has taken a crucified Jesus hanging on that dead tree and effected a miracle of transformation the likes of which the world has never seen!
I resolve that whenever I look at an empty tree and a Gardener fervently, foolishly digging around that tree, and he beckons me to come, I will put down my ax and grab my shovel!