Untitled Sermon (2)

My grandpa spent most of his life tending to his vineyard. I do not recall how large it was, but he grew both table and wine grapes and then sold them to distributors who would then package them up and they would end up in a fruit salad or some other way in your home. I remember how much time he spent caring for that vineyard to make sure they produced enough grapes to get him ready for the next season. I also remember when my family would spend summers up there, he would be both up and back at the house before anyone else got up, and he would always call us lazy for wasting the day away.

I don’t know how much fertilizer and minerals were used to keep those vines healthy, but I do know that it was of the utmost importance to my grandpa and he did not allow anything else to grow near his vines because they could steal those nutrients in the soil and affect his harvest. He had several air cannons that would fire off throughout the day to keep the birds out of his vineyard, and a whole host of other ways to keep that vineyard happy and healthy to ensure those grapes were fruitful and plentiful to ensure a good harvest for this year and for years to come.

So having some slight knowledge of vineyards I find it curious that this owner had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. Fig trees are very interesting. Once a fig tree has matured It takes 3 years before it will bear any fruit. So you have to wait for a fig tree to reach its fruit-bearing stage and then wait even longer before it will produce figs. That doesn’t seem so bad, but the owner for some reason decided to plant his fig tree somewhere in his vineyard. The problem with that is that fig trees are nutrient hogs. They are both trees and a fruit-bearer so they absorb a lot of water and nutrients out of the soil. That means that not only has it not been producing any fruit, but it has also been taking nutrients from the vines nearby which has probably been affecting his grape harvest as well.

In this parable from Jesus this man has been coming to find fruit on the fig tree for three years, so that means that it had three years to reach the fruit-bearing age and then it has been three years that this owner has come to find fruit on the tree and it hasn’t done anything. So that is a minimum of six years that this fig tree has done nothing but take up the minerals and nutrients from the vineyard. It has literally done nothing but take away from this owner. In his frustration of coming back year after year and finding no fruit the owner wants to cut the fig tree down and simply count his losses. Why would he want to keep anything does not produce what it is supposed to produce and instead cause harm to the rest of the plants around it? However, the gardener is able to convince him to keep it around for one more year.

As we see in Paul’s letters he constantly refers to our gifts and talents as Christians as the fruits of the Spirit. The fifth chapter of Galatians is one of the most notable ways that Paul talks about these gifts. Since we know that Jesus is telling a parable about the fig tree we can see that Jesus is referring to people who do not bear fruit like they should. Or perhaps it is people who sin and take away from themselves and the community around them. The owner of the vineyard wants to cut down that unproductive tree, but the gardener convinces him to allow it to stay one more year.

I believe this is where and why these two stories we read are tied together. Jesus infers from them that they think their death was a result of some kind of sin and Jesus firmly rejects that idea. It was a common ideology of that time. If you suffered in any way in the physical world then it was a direct result of some kind of error on your part in the spiritual world. Meaning if you were lacking in faith and if you did not atone for your sins then that would be reflected in your life, whether it was some ailment or calamity that befell upon your family. That would be similar today to the Christians who claim that certain natural disasters happen to people or places because of the way they are living their life or the reasons for why they are gathering are opposed to God and God causes that disaster to happen to them. Jesus says that isn’t the reason. He does say that repentance is important so that we do turn from our old ways and receive God’s forgiveness.

So the first part of today’s lesson is all about sin and repentance and whether or not God caused these bad things to happen to these people. Essentially trying to say that God led Pilate to those people so that they might die. This first part is all about judgement and understanding the need for repentance and how we all fall short of God’s expectations. And honestly the parable doesn’t seem that much happier until we get to the end. And there is no point to reading these passages unless we truly understand and grasp the end of the parable.

The gardener convinces the owner to wait another year before cutting the fig tree down. Giving this tree just one more year to produce fruit. Giving this tree a grace period before it is simply tossed away and destroyed. But if I know the gardener as well as I think I know him then I have a thought about how this story might continue. Perhaps the next year it doesn’t produce any fruit again, or maybe it only produces a single fig. I could see this gardener convincing the owner to wait another year. And I could see this happening over and over again, year after year until one day when that tree produces a whole host of good figs.

That is why Jesus came to this earth. Jesus came to show us this incredible gift of grace. Jesus came as the gardener to tend to us so that we might bear fruit and so that we might know how much God loves us. And for those times when we forget about God’s love and grace and forgiveness, Jesus comes and gives us more time. Jesus was placed on that cross so that we might not die, so that we might not be cut down, and so that we would see the fruit that we bear and how we can share that same gift of grace with others, so that they too may know that it is not their sin that defines them in this world, but it is grace. It is God’s unconditional love for us that we are offered time and time again. Never forget that it was the cross that was cut down so that we may never have to experience that, and so that we would always experience life. Life here and life with God eternally in heaven.

Amen.