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. 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?' And he answered him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'" Luke 13:6-9
God is merciful. He is the originator of second chances. In this parable, we see how He gives a second chance to an unfruitful tree.
The Bible is approached as is. If it says the moon will be turned to blood, the moon does turn red as blood. The Word of God means what it says. So, it is right to say that God expects His children to bear bruit in three years. It is enough time to sprout, grow, have flowers and produce fruit. God expects His children to be so.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
Unfruitfulness can lead to destruction, as Jesus says in Luke 13:7, "And he said to the vine dresser, '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?'
He doesn't begin seeking after three years. He seeks all throughout those years.
As believers in Jesus, we are His trees. We are the planting of the Lord. When a gardener plants, he expects growth and even the slightest growth brings a smile to his lips. When a seed becomes a seedling, it is joy. When a seedling begins to bring forth leaves and grows further above the ground, it is more joy. When its branches begin to harden, and more leaves sprout, just imagine how happy this makes the gardener.
Every stage of the growth of a plant brings happiness to its planter. I've experienced this when I decided to plant some shrubs from seeds. The moment I placed the seeds on the ground, I would constantly check up on them, watering them when the ground becomes dry, making sure that they get enough moisture to grow. I even put organic fertilizer for extra measure.
After a few weeks, one seedling sprouted from the ground. One out of about fifty. That one seedling made me really happy. Though the rest died and never sprouted, the one growth was enough to give me joy. It didn't make it to the later stages of growth however and I was disappointed. I did everything I could to make sure it would be a nice flowering shrub but it didn't make it. I threw the dead seedling away and the rest of the dead seeds along with it.
But the parable is about a full grown tree with no fruit. It is matured by time but it was not nourished properly as to bring forth a harvest. And here is where the second chance comes in. The man wanted the tree cut down but the vine dresser said give it a chance and the man consented. On the forth year, after creating circumstances for the tree to bring forth fruit, the tree could either produce or perish.
What are the circumstances for growth?
1) The Digging Around The Tree
By three years, the ground around the tree would have been very solid. Possibly even to the solidity where the water only reaches enough of the roots to keep the tree alive but not nourished.
We have four calamansi trees in our backyard that after planted was left alone for many years. It almost never produced any fruit. They were simply there in our yard taking up space until one day, dad decided he wanted to plant other stuff and I suggested a trench be dug around the calamansi trees so that maybe they'd finally be of use. To create the trench, the hired worker dug around the solid ground to loosen up the soil. Some time later, flowers appeared and after some weeks, I was able to pick fruit from the trees.
There is comfort in familiarity. No changes, just the same old things. You get used to something and it becomes routine until finally you get so content with it you don't ask for more. You're fine right where you are with no more and no less. You age on the outside but there is no real growth happening on the inside; thus no fruit is borne externally except the natural, physical aging.
Just as a tree requires water to its very roots to be able to flourish, in our spiritual growth, we also need the nourishment of the Living Water. Spirit feeds spirit. The more we eat of the spiritual variety, the more kinds of food we will be able to handle.
We start with spiritual milk. The Bible says so. However, we cannot feed on milk for the rest of our lives. Eventually, we'll need fruits and vegetables, fish and meat. Beginning with milk is mandatory. Eventually, we will have to be able to take on the juicy steak that God has for us. God is a Father. Fathers want their children to grow strong and healthy.
I had a niece who lived with my family. She was five when she arrived, and she came to us illiterate. She was comfortable that way because she can always ask someone to read for her, but as an aunt, I had to do something about it. She wasn't growing intellectually in that area, so when I began to teach her, I started light. But the more she resisted, the more I became pressured. I disrupted her comfort zone because she was already late in that area of schooling. I had to pressure her and not baby her, otherwise she wasn't going to learn. She cried many times. She got upset. But in the end, I was successful in getting her to read basic words in the course of a few weeks. She was then able to read a whole chapter of a children's Bible on her own, though with little help. Now, some years later, this niece of mine can read perfectly. If I hadn't pressured her and made her uncomfortable, she'd most likely still be unable to read.
The comfort zone is an area we aren't supposed to hang around in for long periods of time. The kingdom of God is not idle. It does not linger. It moves forward all the time in ever increasing glory and we too must do the same. The kingdom is a kingdom of ascents and not of descents. We are destined to go higher as we move on, never the opposite.
So, God will disrupt you from your comfort zones in order to make you grow. That's just the kind of Father he is. He knows that there will be struggles, but struggles produce perseverance. It was struggles that made king David the kind of man that he was.
Jesus, too, struggled, but he pressed on and grew and did not stay in the comfort zone though he wanted to when he asked the Father that the cup of suffering be taken from him if possible, but he chose the will of the Father anyway. And later, Jesus was highly exalted and given the name that is above every name. He was exalted because he didn't stay in the comfort of not going through Calvary.
2) The Putting on of Manure
Manure is greatly nutritious for plants, but to us humans, it is gross, icky, yucky, stinky...we don't want to have anything to do with it. We avoid it when we see it on the road. We cover our noses when we smell it.
No one wants manure. But in plant life, it is their vitamins and nutrients. Manure is the dessert for plants, water being the main course.
In the parable, the vine dresser said he will do both the digging and putting on the manure. You can't have the one without the other if you want a plant to grow to its full potential.
For a stubborn tree to bear fruit, much work is needed.
Pressure brings out one of two things in a person: perseverance or discouragement. Trials bring out either the good or the bad in a person.
Many things are ugly at first before they become beautiful in the end.
Consider a newly planted garden. Patches of bare soil here and there, seedlings covered with this and that for protection, mud on the rainy days, a little green somewhere. A newly planted garden is not a pretty garden.
But as time goes by, if it is being cared for, it becomes more and more beautiful. If it is ignored, although it grows, it will end up an eye sore or a kind of forest that just takes up space and is of no use, not even aesthetically.
One day, in a big gathering of people, a friend of mine stepped on dog manure and it stank so bad that we all stayed away from her until she got rid of it. Imagine a human being who after being shaken, manure is piled up on him. God doesn't literally put manure on people, but in the figurative sense, imagine that person. Maybe he'll be driven into isolation. Maybe the comfortable people will begin pulling away until he's left alone so that God can do His work in him to nourish him.
This period I think is the do or die stage. If we react accordingly to the trials, we'll come out brand new and as gold, but if not, then covered with dross and thrown into the outer darkness.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have it's full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. James 1:12
When God allows us to suffer, it is only to make us better.
Based on this parable, I understand that God doesn't take stagnancy lightly. "Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down." It is produce or perish. Bear fruit or be cut down. It is better if we choose to grow ourselves rather than have God force the fruits out of us. We can drink water on our own. We can get nourishment on our own.
Prayer, worship and Bible reading, developing our relationship with Him is the water and fertilizer of our spirits. We must never be idle. We have to keep moving forward for forward is the only way in which we should go. No turning back. No slacking.
The one who is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys. Proverbs 18:21
The one who perseveres and presses on is a brother to him who gives life.
God wants us marching forward; growing as we go and bearing fruit along the way.
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned." John 15:1-6
