Fire and Figs

So we continue along our Lenten journey.  It has been a couple of weeks now since Ash Wednesday.  Our call into Christian discipleship continues as we walk with Jesus down the mountain towards Jerusalem.  Along the journey with him he stops and tells us a story...a story about a fig tree planted in the midst of a vineyard.

"A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard.  He came looking for fruit on it and found none.  He said to his gardener, 'Look, I've come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I've never found any.  Cut it down!  Why should it continue depleting the soil's nutrients?'  The gardener responded, 'Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer.  Maybe it will produce fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.'"

This story intrigues me on several levels.  In Lent, we are called into penitence.  We are called to be honest with ourselves, both as individuals and as congregations.  We are called to examine our strengths and our weaknesses.  Perhaps we are even called to pause for a moment and consider our spiritual growth over the past year.  For the last five weeks our small group that meets on Wednesday nights has been studying from the book of Revelation.  I find the same chords in Jesus' story about the fig tree reverberate throughout John's vision.  Our lives are changed when we encounter the risen Christ.  But that change must continue.  In Revelation, the image used is fire.  The fire from heaven comes and burns away the impurities of those who are willing to grow in holiness.  Those who refuse to be willing suffer through the burning.

The fig tree is a symbol of the same process.  The gardener gives the tree a stay of execution.  He agrees to go beyond the expected to help the tree to bear fruit.  But in order for the tree to be successful in the stay, it must co-operate with the gardener.  It must take in the fertilizer.  It must force itself to do the thing that it has not been doing.  God's desire for each one of us and for every congregation is the same.  He wants us to do the things we have been called into.  But in order to do that we must repent.  We must turn away from our wants and desires and turn to God's way of doing things...God's vision for our lives.

The fig tree's purpose was to produce figs.  It had not been doing that.  So it had to repent (turn away from being unproductive) and turn towards God's desire for it.  If it did not, then it would be cut to the ground.  Judgment and grace go hand-in-glove.  Judgment without grace is impossible.  Grace without judgment is cheap.  God is patient with us...he wants what is best for us...he goes beyond the expected to make sure we have every chance.  But in the end, he doesn't force himself on us.  He pursues us until we repent or until our hearts grow so hard that we can't see him anymore.

Brothers and sisters, that is what Lent helps us do.  It helps us repent away from ourselves so that we can repent towards God.  He won't give up, but we must do our part too.  Until next time...




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