Following Jesus To The Cross: Fruitfulness
March 7, 2010
1At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
6Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
Luke 13:1-9
In many respects, Grace Groner was just your average senior citizen. She grew up during the Depression years and so, she learned how to make do without having a lot. Grace worked as a secretary at Abbott Laboratories for 43 years until her retirement. She bought her clothes at rummage sales. She never owned a car. And until her death this past January, Grace Groner lived a quiet life in a one-bedroom house in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Nothing too special about that. And yet, this past week, Grace Groner was in the news. Some of you may have seen the story. It turns out that back in 1935, Grace bought three shares of Abbott Laboratories stock worth $60 apiece. It was a wise investment, because by the time of Grace’s death, those same three shares of stock had grown into a sum worth over 7 million dollars, a fortune which Grace Groner left in her will to a local college.
So, you can imagine why this story made the news. Since she lived so simply, no one ever suspected that Grace was really a multi-millionaire. And it’s always surprising when we find out that a person we thought we knew turns out to have a big secret like that. But this story was also news because of the lasting impact it will have on Lake Forest College, a school of about 1,300 students. Because of the unexpected generosity of Grace Groner, Lake Forest College will be able to fund study abroad programs and scholarships for many years to come.
I believe the story of Grace Groner has a connection to our passage of Scripture for today. Because in these verses from Luke, Jesus is challenging us to consider our legacy. And in some ways, this particular passage seems eerily reminiscent in light of recent world events. In just this past month alone, you and I have witnessed untold tragedy through the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. And this passage begins by focusing on two disasters of Jesus’ day-a number of Galileans who had been killed by Pilate and a tower which had collapsed, leading to the death of 18 individuals.
The specifics are different from the situations we face today, but the questions being asked are the same—What’s going on here? Why are all these bad things happening? And are these tragedies God’s way of punishing people? The scenes we see on TV seem so terrible. And I think the thing that bothers us the most is that these disasters seem so random. They happened unexpectedly, without warning. And so, in trying to make sense of it, we often ask the same kind of questions that Jesus asks in verse 2 of this passage—Were the people died somehow deserving of their fate? Were these disaster victims worse sinners than the rest of us?
Because if the answer to that question is yes, they were, then it would still be a shame that they died, but maybe you and I would feel just a little bit better knowing why it happened. It might still be tragic but it would be justified. The problem is, Jesus doesn’t say yes. Jesus says no, the people who died were not worse sinners than anybody else. And I think we need to hear these words again in our own time. Because all around us, the Pat Robertsons and the Westboro Baptist Churches of the world are trying to tell us that the bad things that happen to us are somehow God’s punishment.
But Jesus says different. Jesus says that the people who attribute natural disaster to sin are misguided. And rather than allowing himself to get drawn into a debate about why bad things happen, Jesus instead refocuses the discussion by telling a parable.
Now, just this week, I had an interesting conversation with someone in our church about parables. And I think they were surprised to hear me say that I find parables to be strange. I mean, why would Jesus choose to teach in stories? Why not just come right out and say what he meant? If God is a certain way and Jesus is a certain way, then just say that. Don’t use some characters in a story to make it all confusing.
But that’s the thing about parables. No matter how hard you and I may try to equate every single character in a parable with God or Jesus, some of these stories still defy our easy explanations. And ultimately, that’s how I answer my own question—I think Jesus told parables because he wanted to challenge us. He wanted us to continue thinking about these issues.
So, maybe we don’t have to always try so hard to literalize it. Maybe these characters and these images can mean different things to different people, and that’s ok. Maybe there is no one “right” way to read the parables. And maybe they are told as stories because when we are dealing with ideas as complex as the kingdom of God, things can’t be reduced down to just one easy answer. It requires us to use some imagination.
So, with that in mind, I’d like us to focus on the parable of the fig tree that Jesus tells here in verses 6-9. Jesus said that “a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
That’s the parable. And I don’t care what y’all think, to me, it’s strange. For starters, why would there be a fig tree planted in a vineyard? A vineyard is a place to grow grapes, not figs. You see, that’s just one of those little things that jumps out to me. And it’s a good reason why we shouldn’t take these stories so literally. Because if we avoid those kind of specifics, I think we can see certain themes emerging within this parable, one of which is the unavoidability of death.
In the parable, the owner of the vineyard decides it is time to cut down the unfruitful fig tree. The gardener intercedes so that the fig tree is given another year to live. But the bottom line of the story suggests that every living creature has a certain fixed life span.
In other words, death is a reality. The time we have here on Earth is limited. And I’m afraid that we in the church have not always done such a good job of acknowledging that. Just think about all the euphemisms we use—We say that somebody has “passed away” or “gone to a better place.” And some people will tell you we use those kind of terms because it’s more polite.
But that’s not true. We use those kind of terms because we’re afraid of death. We don’t want to call death for it is. And we suffer under the illusion that maybe if we just don’t talk about it, it won’t happen. Maybe by using all these cutesy little terms, we can avoid the cold hard reality that one day, all of us in this room will be dead.
Or so we think. But this parable reminds us that death is real. We can pretty it up and avoid it all we want to, but that’s not going to change the reality. But the one thing that really gets me is--shouldn’t church be the one place where it’s okay to talk about death? After all, we’re supposed to be Christians. We’re supposed to believe that in Christ, death has no sting. Death is not the end. At least, that’s what we claim. And yet, we keep on avoiding the topic of death because we’ve been told that it’s too morbid and it’s too gloomy and people don’t like it. It’s a downer.
But I’ll tell you that in my experience as a pastor, whether or not people are talking about it, death is on a lot of people’s minds. So, rather than turning it into some big thing and giving it a power over us that it shouldn’t have, why not just deal with death openly? Why not begin the conversation with an acknowledgment that death is a reality? That’s what Jesus does here in this parable. He affirms the reality of death. But more than that, Jesus also says that no one knows when their own particular time will be up. When the tower of Siloam fell, I’m sure the 18 individuals who died weren’t expecting it to happen. When the earthquake hit Chile last week, I’m sure that not too many folks woke up that morning expecting it to be their last.
But that’s how death is. Not only is death coming; none of knows when it’s coming. We may have ten years left or ten minutes. The fig tree in this parable was given three years, and then granted a reprieve for one more year. Unfortunately, you and I don’t have that kind of perspective. We don’t know how much time we have left. And so, in this passage of Scripture, more so than in most, Jesus really emphasizes the urgency of making the most of the time we do have.
You see, you and I get so hung up on death. And it’s true that death is there. But Jesus says that death isn’t really the most important thing. Because all of us are going to die. There’s nothing we can do about that. What we can control is what we do in the meantime. So, the question is not--Why do we die? The question is--How are we going to live? It becomes a matter of fruitfulness. And this is where Jesus tells us we should concentrate our attention.
The truth is that from moment to moment and day to day, you and I don’t think too much about how we’re living. We don’t think about what we’re doing in light of eternity. And in that sense, we fail to see the challenge of this parable. You and I shuffle through life without any intention because we think we can. We don’t usually wake up thinking that today may be our very last day. We don’t typically stop to consider how precious our time on Earth really is. And so, just like the fig tree, we go through life without bearing fruit because we are indifferent to how swiftly death is approaching.
You say, “Well, preacher, I’ve been meaning to get around to that. And one day, when I get my life all straightened out, I’ll start bearing some fruit. But first I gotta take care of some things.” That’s how we think. We keep postponing things for another day and another month and another year. Because we’re busy and we just don’t have time right now to think about all this stuff. It’s too much.
But that’s where this parable hits home. In verse 8 of this passage, the gardener says that he is going to carefully tend the fig tree and put some manure around it so that it will bear fruit. Now, y’all didn’t really think I was going to pass up an opportunity to mention the manure again, did you? And by the way, aren’t you glad this isn’t a sermon in a shoebox week?
But I think that there’s something to this whole manure thing. And it’s an old expression I can’t repeat verbatim from the pulpit but the gist of it is—doo-doo happens. Sometimes in life, you and I are surrounded by manure. That’s how it goes. But this parable suggests that we have a choice about how to view the manure. When you and I are literally down in the dumps, so to speak, perhaps it’s at that very moment when we become capable of bearing fruit. And so, rather than just offering up the same old excuses about why we can’t get our act together, maybe we need to start seeing the manure of life as an essential part of our growth.
Yes, it’s true—doo-doo happens. But in this parable, manure is just what the fig tree needs. So, it’s a question of choice. Do you and I allow our circumstances to dictate the way we live or do we allow the way we live to dictate our circumstances?
It goes back to the story with which I started this morning, the story of Grace Groner. Grace was just an ordinary person, like many of us in here. And yet, Grace Groner made a deliberate choice to use the time she had been given to bear fruit. And the story of Grace makes me wonder—When our time comes, what will our legacy be? Oh maybe, we don’t have 7 million dollars to donate. It’d sure be nice if we did. But the question is not one of quantity; it’s one of quality. When our time comes, whenever that may be, will folks be able to see that our lives bore fruit? Will we be remembered for our generosity and our compassion and our commitment to justice? Or will we just be cut down like other unfruitful trees that are wasting the soil?
These are big questions to consider. But perhaps during this Lenten season, as we follow Jesus to the cross together, it’s time to think about some of the big questions. It’s time for us to stop frittering our lives away and start living with some purpose and some intention.
I wish I could tell you this morning that I have all the answers about death, but I don’t. And I don’t know why tragic things sometimes happen in this world. But thankfully, in the church, you and I are able to face the reality of death without fear. And in the meantime, on life’s journey, we are called to make the most of the time we have been given. So, this morning, let’s grow out of the manure and begin to bear some fruit. AMEN