Reflections; The Journey- Parable of the Barren Fig

Here is an article that I wrote for my Church Newsletter, I thought I would post it here for you guys as well...

From The Journey,

Greetings in Christ and Welcome to “The Journey,”

     I read a scripture the other day that really made me think, it’s about the “The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree.” It’s found in Luke 13:6-9 and Jesus shares it in the midst of pleading with the people to repent and believe.  

      Simply put, a man plants a fig tree in his vineyard, after three years it bears no figs, the man tells his gardener to cut it down but the gardener asks the man to leave it one more year so he can give it some special attention and says ‘if it still bears no figs after another year then you can cut it down.’  

     Interesting parable, isn’t it? As I thought about this parable, the word ‘caretaker’ kept coming to mind. It took me a while to process these two things, but here is what I received. The Man is God, Jesus is the gardener/caretaker, and the fig tree is man.  


     You see, Jesus is constantly taking care of us, interceding with God on our behalf, asking for more time to mold us into the fruit bearing ‘Fig tree’ God created each of us to be.  We are called to repent and believe in God. When we choose not to accept this we ‘bear no fruit.’ I believe the same concept applies to our great calling to ‘go forth and make disciples.’ 


     So my question for you this month is “Are you bearing the fruit God has called you to bear or is Jesus interceding with God asking for one more year?”

Continue the Journey,      
                                                 Matt, Director of Family Ministries