Summary: It’s a vineyard! What is that fig tree doing there? This odd detail should make you curious. For years I wondered about that when I would hear this Gospel. It’s a vineyard for growing grapes, not an orchard. There is some disorder about this fig tree in a vineyard that ought to make us curious. Now it is a fact that in that climate, fig trees bear fruit through most of the year. In that part of the world, only April and May finds them without some fruit. So now and then they might be planted in a vineyard where grapes were more unpredictable. But land for growing food was very precious and scarce. Even more so was the water scarce, so if they are planted they had better produce. Luke takes us to a vineyard today. Along with a banquet, a vineyard is the most frequent and ancient image of the Church in the New Testament. At the first level, Jesus is speaking to the Jews who are not responding to his message. He is giving them one last chance to respond, that is to say, bear fruit. Luke uses this parable for that early Christian community who are still living among the Jews, yet already populated by Gentiles. It would seem that among them are some who are not bearing any fruit. Like a fig tree in the vineyard, they are taking up space, using up nutrients and water which the vines need, but there is no fruitfulness from them. Now we proclaim this parable once more remembering what the vineyard means as a symbol of the faithful community, the church, grafted onto Christ: the true vine. It is important to listen to this gospel with these images in our mind. I like to call this parable, “The Last Chance Story”. It is today proclaimed to us with the same images and challenges as before; the same reminder and message. It invites us to reflect upon our place in the vineyard of the Church; to wonder about our own fruitfulness, about whether or not we take or give. It proposes that we might give serious thought about what we’re doing here and why. Are we just taking up space, using up the resources (like the fig tree uses up water) or do we contribute something? The story ought to be heard along with all the other fig tree stories. There are several. In all of them there is a serious expectation that fruit is to be produced. In Matthew chapter 3, John the Baptist says: “Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.” His voice speaks again in Luke’s 3rd chapter with the same assurance that “any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.” It was the belief of John the Baptist that with the coming of Jesus an hour of destiny had come. Bear fruit, or be cut down. Mark’s gospel uses the same image even more powerfully. In the 11th chapter, Jesus walks by a tree that is not bearing fruit and cursed at it. The next morning his disciples walked by that tree again and report that it had “withered to the roots”, The message of the parable could not be clearer. If we are in this vineyard, then something is expected of us. We can’t simply be here taking up space and using up the nutrients without producing something. Uselessness invites disaster. A useless fig tree is threatened with destruction. Here we come to one of the most fundamental aspects of what Jesus has to say about life. Goodness is a positive thing. Yet too often we hear: “I didn’t do anything wrong.” or “I never hurt anyone.” The person who says or thinks that way is living under the impression that doing nothing wrong or not hurting anyone is goodness. But the demand of Jesus is not, “Have you done any harm?” It is, “What good have you done?” The basic sin is to take more out of life than you put in. The basic Christian test is not “what did you get out of life.” but “What did you put in?” It is the same with our life as a church. You ought to ask yourself on the way home what you put in, now what you got out of this hour. The greatest problem that put the fig tree in danger of destruction was that it failed to realize its own possibilities. It had in its nature to be the most productive of all fruit trees. In this case, it had even more going for it, because it was planted in a fertile and productive vineyard, but it was in fact still fruitless. What a tragedy! Two last thoughts about this fig tree. It had a champion that begs for just one more chance. There was someone willing to dig around it, fertilize, and encourage it. Then there is one more thing a little more ominous that can’t be denied or avoided. There is a limit. After one more year, the limit for the fig tree came. I believe this Gospel says to us that there is a final chance, there is a limit. It would be dangerous to live in denial of this fact. It is a law of nature that when we fail to use a faculty or ability given to us, we will lose it. If you live long enough in the dark, you will go blind. If you don’t use an arm or a leg for a long time, it will atrophy. If we consistently refuse or avoid the invitation and challenge of Christ we will become incapable of accepting it, in which case, it is not God who condemns, we who do it to ourselves. In the midst of this season when prayer, abstinence, fasting, and charity are used to hoe around us and stir us to life, we have this brilliant parable to remind, to challenge, and invite us to question and examine just what we’re doing here and how much fruit comes from our presence and whether or not we risk destruction by delay and denial.
