3.14 The Barren Fig-Tree
XIV. THE BARREN FIG-TREE.
While Jesus was still in Galilee, some of those who were with Him told Him of the Galilseans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 1 There was an inveterate error prevalent among the Jews which so connected guilt with adversity that from the misfortune of any individual conclusions, it was thought, might be safely drawn as to his guilt, and when, as in the case of the man born blind, it was impossible to regard calamity as the punishment of the sufferer’s personal sin, then it was taken for granted that it was the 1 Luke^xiii. 1 ff. THE PARABLES OF JESUS 167 penalty of his parents transgressions. We find the disciples of Jesus holding this opinion.
They seem to have had no doubt that the blindness from birth of the man healed by Jesus was due either to his own sin or to that of his parents; they merely wanted to know with which of the two parties the responsibility lay. 1 Jesus, wishing to disabuse the minds of those about Him of this error, told them that the Galilaeans in question were not the greatest sinners among the Galilaeans, nor those eighteen who had been killed by the fall of the tower in Siloam more guilty than the other inhabitants of Jerusalem. 2 “ Nay,”
He said, “ except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” He would not accept as valid any inference drawn from suffering or calamity as to the guilt of the sufferers; but in these words He taught that gjjilt would necessarily entail punishment. The nation
1 John ix.
2 There is no record elsewhere of the slaughter of the Galilaeans by Pilate, nor of the fall of the tower in Siloam, a locality in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, to the south east. This need cause no surprise: events of the kind at such a time would have been too unimportant for the historian to notice.
168 THE PARABLES OF JESUS was steadily filling up the measure of its sins, and it was only the man who repented, and thus dissociated himself from the incredulity and obduracy of his fellows, that would escape sharing in the common retribution which was slowly but surely approaching. He then spoke a parable in which the nation likewise is envisaged. A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard. He came seeking fruit on it, and found none. In his disappointment he said to the vine-dresser: “ Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and I find none: cut it down, there fore: why cumbereth it the ground?” The vine-dresser answered: “ Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it and dung it.
Then, if it bear fruit, well and good; but if not, thou shalt cut it down.” In the Old Testament Israel is represented under the figure of a vine; in our parable the fig-tree stands for the Jewish people. Osee compares Israel in its origin to grapes and to the first-ripe of the fig-tree; 1 and Jeremiah (xxiv. 2-10) speaks of the Jews led captive to Babylon under the figure of a basket of good 1 Osee 9:10. THE PARABLES OF JESUS 169 figs; while the rulers and people who had remained at home together with those who had taken refuge in Egypt, are typified by a basket of bad figs, too bad to be eaten. The period “ three years “ designates the patience of God with His faithless and irresponsive people. There may be here a reference to the fact that the fig-tree bears fruit in the third year; but we can hardly believe that Jesus intended to represent the proprietor as coming to look for fruit in the two first years, when he could have had no expectation of finding any, especially as his manner of acting was typical of the Divine action. The fig-tree cumbered the ground, not only by uselessly taking up space, but also by drawing to itself the vital forces of the soil, which might have been left for some more profitable tree. Just as St. Paul represents the reprobate Jews as branches broken off the cultivated olive-tree, and the Gentiles as wild-olive branches grafted on in their place, so here the sentence of destruction would, if executed, have for effect the displacing of the doomed tree by another which would bring forth fruit in its season. The sentence against it, however, is not 1?0 THE PARABLES OF JESUS carried out as threatened; the labourer interposes on its behalf, pleading for delay, and promising to use meanwhile all possible means to render it fruitful; and the silence of the owner implies that he yielded to his representations. In like manner Jesus pleaded for His people: ungrateful as they had shown themselves, He asked for a respite till He should have exhausted every means in His efforts to heal their spiritual sterility. His prayer was granted: the execution of the sentence was deferred. The barren fig-tree fitly represented the Jewish people with their leaders. God had of old revealed Himself in a special manner to Israel, and He had kept the knowledge of Himself alive in their midst by a succession of envoys destined to preserve the mono theistic tradition among them, to save them from the crime of substituting other gods for Him or associating them with Him in worship, and to impress upon them the truth, which to us is axiomatic, that worship without conduct cannot please God. How often the prophets failed in their endeavours for the spiritual regeneration and moral uplifting of the people, THE PARABLES OF JESUS 171 we learn from the Old Testament; and the Gospels tell us of the opposition of the rulers to Jesus, and of His want of any permanent success among the people at large. To speak of their final rejection of Our Lord, and of the ruin which it brought upon them, would be to carry the history beyond the point where the parable leaves it.
TAGS: [Parables]