At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or 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? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
Luke 13:1-9
Then 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. 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.’”
My sermon from the Third Sunday in Lent (March 20, 2022) on Luke 13:1-9.
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Why was a fig tree in a vineyard?
Now that might not have been the first question that came to mind while you listened to today’s reading from the gospel according to Luke. This text is difficult because it begins with suffering. A group of people came to Jesus with news about the Roman governor slaughtering Galileans during a recent religious ritual. Jesus responded by reminding them of another recent event when a tower collapsed, possibly during an earthquake. We don’t know much about these two events because these are the only words we have about them. Yet we’re not unfamiliar with this kind of suffering because we see it whenever we turn on the tv or look at our phones. It’s not always easy making sense of suffering. And figuring out why suffering happens is really hard. When we try to make meaning out of that kind of misery, we sometimes focus on those who were harmed. We act as if suffering cannot be meaningless and so those impacted by it must have contributed to it in some way. When the people came to Jesus with news about the slaughter of those who were worshiping God, their attempt at making sense of what made no sense led them to act as if the victims caused God to remove God’s love from them. Jesus listened to the news they brought and heard the anxiety, worry, and fear in their words. They wanted something to help make sense of the world. So Jesus shared with them a parable – a short story – that doesn’t really make much sense on its own.
Now I’ve never grown a fig tree but an old friend of mine in Astoria, Queens had one in the backyard of their building. The yard wasn’t very large but it had a little patio, some grass, and a lone fig tree all by itself. The tree had been there for a long time and every year, my friend would invite us over to pick fresh figs. The whole yard wasn’t well maintained and I don’t think the owner bothered to take care of it. Yet fresh figs came every year and it seemed strange to have this one plant all by itself. But I recently learned fig trees tend to be loners. They’re self-pollinating which means they don’t need multiple plants right next to each other for them to form fruit. A few versions of fig trees have really aggressive roots which means they don’t play well with others. They need a lot of sun and elbow room so that they can breathe. Fig trees are fairly robust, only needing a few inches of compost, a tiny bit of fertilizer, and rainwater from the sky to grow to their full potential. And when their environment is halfway decent, it can take anywhere from three to five years for a fig tree to mature and grow ripe fruit. We don’t see many fig trees here in Northern New Jersey but the people who first heard this story saw them everyday. They knew fig trees were loners and that it was normal for a tree to need more than 3 years to mature. A vineyard full of grapes and fig trees flourishing in a field were completely normal things. But a fig tree in the center of a vineyard wasn’t. Something about this parable wasn’t quite right. So how do we make sense out of a story that makes no sense?
Now one thing we might try to do is figure out which character in Jesus’ story we’re supposed to relate to. But I wonder if we could, instead, simply pause and let the whole scene sink in. We have in front of us a vineyard where life was meant to grow. Not everything in the vineyard made complete sense but that doesn’t mean life wasn’t possible. Everything is owned by a landowner who’s impatient, anxious, worried, and consumed by an unmet expectation. And the fig tree at the center of it all still needed time to fully mature. Yet when the landowner came to see the tree, their first response was to let it burn. The fig tree, in a sense, shouldn’t be there but I wonder if maybe that fig tree had some other purpose that the landowner couldn’t see. Maybe it was meant to grow, to endure, and to provide shade for those who worked in the vineyard. Maybe it wasn’t there to be consumed by others and just needed an opportunity to live. In a vineyard that doesn’t always make sense and that others sometimes want to burn, here was a fig tree with a chance to become something new. And while there was a landowner threatening violence, there was also a gardener willing to nurture everything into more.
One of my issues with life is that it doesn’t always make sense. We exist in a world where things happen and we sometimes never know the reasons why. We live in an interconnected world filled with people who have their own stories and histories. We often act as if we move through the world on our own but we’re not actually isolated from one another. We live in our own version of a vineyard that is often off kilter and with more than one thing amiss. We do the best we can to control what we can yet no amount of fertilizer or compost can make everything grow the way we wish. There’s always a storm brewing over the horizon and the rain, sun, and so many other things remain outside our control. Life is full of mysteries and it doesn’t always make sense. And while our desire to make meaning out of the misery might encourage us to blame victims for the violence that happened to them, we can choose to do something else. We can take a step back, look at the entire picture, and name those who choose violence rather than mercy. We can identify the real victims instead of those who embrace their own kind of victimhood. We can choose to not let people, including ourselves, off the hook for the suffering we cause. And when we are victims, we can know that it wasn’t our fault. There are moments in our lives when others choose to cause us fear but there are other times when something like an earthquake will cause us to wonder if God’s love is real. I wish we lived in a world without suffering and I think God wants that too. Yet when God saw the suffering that is part of our story, God chose to live through that suffering too. We, in Christ and with Christ, do not go through our lives alone. We have with us a gardener, who is here to nurture us through. That doesn’t mean things won’t be hard or that we won’t suffer. But it does mean that the story of suffering doesn’t have to be the limit to all there is. In a world full of vineyards and fig trees growing together, we can step back and embrace a different kind of life that does not ask us to lie, or fear, or harm each other. We can, instead, see how we are nurtured; notice how we are loved; pay attention to the suffering of others; and let their pain break open our hearts. We can cry and mourn and rage and wonder why God and ourselves let these kinds of things happen. We can notice how this mystery is a part of our lives and how the gift of grace, through word, prayers, song, kindness, support, reconciliation, repentance, and even the Lord’s supper, promises to carry us through. We can look at the moment we’re in and simply live because we have with us the One who will make us more.
Amen.