church

INI
Oculi, the Third Sunday in Lent
March 3, 2013
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

THE FRIGHTENING FATE OF THE UNFRUITFUL FIG TREE
Luke 13:6-9

Grace, mercy and peace be with you from God the Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, Amen. The text we'll consider today comes
from the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, beginning with verse 6:

He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his
vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 "Then he said to
the keeper of his vineyard, `Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on
this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' 8 "But
he answered and said to him, `Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it
and fertilize it. 9 `And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it
down.'" Here ends our text.

In Christ Jesus, who said, "He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings
forth much fruit," Dear Fellow-Redeemed,

Think of someone who chopped down a tree...who comes to mind? Probably
the first person you think of is George Washington. Every child learns the story
of honest George, who as a boy chopped down a cherry tree in his family's back
yard. When his father asked him about it, he said he couldn't tell a lie, and
frankly confessed that he was guilty. He had destroyed the tree just for fun, to
try out his new hatchet.

Usually, though, when somebody chops down a tree they have a pretty good
reason for it. When we bought this property there was a row of pear trees along
the drive near the parsonage. The trees were old and dying, some limbs were
rotten. There wasn’t much fruit, and what there was wasn’t very good. The
voters decided to remove them and plant new trees. We sort of hated to cut
down the old landmarks, but it had to be done. Our text for today is a parable
Jesus told about a man who threatened to chop down a tree. In this case it was
a fig tree, and here too the reason for removing it was that it wasn't bearing any
fruit. What does this parable have to do with us? Plenty! The meaning behind
the parable is a rather frightening message about unfruitfulness and lack of
repentance in the lives of God's people. Pay attention, then, as we consider...

THE FRIGHTENING FATE OF THE UNFRUITFUL FIG TREE

When Jesus told this parable of the fig tree, he was not speaking to a
well-established congregation of Christians, like you here at Ascension Lutheran
Church. He was speaking to the Jews of His day. No doubt there were many
Pharisees and Sadducees among the crowd, and you know what they were like.
They were skeptical of Jesus even as a teacher, and they certainly didn't believe
that this lowly carpenter's son from Nazareth was the promised Messiah. Jesus
begins the parable like this, A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard,
and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. The man, of course, is God.
And in the whole wide world, which is God's vineyard, He had one separate
tree, which He paid special attention to. This special tree was the nation of
Israel, the chosen seed, God's own separate people. God had promised
Abraham, "I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me
and you, and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your
God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan,
where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and
your descendants after you; and I will be their God." Gen 17:7-8. God promised
the Israelites every blessing imaginable - victory over their enemies, a pleasant
country to live in, long life, wealth and prosperity. Imagine how happy we
would be if God came down to us and said, "From now on, the United States
will never lose any wars. There will never be a single crop failure, every industry
will thrive and every single American will succeed and be happy." That would
be pretty good news, especially given the economic hardship we’ve been going
through recently!

In short, the Israelites were in clover. With Jehovah as their God, they were in
the ideal situation.They didn't have a thing to complain about! And yet, if you
know anything about Old Testament history, you know that they did virtually
nothing but complain. They were constantly murmuring against the Lord. They
turned away from God at every opportunity. They complained when they were
freed from slavery to the Egyptians. They complained when God gave them
manna in the wilderness. They complained when they didn't have a king, so
God gave them kings, and they complained about their kings. Time and again
they turned away from the mercy and the protection of Jehovah. They made
themselves idols of wood and stone, and they bowed down before these false
gods and worshipped, as though they could provide them with more wealth and
blessings than the Lord. No one knew these stubborn, sinful Israelites better
than Moses, and Moses said of them, "I know how rebellious and stiff necked
you are. If you have been rebellious against the Lord while I am still alive and
with you, how much more will you rebel after I die! I know that after my death
you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have
commanded you. In the days to come, disaster will fall upon you because you
will do evil in the sight of the Lord and provoke him to anger by what your
hands have made." Dt 31:27, 29.

Sadly, Moses’ prophecy turned out to be all too accurate. God's selected
people, His special tree in the middle of His vineyard, was a total loss. The tree
wasn't bearing any fruit. Time and time again, God urged the Children of Israel
to turn from their sinful ways and serve the Lord; but down through the ages,
they kept falling deeper and deeper into sin and unbelief. Through the prophet
Ezekiel, God said, "Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not
be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and
get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take
no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and
live!" Ez 18:31-32. God was hefting that ax in His hands. He was saying to
Israel, "I don't want to use this thing on you, but I will if I have to!" But Israel
wouldn't listen. They wouldn't repent!

Well, this process went on for about two thousand years. God's warning, and
Israel's disobedience. God is patient, Israel rebels. God gives them another
chance, and another chance, and another chance; but the Jews refuse to serve
Jehovah with a pure heart. By the time Jesus came, the Israelites had just about
run out of time. The Lord had been waiting a long time for His special tree to
bear fruit, but there was none to be seen. Then he said to the keeper of his
vineyard, `Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and
find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' Swing the ax! This tree
has had it!

God, in His everlasting justice, had every right to demand that the tree be
chopped down, that the unbelieving Jews be rejected and destroyed. After all,
they had rejected the Messiah, Jesus, the very Christ of God! The salvation that
had been promised to them so long ago had been handed to them on a silver
platter, and they just sniffed at it, and turned back to their petty traditions and
self-righteous good deeds. That God is a patient and longsuffering God cannot
be denied. But there comes a point when even the longsuffering patience of
God runs out.

And what about us? You say, "We're different than those rotten Pharisees. We
certainly don't have to worry about God's ax falling upon us!" Is that really true,
though? That we're perfect servants of God, and have no need of repentance?
People of Ascension Lutheran Church - beware the frightening fate of the
unfruitful fig tree! After all, a lot of things that were true about the nation of
Israel are true about us, too. As Christians, it is we who are now the chosen
people of God; we are the modern sons of Abraham. We are in the same danger
of losing the true faith, of taking the pure Word of God for granted, of
becoming lazy, unfruitful trees in God's vineyard. John says, "If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." I Jn 1:8. Beware
the self-righteousness and complacency of the Pharisees! Beware the spiritual
trap in which one says to oneself, "Hey, I’m doing pretty good! I’ve been to
church six Sundays in a row. I can’t really think of much I’ve done wrong lately.
I’m certainly a lot better than some of those godless people I work with!” Pretty
soon you’ll be praying the prayer of the Pharisee in the Temple: “Lord, I thank
you that I am not as other men are…” There’s a perfect cure for that kind of
attitude. Run your finger down the list of commandments, and see how well
you've kept them. I guarantee you won't get very far. In fact, you won't get past
the first one! "Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me. What does this mean?
We should fear, love and trust in God above all things." Take a good long look
at yourself; God's law demands perfect righteousness, perfect obedience,
perfect love for God and perfect love for your neighbor. Be honest: how close
have you come to hitting that mark of absolute perfection? Bearing in mind, of
course, that in this case close doesn’t count – a miss is as good as a mile!

Thankfully, our God is patient with us. You parents, you know what you do
when one of your children misbehaves: you correct him, sometimes with the
paddle or the back of a brush. And if the child keeps on doing what's wrong,
you keep on trying your best to get him back on the right track. You won't ever
give up on him…of course you won't - he's your own child, and you love him.
And the love between parents and their children is one of the strongest bonds
known to man. In fact, there’s only one bond stronger, and that’s God's love
toward us, His children! "For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." Jn 3:16.

God tried very hard to save His people Israel. When the time was full, He sent
His Son to earth to live a perfect life in place of His wayward children, and to
pay the tremendous price of their sin. Jesus came to bring them the Word of
God in person, to fertilize that fruitless tree with the good news of redemption.
He answered and said to him, `Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it
and fertilize it. 9 `And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it
down.' It was the Jews' last chance. They had despised the promise of a Savior,
so, finally, God sent the Savior Himself. In His great love for His ancient
people, God stretched out His hand to save them, sending them His only Son.
What was their reply to God's offer of salvation? You can hear their reply in the
cries that echoed in the marble courts of Pontius Pilate: "Crucify Him, Crucify
Him!"

The Children of Israel threw away their last chance. God's chosen tree would
never bear fruit. The guests who were originally invited to the wedding feast
refused to come, and the invitation was sent to others, to the Gentiles…to you
and me. Now the message of redemption is to us. We are now God's special
people; we Christians – of every nation, of every ethnic extraction – we are
God's chosen tree. Will God find fruit on this tree when He comes to look for
it? There’s certainly no reason He shouldn’t! He has given us His Word, Law
and Gospel, to insure that we can know His will, and live a sanctified life of
repentance and forgiveness. The Bible is like a blueprint for salvation. The Law
of God shows us the things we've done wrong, so we can recognize our sin and
turn from it, in true repentance. St. Paul described the value of the Law when
he wrote, "No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law;
rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." Rom 3:20. It's easy for us
to repeat with the catechism, "We daily sin much, and indeed deserve nothing
but punishment," but do you ever stop to think about how true that really is,
and how damning all our daily sins are? God invites us to turn from these little
and big sins every day; to repent of them. Don't nourish any "pet" sins, don't
keep doing the things you know are wrong. God, in His love, asks us to get rid
of these sins every day - to throw off the "spotted garment of the flesh" and put
on the pure white robe of Christ's righteousness. We read in Colossians, "But
now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice,
slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you
have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator... Therefore, as
God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive
whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord
forgave you." Col 3:9-10, 12-13.

Read those ten commandments! Go down the list, and see just what a filthy
sinner you are; and then bring all those sins, lay them at the foot of the cross,
and leave them there. Because of what Christ did for you, those sins are no part
of you anymore. Jesus loves you, and died for you, to take those sins away!
"...Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive
with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have
been saved." Eph 2:4-5. We, who were dead, are made alive in Jesus every day.
The ax is stayed - it will never fall! "You were washed, you were sanctified, you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our
God." I Cor 6:11. Jesus has made you perfectly clean from sin, and if judgement
day comes right now, today, you are ready to walk right through those gates of
pearl into heaven itself!

The young boy George Washington was guilty as charged. The reason the story
of the cherry tree has served as an example to young people ever since, was that
he had the honesty to admit it! Let's you and I be honest, too. Let's each of us
search our consciences. Let's confess our sins, to ourselves, to one another, and
to God. In Jesus, there is full forgiveness, as the prophet Micah says, "God does
not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have
compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into
the depths of the sea." -7:118-19. Let's do everything we can to learn more
about Jesus, to cultivate and fertilize our relationship to our Redeemer. Then
the frightening fate of the unfruitful fig tree...can never happen to us! AMEN.