The Barren Fig Tree

And [Jesus] told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ” Luke 13:6-9

+
The Barren Fig Tree
Sometimes the gardener needs to cut down the tree, pull up the plant, and plant something new. However, other times the gardener can dig around the plant and fertilize it and it will produce fruit. The gardener needs to be active in his garden. So many times, in the New Testament, Jesus uses gardening language and sometimes even calls his Heavenly Father the Gardener. This is the Gardener that knows what we need in order to bear much fruit. He prunes us with our crosses, he digs around our roots with his Word, he fertilizes us with the very Body and Blood of Jesus. It is only by the intervention of our God in our lives that we produce anything. By his work we produce, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some one hundred. But if we are hardened in our sin and we refuse to repent and bear fruit, if we cast out the Holy Spirit and reject the work of the Gardener, we will be cut down and cast into the fire. Thanks be to God that he comes to us in our sorrow and our lives and works to have a garden of abundance.