Luke 13:6-9

This past Sunday (4/15/12), we were in Luke 13:6-9.  We had visited this passage the week before from the base camp of Mark 11 – another mention of a leafed-out tree bearing no fruit.  This past week we discussed several things related to Lk 13, but our main focus was:

(1)    What kind of fruit did/does God expect to find on us?  Short answer:  fruit of

          repentance (Matt 3:8)

a.      Acknowledgement of sin paired with change in attitude toward the sin which 

results in change of behavior.

b.      Testimony and service to others, not out of duty but because of what God has

done for us.  (Matt 25:31-37)

(2)    Possible reasons the vinedresser in Lk 13 may have requested time to “dig around

          and fertilize” the tree.

a.      To improve the soil so that the tree would be better able to bear fruit.

b.      To possibly transplant the tree “out of darkness and into … light” (Col 1: 13).

c.       To mark the tree as set apart for a special purpose.

But we still don’t really know what happened to the tree in Lk 13.  Did it bear fruit after the 4^th year, or was it cut down?  I told you last week that I was playing with possible meanings of the 3 + 1 years.  Well, I have considered the possibilities even more this week, and this Sunday (4/22/12) we will start digging deeper into one of them (the one I feel fits the essence of Jesus’ message most closely).  We won’t yet have a satisfactory answer to the question posed in class, i.e. “What happens to the tree?”, but know that we’re working toward it together.

For now, we know this.  The man came looking for fruit on the fig tree in Lk 13, and the vinedresser pleaded with him to give it one more year.  Jesus came hungry to a fig tree in Mk 11, and the tree was cursed.  I wonder if He had walked by that fig tree every year of His 3-year ministry.  I wonder if its time was up.  God more than wants His children to produce fruit; He expects it.  Are we producing fruit?

Mark 11:11-22

This week’s lesson (4/8/12) focused on the fig tree.  I knew that it wasn’t coincidence that the fig tree kept popping up around Jesus’ appearances in the temple (at Jerusalem), but God hadn’t led me to dig more deeply until this past week.  Mk 11:12 says that Jesus was hungry.  If you connect that back with Luke 4:4 (during the time Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness), Jesus is mentioned as being hungry.  Satan thought it was for food, but Jesus replied, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word and expression that comes from the mouth of God.” (Amp).  He wasn’t hungry for food in Lk 4:4, and I don’t think He was hungry for food in Mk 11 either.  So what was He hungry for?  He was hungry for the fruit of the Spirit, but was finding none in the temple or from those who looked as if they should be overflowing with it – the Pharisees and Sadducees.  Hang with me for a second …

If you look back at Mk 11:13, the fig tree had leaves, and with fig trees, the fruit comes on at the same time as the leaves, so (regardless of season), if there were leaves, there should have been fruit.  The Pharisees and were in full leaf.  People came to them hungry for food (spiritually speaking), and if anyone should have been bearing fruit, it was the Pharisees.  At the time of Mk 11, Jesus was preparing to fulfill all the requirements of the Law (Matt 5:17).  Once that happened, the people would no longer need to go to the temple to be fed (again, spiritually speaking).  The fruitless fig tree (i.e. the temple and its leaders and by extension the Law of Moses) had become a burden to the soil (Lk 13:6-7) and “the ax [was] lying at the root of the trees” (Matt 3:10). 

I would encourage you to go back over the Scripture used in last week’s lesson (referenced above).  How does it connect with the other things you’ve been reading about in your Bible, including memory verses?  How does it connect to things in your life and family?  I just get more and more excited about the direction God is leading our study!