The news is shocking. Pilate has slaughtered a group of Galileans who were carrying their sacrifices to the temple. There’s an element of gossip here, almost as if the details of the incident are salacious, juicy.
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge – they had it coming,
say the gossips.
“Think so?” asks Jesus. “No, and except you
repent, you shall likewise perish.”
And how about that bunch in
Jerusalem who were crushed when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Jesus continues. Think they
deserved what they got? No, and except you repent, you shall likewise perish – needlessly, senselessly, wastefully.
Disasters, tragedies happen. It’s natural that
we feel something about and for those who are caught up in such incidents. It’s
equally natural for us to try and figure out what went wrong. As a society, we
launch committees, task forces and commissions to study problems and make
recommendations for guidelines and legislation. As individuals, we speculate
and let our imaginations run wild about “what’s really going on” in an effort
to rationalize and explain why God would allow such things to happen. Surely,
we think, these people had it coming.
That’s not how it works, Jesus says. And by the
way, you are no better than they. So before you go pointing fingers at others’
lives, take a good look at your own and ask: what’s coming to me?
To drive home His point, Jesus returns to a
popular theme: the vineyard owner. Isaiah sung about the vineyard owner, and
Jesus will later sing His own cover of that song. Here, He samples that tune as
He sings about a certain fig tree.
The first thing we note is that this fig tree is
in a vineyard. It is therefore likely an ornamental tree that’s been placed
there solely for the delight and pleasure of the owner. It continues to exist
by his grace. However, its lack of fruitfulness is keeping him from enjoying it
fully, and it is fast becoming a nuisance. The ground it is using could be put
to better use. After all, this is a vineyard.
Three years – three seasons – three
opportunities have been given the tree to satisfy and delight the owner, all to
no avail. The owner turns to the vine-dresser and says, “Cut it down.” The
vine-dresser, in turn, suggests the owner put up with it for a little while
longer until he can aerate the soil around it and fertilize it. The tree will
be given every opportunity to bear fruit – a last, best chance. Then, if it
doesn’t, it will be cut down without question.
Luke moves right into the next situation, but
there’s an undercurrent here. An underlying murmur of “what was that?” The
disciples, Pharisees and the crowd at large all know the story of the owner and
the vineyard – it’s one of their favorites. The owner is God, the vineyard is
Israel. Who, then, is the vine-dresser and who is the fig tree? Are there
authorities other than the owner? Are there different plants within the
vineyard? And what’s all this business about cutting things down?
The story is unsettling and only serves to
increase the Pharisees’ unease. The crowds, in turn, take an untoward delight
in their anxiety. It is a dangerous combination that makes for an equally
dangerous situation. One, in fact, that will soon come to an explosive head.
