This Gospel reading occurs on the 3rd Sunday of Lent, in Year C.
Which indicates that it is rather important.
Generally we focus on the parable of the fig tree in the vineyard within that Gospel reading. This time I was given grace to wonder whether context would help in the understanding of this parable of Jesus.
Looking up the bible text, verse 10 is unrelated, and begins a new narrative.
This indicates that the talk of the two sets of public deaths, one military case, the other due to a collapsed building, has something to do with the parable.
Even today, any kind of disaster involving deaths gets prime focus in our news online, in the press, and on television and radio. The editorial dictum, ‘if it bleeds, it leads’, still prevails. The next day it is a major topic of conversation and conjecture.
In our reading, people are asking Jesus for His comments, and He replies with a parable.
In this parable, the owner of the vineyard is talking to the vineyard dresser about his fig tree. Some translations have gardener, but the Greek word implies vine dresser or pruner.
Pruning of grape vines must be done by hand, and the pruning of each grape vine is unique. Making the vine dresser a very highly skilled worker. Grapes are pruned with an eye to maximizing harvest for both this year and next year.
A vineyard’s purpose is to produce grapes, and then wine. Every year a vineyard produces a harvest.
To put a fig tree in a vineyard is very odd. Fig trees grow large and tall, take up a lot of space, and prevent the sun from getting to the vines. Only when a fig tree is mature will it produce figs, and that can take four to six years.
Strangely the owner is more interested in his fig tree, which hasn’t yet produced a harvest, instead of his vineyard which does produce yearly harvests.
Instead of talking about his vineyard to the vine dresser, and making the most of the expertise of the vine dresser, the owner is talking to the vine dresser about the not-the-main-thing fig tree.
It is my guess that the vine dresser promised to fertilize the fig tree in the same way that a mother would promise a toddler something so as to get the toddler focused on the truly important thing as soon as possible.
Clarity comes when you place yourself as the owner, your life or your soul as the vineyard, Jesus as the expert on the well-being of souls and the well-being of lives, and the fig tree as the unproductive distraction.
So when you next get caught up in an online fracas, or a political scandal, a royal intrigue, or a natural disaster; take time to do some soul searching …. and seek Jesus in prayer.
Which indicates that it is rather important.
Generally we focus on the parable of the fig tree in the vineyard within that Gospel reading. This time I was given grace to wonder whether context would help in the understanding of this parable of Jesus.
Looking up the bible text, verse 10 is unrelated, and begins a new narrative.
This indicates that the talk of the two sets of public deaths, one military case, the other due to a collapsed building, has something to do with the parable.
Even today, any kind of disaster involving deaths gets prime focus in our news online, in the press, and on television and radio. The editorial dictum, ‘if it bleeds, it leads’, still prevails. The next day it is a major topic of conversation and conjecture.
In our reading, people are asking Jesus for His comments, and He replies with a parable.
In this parable, the owner of the vineyard is talking to the vineyard dresser about his fig tree. Some translations have gardener, but the Greek word implies vine dresser or pruner.
Pruning of grape vines must be done by hand, and the pruning of each grape vine is unique. Making the vine dresser a very highly skilled worker. Grapes are pruned with an eye to maximizing harvest for both this year and next year.
A vineyard’s purpose is to produce grapes, and then wine. Every year a vineyard produces a harvest.
To put a fig tree in a vineyard is very odd. Fig trees grow large and tall, take up a lot of space, and prevent the sun from getting to the vines. Only when a fig tree is mature will it produce figs, and that can take four to six years.
Strangely the owner is more interested in his fig tree, which hasn’t yet produced a harvest, instead of his vineyard which does produce yearly harvests.
Instead of talking about his vineyard to the vine dresser, and making the most of the expertise of the vine dresser, the owner is talking to the vine dresser about the not-the-main-thing fig tree.
It is my guess that the vine dresser promised to fertilize the fig tree in the same way that a mother would promise a toddler something so as to get the toddler focused on the truly important thing as soon as possible.
Clarity comes when you place yourself as the owner, your life or your soul as the vineyard, Jesus as the expert on the well-being of souls and the well-being of lives, and the fig tree as the unproductive distraction.
So when you next get caught up in an online fracas, or a political scandal, a royal intrigue, or a natural disaster; take time to do some soul searching …. and seek Jesus in prayer.
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