Summary
In response to stories making the rounds about people who suffered unexpected and grisly deaths, JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity. tells a parableA parable is a brief story with a setting, an action, and a result. A prominent aspect of Jesus' teaching was telling parables to illustrate something about the kingdom, or reign, of God. about a fig tree that receives time and assistance from a gardener so it might start producing figs. Jesus uses the parable to urge people to repent—not to presume that they have unlimited time in this perilous world but to embrace God’s presence and claim on their lives.
Analysis
This passage consists of two related parts. First, there is discussion of catastrophes. People tell Jesus a story apparently about a slaughter of religious pilgrims ordered by the Roman governor of Judea; they are “Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.” No other ancient sources describe this event, but it sounds like an instance of state-sponsored violence, which would hardly be out of character from what is known from other ancient sources about Pontius PilateThe Roman governor who condemned Jesus to death. and his severe methods of governing. Jesus then talks about the collapse of “the tower of Siloam,” which might have been part of the wall surrounding Jerusalem. Both instances are tragic, one stemming from oppression and one from an accident. One is calculated, one is random. The death of all the victims probably makes people who hear the reports shake their heads and shudder at how fragile any human being’s existence is.
Then Jesus warns his hearers not to presume that sudden death could not happen to them, too. Even more strongly, he says that death and miserable endings await everyone, unless they repentRepentance is a central biblical teaching. All people are sinful and God desires that all people repent of their sins. The Hebrew word for repent means to "turn away" from sin. The Greek word for repentance means to "change on'e mind," more specifically, it means.... He presses a question: how should you respond to a life that is fleeting and precarious?
The second part of the passage contains a parable that urges hearers to bear fruit, which is symbolic of persisting in God’s word (LukeThe "beloved physician" and companion of Paul. 8:15). The parable centers around a fruitless fig tree and a patient gardener. The gardener does what he can to help the tree, yet the tree is running out of time. Will fruit show up before it is too late, before the tree is scheduled to be cut down? The parable leaves that part unstated. The purpose of the parable is to prompt its hearers to examine their own lives and futures.
It is misguided to equate the owner of the tree with God and likewise the gardener with Jesus. The wider Gospel of Luke does not support the claim that Jesus’ job is to calm down an impatient God to buy more time for humanity.
The parable insists that in this fleeting life people are not left to their own energy and goodwill, but rather they are provided help (like the aeration and manure the gardener provides!). As with the tree, they still have time, but not unlimited time. Repentance, which the parable hopes to provoke, is about adopting a new perspective on the world and God’s concern for it. It is about recognizing Jesus—who he is and the kingdom he comes to inaugurate. Repentance is not a synonym for trying harder or conducting a moral renovation.
