Since the book of Job...
Illustration
Since the book of Job, people have been pointing fingers at the sufferer. The old Jewish
idea said that if someone suffered, it meant they had done something wrong and were
being punished. Jesus fractured that idea by saying that suffering came to all -- the
Galileans persecuted by Pilate, those eighteen killed when the towers of Siloam fell, all
those that heard him tell the story. No need to point fingers of judgment at those in hard
times. God's judgment does not work that way. From then until now religious folk have
been categorizing, dividing, and grouping people into us and them.
They are sinners and will be punished. We are righteous and will be
rewarded with a good life, healthy children, and an abundance of blessings. Jesus erased
all the lines of division. We are all sinners in need of repentance. We are all in the same
boat. This divided age of ours between Red States and Blue States, conservatives and
liberals, illegal immigrants and not-so-illegal-immigrants need to ponder Jesus' words.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "We may have come here on different boats but we are
all now on the same ship. If we could get our hearts around this idea of our one-ness we
could mend a lot of fences in our world."
Jesus' parable here should be a comfort to us all. A man planted a fig tree and for three years it bore no fruit. In frustration, the farmer wanted to cut it down and plant a tree that would bear fruit. The gardener shook his head. "No," he told the farmer, "give the tree one more year. Dig around it and sprinkle in manure. If it still does not bear fruit, cut it down." These are some of the most hopeful words in the gospel. All of us live with the frustration of things that do not work as we wish. Churches strike off in what seems to be a destructive path; children do foolish things, after trying and trying many of us are ready to give up on someone, some thing or even ourselves. This gospel refuses to give up. Let us put down Christ's words by any hard thing in our lives. "Give it one more year," he says. It should be a mantra for the church everywhere. One more year! One more year! One more year!
Jesus' parable here should be a comfort to us all. A man planted a fig tree and for three years it bore no fruit. In frustration, the farmer wanted to cut it down and plant a tree that would bear fruit. The gardener shook his head. "No," he told the farmer, "give the tree one more year. Dig around it and sprinkle in manure. If it still does not bear fruit, cut it down." These are some of the most hopeful words in the gospel. All of us live with the frustration of things that do not work as we wish. Churches strike off in what seems to be a destructive path; children do foolish things, after trying and trying many of us are ready to give up on someone, some thing or even ourselves. This gospel refuses to give up. Let us put down Christ's words by any hard thing in our lives. "Give it one more year," he says. It should be a mantra for the church everywhere. One more year! One more year! One more year!
