ONE MORE CHANCE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then He told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’”

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Luke 13:6-9

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we start this devotion, let’s think about the matter of mercy and grace for a moment.

Let’s start with the following two truths and build off of them:

1. We are all sinners.

2. God hates sin.

If we were going to look at these two statements logically, we might conclude that God hates all of us because we are people who commit sin and one could definitely deduct this as truth but they would be wrong. The words of Jesus in the third chapter of John tell us as much:

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Yes, God hates sin but He loves His people and needed to find a way to balance these two competing feelings.

Enter Jesus, His only Son.

You see, we were staring down judgment, death, and destruction because of our sins. We weren’t deserving of any good thing from God and yet He chose to rain down His compassion and charity to us. There was no way we could resolve the separation caused by our transgressions, a chasm that existed between us and our Maker and Master. God could have left it like that but He desired a closer, intimate relationship with His people. All He needed to make that happen was a special sacrifice that would atone for the iniquities of His people once and for all.

That special sacrifice came in the way of Jesus, the Lamb of God sent by God to take away the sins of the world and usher in the opportunity for salvation to come to anyone who acknowledges His as Savior.  Through Jesus, sinners have a way to be justified and able to abide with God forever. Indeed, through His Son, God has shown Himself to be God of second chances.

With this as a backdrop, let’s not go to our scripture passage and our continuing look at the opening verses of the thirteenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel:

Then He told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’”

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”  Luke 13:6-9

Here we find Jesus sharing a parable that holds a lot of importance for every person alive today or thereafter. Before we discuss, it’s important to identify what each item within the parable represents.

First, the man who owned the vineyard is none other than God Himself. It’s obvious through the parable that He is interested in getting a harvest from the fig tree that is planted in His vineyard.

Next, it’s important to note that the vineyard represents the earth and the fig tree represents each person He has planted in His creation.

Finally, the person who was tasked with taking care of the vineyard represented Jesus.

So now let’s plug in these elements into the parable and see how it reads:

God had His people growing on earth and went to see if they were bearing any fruit. When He did, He saw there was none.

And so He went to His Son Jesus who He had placed in charge of caring for the vineyard and complained saying:

“For three years now, I have been coming to this person expecting that they would have produced fruit but I have yet to find any. Eliminate that person so I can place someone else in their place, someone who will be productive!”

Think about these words for a moment.

They reflect four key things:

1. God expects His people to produce fruit which might look like this:

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23

2. God patiently waits for fruit to be produced.

In the parable, the man who owned the vineyard waited three years for fruit to be produced before He raised a complaint. God understands it time for His people to develop into the people He favors.

3. God’s patient with His people won’t last forever.

After three years, the vineyard owner was tired of waiting for fruit to come. It was time to cut His losses, cut down the tree, and occupy that space with something that would produce for him.

God will not be kept hanging forever by His people. He made us and He sustains us. There is no one who can say He has not made Himself known to them:

“…since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

No one can offer us any excuse that they don’t know who God is and so there is no excuse for not knowing He expects His people to turn from sin and towards righteousness, invoking behaviors that will bear fruit that is pleasing in His sight.

Jesus just finished up a discourse right before this parable where He had this message for those in the crowd:

“…unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Luke 13:5

Turn from sin and produce fruit or you will perish. That was the message from the One who God put in charge of His creation (the vineyard), the One who made this last ditch appeal to try and spare the fig tree (i.e. any one of us):

“Sir, leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

In other words, here we find Jesus interceding before His Father on any one sinner’s behalf, essentially saying:

“Father, give me one more chance to work with this person. I promise to do all I can to help them bear fruit but if they fail to respond to My help, then you have every right to cut them down (i.e. bring your judgment on them).

Second chances are born out of grace and mercy and there has been no greater display of this than the gift of pardon we receive when we accept Jesus as our eternal Savior and then bear the fruits that come by living a life as He did. The good news in our message is that Jesus intercedes for us but He can’t hold back His Father forever. I pray anyone reading this will not test God’s patience, instead accepting the tender, loving nurturing of His Son who longs to help anyone produce a glorious spiritual harvest of fruitful blessings born out of willful, willing service to their Maker and Master, the owner of the Vineyard.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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