In Australia we lived at a place called Tamborine Mountain. The word Tamborine is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘yam (or root) in a cliff’. It is a 2000 ft mountain plateau surrounded by a steep escarpment. With a population of 6000 it is of course accessible by road – a number of routes, all of which are treacherous and steep, some roads steeper than others.
One in particular was very steep. Built in the 1980’s to help make the plateau more accessible for an increasing population, Henry Roberts drive provides a direct access to the nearest city. This route is so steep there are large warning signs at the bottom, warning people of the gradient. Advising caravans, lorries, coaches, and feint hearted
to turn back while they still can.
Similar warning signs are at the top, advising such vehicles not to descent by that route either as it is too steep for them. On that road there was often evidence of people who had ignored the warning signs: Broken down cars, Abandoned caravans, Lorries that had gone over the side having careered off the road at high speed, their brakes not holding them.
One day I drove past just after a furniture removal lorry had crashed on the steepest part – there were no fatalities but there were bits of a families furniture and belongings scattered all over the road!
2 years before we moved there a coach carrying a group of seniors on a sightseeing trip, had tried to descend by that route, and its brakes had failed on the steep section and they had gone over – resulting in the loss of many lives.
All this, not just because of the steep road, but because people had chosen to ignore the warnings.
Warnings are all around us in our daily lives: on drug packaging, cleaning material, cigarette packets, road signs, including those evocative ones that tell you the number of road fatalities on that route in the past year.
TV ads showing the drunk driver and his passengers coming to grief.
Images of the smoker with cancer struggling for her last few breaths…. These are meant to shock us. Perhaps we’ll see ourselves in that person’s shoes and we won’t like the consequences, the outcome, that we see.
This shock treatment might encourage us to change our ways.
In the gospel passage today we get this kind of shock treatment also.
Some 18 people had been killed because a tower had fallen on them.
Others had been killed by the Roman authorities under Pilate.
Jesus says that unless “you repent, you will all perish as they did”
There are consequences for those who try to lead lives apart from God.
Jesus is not saying that those who died, did so because God was punishing them.
The tower collapsed because it had a water tunnel under it and it was unstable.
The citizens had died, like many others, because of Pilate’s severity.
Those who died were no worse than you and me, but if they can come to a nasty end, so could Jesus listeners, albeit for different reasons.
Each and every human life has an implicit value as God’s creation. Road signs and other warning signs try to prevent unnecessary loss of life because every life is precious. God warns us because he loves us. He warns us that life lived apart from him is not worth living.
Like children, we don’t always want to think about the consequences. Today’s Gospel, although not an easy passage to hear, reminds us of the consequences of living apart from God. Just as those shock treatment TV commercials remind us of the consequences of drink driving, smoking or drug abuse.
Sometimes we are given another chance. Like the fig tree and the gardener who cared for it… We are offered the opportunity to change. Can we change our lifestyle to match God’s way for our lives and thereby change the outcome?
And so we come to this parable of the fig tree. A familiar parable to us. It’s one that Jesus uses to develop his argument about warnings and change. There are at least two things to keep in mind about this parable:
1. Where it occurs. It’s important to remember that this parable occurs in Luke’s travel narrative. Ch 9 to Ch19 of Luke’s Gospel focuses on Jesus foretelling his own passion, including his journey to Jerusalem and his entry into Jerusalem.
Here, Jesus is obediently living out his journey not just to Jerusalem, but to God.
He is aligning his life with God’s will for him. This would be the disciples’ way of life too.
In this context we have the parable of the fig tree. Given a second change to change, grown and produce fruit – so too for Jesus, the disciples, us….changing, growing, bearing fruit as we align ourselves with God’s way for us.
2. The second thing to know about this parable is that it involves food imagery: fruit.
In Lukes Gospel and in Jesus’ ministry food is a big thing.
God shows his faithfulness to his hungry/needy people by feeding them.
God feeds the hungry with good things (Luke 1:53)
Daily bread comes from God (Luke 11:3)
Sharing food and sharing the Gospel are connected (Luke 10:7-8)
Jesus speaks of ‘fruit’ as the crucial test (6:43-44; 8:8; 20:10) and he warns that the tree that does not bear fruit is useless and will be chopped down. (13:6-9). Harsh imagery.
But our lives are to do the same: The fruit we bear by living a live closely aligned to God’s will. It is something that will strengthen/sustain/nurture those around us. Hence the need for the tree to be given a second chance to produce food – so that it can bring nourishment to those around it.
But what does this ‘warning’ parable mean for you and me? Perhaps we need more loving care, more time with God to connect with him, who is the source of all our needs. How much time do you set aside to spend with God? Maybe you could consider joining one of our housegroups, or the intercessions group, or simply create space if you don’t already to pray at home or meet with a friend to pray and read the scriptures?
Jesus reveals this faithful God who feeds his hungry creation.
Can we change our lives so that we bear fruit to feed those around us with God’s mercy, love and peace?
A prayer
Lord, you are the gardener of creation. Tend us and nurture us so that we may bear fruit and minister to your needy people. Also we ask that you will show us how to be better gardeners, better stewards, better custodians of the world around us. Creator God, great gardener of earth and heaven, restore your creation to wholeness. Amen.