After telling the crowds that unless they repent, they will perish, Jesus told a parable about a fig tree that had not borne fruit for three years. The owner wanted it destroyed. But the worker in charge of cultivating, cutting, and pruning appealed to the owner to spare the tree: "Sir, leave it one more year," he said, "and give me time to dig around it and manure it; it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down" (Luke 13:8-9).
In the "Parable of the Fig Tree," Jesus seems to be assuring us that while repentance is a matter of spiritual life and death, nevertheless, the Lord is patient. The first point is simple: God looks for fruit.
i. The fruit of our lives shows what kind of person we really are. An apple tree will bring forth apples, not watermelons. If our lives have really been touched by the Holy Spirit, it will show in the fruit we bear, even if it takes a while for the fruit to come forth.
ii. What fruit is God looking for? It certainly has to begin with the fruit of the Spirit, mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
The message for today is that perhaps God is showing His special care for us right now, but it feels like we are surrounded by proverbial manure. Yet, God's work should not be resisted. Flow with it and bear fruit as He continues to work in our lives.
As illustrated by the farmer in the parable, God is also just in His judgment. There finally will come a day of reckoning. It is not just an endless string of threats.
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One morning in 1888, Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, awoke to read his own obituary. The notice was printed because of a simple journalistic error — it was Alfred's brother that had died, and the reporter carelessly reported the death of the wrong Nobel.
To Alfred, the shock was overwhelming because he saw himself as the world saw him: the "Dynamite King," the great industrialist who had made an immense fortune from explosives. This, as far as the public was concerned, was the entire purpose of Alfred's life. None of his true intentions to break down the barriers to world peace were recognized or given serious consideration. He was simply a merchant of death. And for that alone, he would be remembered. For Alfred, this presented an existential crisis -- a matter of spiritual life and death.
As he read the obituary with horror, he resolved to make clear to the world the true meaning and purpose of his life. This could be done through the final disposition of his fortune. His last will and testament would be the expression of his life's ideals and ultimately would be why we would remember him. The result was the most valuable of prizes given to those who had done the most for the cause of world peace.
Of course, today, that prestigious honor is called the "Nobel Peace Prize."
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