Jesus and the Fig Trees

This morning, I discovered another fig on my fig tree in the back garden. What a cause for celebration, because I think my husband and I would have fought over who got to eat the one fig that we found last week! We have nurtured that fig tree for three years now, and finally, finally, there are at least two figs on it. What seemed to work was Black Cow fertilizer and lots of water—or maybe it was just the “mystical” three years as seen in Luke’s Gospel. There are around thirty references to the fig tree in the Bible and even more references to “a vine” which, I suppose, are more likely grapes. Whether we talking about figs or grapes, I think Jesus was probably teaching us about productivity or the lack of productivity in the life of his followers and of his people, Israel.

None of the stories tells about productivity better than Luke 13: 6-9:

6 Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” 8He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” ’

I find this passage striking because of my own experience with the fig trees in my garden, and with my experience with life’s projects and goals. So often, we become frustrated when a project or goal we have set about achieving doesn’t come to fruition. We think we’re on the right track, and we keep looking for the fruit to appear on the branch or vine, but to no avail.

What is it then in our human nature that suddenly makes us want to cast a project into the fire? Is it fickleness, lack of commitment, lack of patience, or is it intuitive insight?

I actually have no answer to the preceding question. I think that perhaps because we’re human—just as Jesus was when he cursed another fig tree—that it might be any combination of these reasons. There was actually a second fig tree in our yard. It withered and died this year, and there is nothing remaining of it. It got the same care as the one that survives, but obviously, that wasn’t enough. Given the soil with which we are dealing, and the time and energy we have for gardening, what makes it and doesn’t make it seems to be pretty much of a crap shoot.

The inner life does not have to be such a game of chance. There are other stories in the Gospels about soil and pruning. I believe Creation is a gift that teaches us in many ways the need to nurture growth, celebrate the fruitful moments, and to move on from those moments where there are more thorns than blooms. It is in the full-flowering of love and persistence—of fertilizing and watering, and sometimes returning to the desert—that we get the results we seek.

The photo of the fig leaves is from Matson_Photograph_Collection,_ca_1925-1946