One more year please! (Luke 13a)

One more year please!

Luke 13:1-9

Key Verse – Luke 13:8-9 ““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."”

Introduction:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

This is the preamble of the United States’Declaration of Independence, promulgated in 1776. This section gives three examples of these "unalienable rights" provided for all of America’s citizens. The reason this was included in the Declaration of Independence is because the writers believed that these are  fundamentally necessary for men’s happiness and meaning. We all agree with this statement and many flocked to the United States to enjoy the support of these goals by the US government. In pursuit of this happiness, Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged great hope for all black people on August 28, 1963; he said, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” He envisioned that   black people would soon enjoy freedom and equality in all aspects of their lives.

Such a desire actually runs  through every human being’s heart. All pursue a good life on earth. However, despite  these hopes and dreams, death often comes suddenly, without warning, and  ends both life and one’s hopes and dreams. This is a sad thing and causes sorrow and pain for those who are involved with death. Death, no matter what  causes  it, forces us to think about life in its entirety, especially in regards to its meaning and purpose. Likewise, death awakens us to the true realities of life that we  enjoy through happiness. On examining the sudden death of some people, Jesus taught the truth about living and what to pursue in order to achieve such happiness and meaning in life.

1.      Death, a signature of life

“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices” (Luke 13:1).

Some men came to Jesus and told him that Pilate had mixed the blood of some Galileans with their sacrifices. Let’s examine this situation in detail.  Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea. Galilee was not part of his jurisdiction, so the Galileans had come to Judea to sacrifice. It is almost certain that these Galileans went to Jerusalem, the most prominent city of Judea, and the reason why these Galilean Jews came to Judea was to worship in the Temple, which included offering sacrifices. While they were there in Jerusalem, Pilate killed them. We have no information on why he did this. It is possible that these Galileans may have  plotted to kill Pilate because they might have felt that that was the right thing to do. But the plot might have been discovered and they were captured. In his rage, Pilate killed them,  took their blood, and mixed it with their sacrifices to the Lord in the Temple. This is just one plausible explanation based on what little we know, but one thing is clear: Pilate mixed the blood of these people with their sacrifices. This egregiously offensive action against their God seemed to say that their lives were sacrifices to their God, the Lord, to pay for their sins. Since God forbade any human sacrifices, this was viewed as a most treacherous death for any Israelite. As Pilate intended to convey through these deaths, it is not hard to draw the conclusion that  they died such a tragic death to pay for their sins.

This news might have shocked many Galileans because they may have known many of them by name, but if this news was brought up by some men from Judea, then these people might have been insinuating the idea that these Galileans were  bad and God had punished them for what they did. They might have thought “We are Judeans, not Galileans. We don’t  do such bad or evil things as those people did. We are better and godlier. God allows us to enjoy our lives as we do now. So we are happy and our lives are going well, because God is with us.”

What these men were thinking was right, in principle. The more one sins, the  worse their life will be. This is what we experience in our actual lives and  how we analyze the bad things that happen around us. According to such an understanding, we do our best to avoid such bad things so that we may enjoy life to its fullest.

Do you hold this be true? You can find the answer by examining what went through your mind when you saw the two hijacked airplanes hit the Wall Street Financial District and kill more than 3,000 people instantly.  

Jesus explored what these Judeans were thinking and asked them this question;

“Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?”” (Luke 13:2).

Jesus knew their thoughts, that those Galileans suffered such a death because their sins were so bad; however, he challenged their ideas by asking if these Galileans were worse sinners among all the Galileans? The answer is a resounding NO! From the birth and fall of men,  there is an unchanging principle about life that lies in the minds of all people: sin, ungodliness, and evil living results in bad or serious outcomes, such as death.

There[B2]  was a woman who was involved in drugs since she was 10. She was eventually diagnosed with HIV  and suffered from all kinds of illnesses, including kidney and liver failure. She died in her early forties. In her, we can see a clear link between sin and its consequences. We  experience such truth in our own lives as well. Bad decisions and behaviors, whether large or small, invariably bear consequences in time.  In order to avoid  a bad outcome, many try to do their best to do what is good and right. The worse one acts, the worst outcome he will face. In these efforts, we may build up an idea that, as we do good works, rather than doing what is bad  or  ungodly, we are ok and  can live in God’s blessing.

So many of these people may have been something like this: “Yes, they must have suffered such a tragic death because they did something wrong, even though we do not know the details.” We do not act so  badly as to merit such a tragic death! So we must be far better than them and are enjoying God’s blessing even now!”

I am sure that many of us agree with them because, as they did, we all  pursue what is right and good, first for ourselves, then for others. Also, we feel comforted thinking that we enjoy our lives because we are doing something right in God’s eyes, but Jesus’ answer to the Judeans’ question was totally different.

2.      Repent or perish

“I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:3).

Jesus’ answer was definitely no; he rejected the idea that they could consider themselves to be good, because they did not suffer such a tragic death. Also, Jesus rejected the idea that, since they were doing well in  life, it was a sign of God’s blessing on them. Instead, they were really no better than those who had perished. These people would eventually share the same fate with those that had perished  by Pilate, because they were under God’s judgment. This judgement was at the door and  could come at any time in their lives. The only way to avoid such a tragedy was to repent. If they failed to do this, they would all face death and  eternal judgment like those Galileans.

This was a great shock to them because they thought they were good and at least tried their best to do good and  follow God. They did not do such bad things at all! In their hearts, they were not willing to accept what Jesus said (i.e. ‘unless you repent, you too will all perish!’) Everyone might have said to himself or herself, “Not me!” “Not me!”

To such unwilling minds, Jesus gave another example:

“Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them-- do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?” (Luke 13:4).

This story is a little different from the previous one. Siloam was located in Jerusalem. When the [B3] tower of Siloam fell and eighteen people died, they were likely Judeans or at least from Jerusalem.  Also, the fall of the tower seems to have been caused by some natural mishap and had nothing to do with one’s ungodly behavior or sin, per se. However, the result was the same, death. Though the way in which the Judeans died was  different from the way that the Galileans died, and though they were also  innocent looking,  they all still suffered a tragic death.

Jesus asked them, “Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?” (Luke 13:4b). It was accidental and it’s hard to say whether they had been particularly bad in God’s eyes, resulting in their tragic death. Could the Judeans say that those people suffered such sudden deaths because they were the worst among all the people of Jerusalem? We can rephrase this in today’s terms:  more than 10 million people live in New York City. Among them are many bad people, such as murderers, thieves, adulterers; whatever you consider to be evil and ungodly behavior, you will surely find there. Were the three thousand men and women who died in the Twin Towers the worst  among the entire  New York population?

Clearly, this story raised  serious doubts about what they believed. Most likely, these people that brought this news were from Judea or Jerusalem. Jesus was actually speaking to their heart when he asked, “Do you think that you are better than those died at [B4]  Siloam?”  

But Jesus emphatically answered  his own question, once again:

“I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:5).

You are not any better than they were! All the efforts you make do not warrant any blessing from God! Though you have tried, in God’s eyes, there was not much difference between the murdered Galileans and the Judeans who were killed by the [B5] tower of Siloam. You too share the same fate with them, eternal judgment. Jesus is saying that all are under God’s judgment, unless they repent, as Paul said in Romans 3.

““What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one”” (Romans 3:9-10).

All have sinned against God and your efforts to do  good does not change your standing before Him. The psalmist deeply expressed this truth:

“for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children--with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts” (Psalm 103:14-18 NIV).

So the efforts you make to do something good are not  why God is giving you fresh air to breathe right now. Then some may ask why others, and not themselves, have suffered  tragic deaths. What about those who do bad[B6]  things and die early?

Before addressing this issue, I would like to discuss death. Nobody dies tomorrow, next week, or next year. What I mean is,  we always live  today. ‘Now’ becomes the next day when the next day becomes ‘now’. I cannot fundamentally  be something  tomorrow apart from what I am now. So, ‘now’ is connected to ‘tomorrow’ and also to the next day, and the day after that. If something is not there now, it won’t there when tomorrow becomes now. In this way, ‘now’ is connected to next year and  many years after that. Eventually, ‘now’ is connected to the time of our death. At death, we leave a lasting impression, the final signature of our lives. In this way, we live ‘now’. If we do not change or make my life new now, then it will not likely  happen tomorrow or next year! In this way, ‘now’ extends to the time of our death and then to  eternity. How might you die? You have no idea. Practically speaking, none of us has any glimpse of an idea on this.

I am not just talking about how you will die physically, but about what you will have in your heart when you die! What you will have in your heart when you die is the sum of what you have been doing throughout your life. In this regard, death is the final signature of your life and this signature lasts forever. You cannot change this final impression at all and, when God sees it, He will pass judgment on you, according to what He sees reflected in the final signature of your entire life!

Secondly, we do not know when we will die. You cannot choose when and how to die. It is in God’s prerogative. Jesus said that God has even counted the number of our hairs. Nothing happens without His seal of approval. God could have saved Stephen, but He didn’t. It was good for Him to take Stephen and, through his sacrifice, another man, Paul, was saved. God could have let the Galileans escape from Pilate’s wrath, but He let it happen; what was His transcendent will in this? We do not know all the ramifications of their deaths on the various minds of the people of that time. But I am sure that God spoke to each heart of those who heard the news. In this way again, ‘now’ is always connected to  eternity.

Let’s imagine the morning of September 11, 2001. Bob kissed his wife as he was leaving the house. They were planning to go on a weekend vacation together. Bob had never been to church, but had never been a bad person, per se. He was an honest,  hard worker. That morning was no different from the last week; as usual, his day would be filled with buying and selling stocks and handling his clients’ money. He did so well in his investment choices that he had been awarded a $50,000 bonus the previous year. His life was going so well and he had nothing to worry about. Only a good outlook was foreseen for his life. What occupied his mind  that morning? What could he say when he came to sit in front of Jesus, the judge of the living and dead?

Unless we are ready NOW in God’s eyes, we are under the same fate as the unsaved! During our present l lives is when we are to make ourselves fit for eternal life. You must be ready now! Not tomorrow, or next month, or next year! Because God can take your life at any time! How can this be possible?

Jesus repeated the same warning  in Luke13:3. In order to avoid  such a condemned death, they must all repent. Repentance is the only way to escape God’s judgment!

Until now, the Jews had worked hard to do what was good and right in their own eyes, but now, they needed to repent and change their way of thinking and  living. How? Jesus explains this in the next parable.

3.      One more year please

In order to give them an answer, Jesus gave them this parable:

“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?'” (Luke 13:6-7).

A man planted a fig tree. Fig trees were common in Israel and grew in many places. Also, they produced abundant fruit. However, this man specifically planted a fig tree in his vineyard. This meant that this tree was unique and he had a particular interest in it. He liked fig trees and wanted to eat some figs. I like figs too; they aren’t  too sweet, and are very tasty and chewy. Also, they are easy to eat and very nutritious. So this man waited for his tree to grow and eventually  become mature enough to bear fruit. But, strangely, this tree didn’t bear any fruit. So he waited one more year, but there was still no fruit. So he waited another year, and yet no fruit appeared. So he told the vinedresser: “Cut it down; why should it use up the soil?” (Luke 13:7b).

This story is a parable and, in it, Jesus pictured what God was doing in Israel. In the book of Isaiah, God called Israel His vineyard[B7] . So “vineyard” here is likely a figurative denotation to the nation of Israel. The vineyard owner is God and the vinedresser is Jesus. The fig tree is a particular character within God’s vineyard Israel. Just like the owner wanted fruit from the fig tree, so God wanted fruit from someone within His vineyard, Israel. [Though we cannot say with certainty, this most likely referred to Israel’s leadership, pointing to the failure of Israel’s leaders to bear the fruit that God wanted. This becomes more convincing, since Jesus rebuked the leaders in his previous teachings[B8]  and gave the example of the death of the Judeans by the fall of the [B9] tower of Siloam.]

If the fig tree is  figurative for the leaders of Israel, then what kind of fruit were they supposed to bear? What is the fruit that God wanted from them?

Some say that the fruit was receiving  the Holy Spirit. Others  call it what we yield in our lives through our obedience to the Spirit’s guidance. I believe that these represent some aspects of the fruit God wants from His people, but overall,  the fruit is the salvation  we receive from God when we repent and believe in Jesus as our Lord. This becomes clearer from the following passage:

““He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you”” (John 15:2-7 NIV).

As we noted in this passage, being united with Jesus is mandatory in order to be able to bear any of the fruit that God requires. So the fruit is something we get as we believe in and are united with Christ. The fruit that God requires cannot be possible without this union. When one is united with Christ, then all that we call “fruits” are made possible in our lives.

So it becomes clear  why the fig tree, a person in God’s vineyard, did not bear fruit; it was because he rejected Jesus and his teachings. As we know, the majority of the rejection of Jesus’ earthly ministry came from the leaders of Israel. This rejection was first shown when the religious leaders said that Jesus drove out demons by the power of the prince of demons (Luke 11:19). The fruit that they bore through these words and actions was the sinfulness of the flesh. No matter how hard they tried, they could not meet God’s requirements, the Ten Commandments. They were under His judgment, as were the Galileans and those who fell at Siloam.  Not knowing this, they felt good as they discussed the wrongs of those Galileans.

Jesus had been speaking to them through his miraculous healing and power in driving out the demons, and in the depth of his spiritual truths, but they were unrepentant and  unwilling to accept him as their Lord. Three years had already passed like this in his ministry. God had been waiting  for them to repent, yet they were not willing. Now God wanted to cut down the fig tree. But Jesus, the vinedresser,  said:

“"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 13:8-9).

One more year! I will do more than what I have already done; I will dig deep, reaching to its roots, and then fertilize it abundantly. He was eager to see the tree bear fruit so that it would not perish. In this way, the tree was given  one year. It is an extra year beyond the time that God had given. This was a grace period  from the vinedresser! This fig tree was as good as dead, because God already wanted it to be cut down. But, since Jesus, the vinedresser, pleaded, God would not cut it down and  would put off His judgment on this fig tree for one more year!

We’ve left one question unanswered though; why didn’t they  face  a tragic death, even if they shared the same fate and  gravity of sin as the Galileans had? Why does God give fresh air to breathe, even to those who do evil and ungodly things? Was He showing particular favoritism to them? No! They were enjoying a grace period, given by Jesus, the vinedresser of the vineyard! They were under his grace; they could enjoy the bright sun rising in the morning and breathe the fresh air daily because of God’s grace through Jesus. The “one more year” is the period of God’s grace and mercy for many sinners. He is patient until they willingly receive fertilization into the depths of their roots.

How did Jesus fertilize the tree in his vineyard? What was the one year? Did this just have symbolic significance or was this what Jesus was going to do in real life?

If we understand this word in the context of the crowd listening to Jesus’ words, he would give  a literal one year of grace  to this fig tree, whoever it represented.

This event happened on Jesus’ way to Jerusalem. It was his last journey to Jerusalem and it was likely that, within a few months or even less than a month, Jesus would reach  Jerusalem and die there. So Jesus’ suffering and  death was the final fertilizer to quicken their hearts to repentance. This was him digging deep to reach the roots of  mankind, and it is powerful enough to change even a heart of stone. This fertilizer is God’s life-giving love, full of redeeming grace. If they repented, they would receive God’s blessing, salvation in Christ, and  would then bear the fruit that God wanted and waited so long for. If they rejected Jesus’ life-giving love for them, then it was certain that God would cut them down.

I remember the day when I accepted the message of the Gospel. It sounded so good to me and I decided to bet my life on it. However, after that beginning, I struggled for almost three years, seeking God’s truth. Though I struggled hard, my heart was stubborn and could not believe that Jesus sacrificed his life for me. Near the end of the third year, God had mercy on me, heard my honest plea, and sent me the Holy Spirit. I am not sure whether  this has any relevance to the three years of God’s waiting, mentioned in this passage, and the one more year of God’s grace offered by the vinedresser.

But one thing is clear to us: that as long as one rejects Jesus as his Lord and Savior, his fate will be the same as those Galileans. He is living in the one-year grace period. In his grace, Jesus gave his all, out of his  life-giving love for all sinners. This is  powerful fertilizer and  his final offer; there won’t be any more chances or fertilizers after this! No one should reject or waste it. Such acuteness of message is well said in the book of Hebrews:

“As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion"” (Hebrews 3:15 NIV).

Nevertheless, if he wastes this one year and continues to reject Christ’s great love, then it is almost certain that he will face God’s judgement. Unless they repent and believe in Jesus, they will perish and face eternal judgment.

NOW is the time to accept Christ’s suffering and death on behalf of sinners like you and me, so that God’s eternal blessing may be yours now and then forever