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 NIV
If you plant a fruit tree in your yard, it is only natural to expect it to produce fruit for you. But what if it does not? What if, despite the best care, it fails to produce fruit year after year? That is the situation the man in this parable of the fig tree was faced with. And he was ready to cut down the worthless tree and start over. But his gardener convinced him to give it one more year.
This is a nice story, but what is the point? What was Jesus teaching…
