The Barren Fig Tree: Personal, National, And Universal Applications Of Fruit Bearing Series

“Mordecai was seven years old when he decided that God had called him to be an evangelist. He started by preaching to barnyard animals. He even tried to immerse a cat in a water trough. When the feline began to scratch and claw, the budding evangelist threw him down and screamed, “Go on . . . go to hell!” It’s no wonder Mordecai grew up to be a “hog-jowl and turnip-green preacher” —country slang for a parson who gets in people’s faces. Whenever he brought his gospel tent to town, he would ask the locals to identify their most notorious sinner. He would then make a beeline for that person. Atheists, agnostics, and backsliders went into hiding when Mordecai Ham came to town.

In the twilight of his “hog-jowl and turnip-green” ministry, handsome Hollywood preachers came selling a softer gospel using Madison Avenue techniques. Folks stopped listening to the hellfire and brimstone of old Mordecai Ham. It seemed that he was washed up.

One night a pitiful handful in a half-filled service came forward. Mordecai Ham went back to his hotel room and wept in despair. Maybe he should have paid attention to one of those converts that night: a gangly North Carolina boy by the name of Billy Graham. In an age that measures success by the numbers, we need to step back and reevaluate what really matters. The impact we can have through a single prayer, a single conversation, a single act of kindness, or a single [you fill in the blank] —on a single child, man, or woman —is both incalculable and underrated. A child learns to walk one step at a time, and a race is finished by putting one foot in front of the other. Mordecai Ham died years ago, but what happened that one amazing night should encourage us with this truth: A single person doing the right thing, for the right reason, at the right time has the power to change the whole world.” -James Petterson, The One Year Book of Amazing Stories

Mordecai Ham was one who bore fruit for the kingdom of God. He was a fruit filled fig tree, you might say. And people came to know Jesus because he bore fruit in keeping with his faith.

Today we’re talking about the parable of the barren fig tree. It’s found only in the gospel of Luke, in chapter 13. This parable is very interesting because we’re going to see there are multiple layers of meaning here.

Jesus when he told parables, being the King of the universe, told parables with multiple layers of meaning, so as you dig into it, you’ll find deeper and deeper truths as you examine what he’s saying.

The three layers we’ll see are first, being applicable to our salvation journey personally. A message for individual believers. The second level is a message to Israel as God’s chosen people. The third layer is universal, it’s a message about the fabric of reality itself.

First let’s talk about the context, at this point in the gospel of Luke, Jesus had sent out the 12 disciples to do ministry work, then he sent out the 72 to do ministry work. Later they had gathered again, and Jesus had taught crowds, then he had rebuked the Pharisees and teachers of the law openly, after this the Pharisees began openly opposing Jesus. But crowds of thousands began following Jesus, it says at the beginning of chapter 12, he’s teaching his disciples there as well, and he begins teaching many parables, and truths. Then at the beginning of chapter 13, we see our context, and it says this,

From Luke 13:1-5, “Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 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? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Jesus is teaching his disciples, teaching to the crowds, thousands of people in fact, and people are coming to him telling him about recent events in the news. Apparently Pontius Pilate had executed several of the Jews while they were making sacrifices at the temple. Obviously this news is going around in the newspapers on the tv, and the people are talking about it. Similarly another event is being talked about, a tower was being built in Siloam, and it fell, killing 18 people.

It was common in those times to assume the people that were killed must’ve been sinners and God was judging them. Jesus says no that’s not necessarily the reason these events happened.