The Fig Tree Series

March 13, 2024

Rev. Mary Erickson

Hope Lutheran Church

John 1:35-51; Luke 13:6-9

The Fig Tree

Good evening, friendly humans. It’s such a pleasure to be with you here this evening. Thank you for inviting me as a guest speaker in your Lenten series. May I introduce myself? I am Fig Tree.

I understand that one of my shirttail relatives was with you last week, Sycamore. We’re both members of the Ficus family.

On behalf of all trees, I’d like to thank you for your friendship with us, for nurturing and protecting us, for planting us and the general care you show us. We have a symbiotic friendship, you humans and we trees. You breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. And we breathe in carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. So we were made for each other!

One of the primary differences between us has to do with our undercarriage. You have legs, and we have roots! Legs are made for walking. You move around! But roots are made for staying put. That’s one thing about us. Once we sprout, we pretty much stay in one place. We see all of life from that one place, day and night, through all seasons.

Don’t get me wrong, legs seem like a very nice feature to me. I can see where it would be nice to relocate so very easily. But as I observe you humans, you’re perpetually on the go! Do you ever stop?

In contrast to you, we are rooted. I think this sense of being planted in a single place is one of the attributes that your Bible picks up on about us.

We figs are one of the first trees mentioned in your Bible. In your account about Adam and Eve, they use some of our broad leaves to cover themselves once they realize their nakedness.

And, certainly, the Bible also mentions our wonderful fruits. But the most common reference has to do with resting underneath us, enjoying our shade and the reverie of the moment.

You humans have associated we fig trees with wisdom and spiritual awakening. Our most famous relative played a very important role for the man who later became known as The Buddha. For seven weeks, he sat under one of our relatives, and it was there that he received enlightenment. Because of that, our relative became forever known as The Bodhi Tree, the tree of enlightenment.

And in Christianity, your very own St. Augustine was also under a fig tree when he had his moment of spiritual turning. Up until this point, he’d been in a state of spiritual agony. Augustine went and sat under a fig tree and he prayed to God. And it was then that he heard the words that would redirect the course of his life, “Pick it up and read it!” He picked up his Bible and read the words that changed his life.

You associate us with enlightenment, wisdom and spiritual awakening. We fig trees invite you to sit under us – I’m speaking FIG-uratively! It’s important to allow your mind to contemplate higher things and to pray. This is exactly what Nathanel was doing when Jesus saw him. When Jesus eyed Nathanel sitting under a fig tree, he recognized him as a man with a deep spiritual keel.

This is our message to you. We fig trees want to remind you of the importance of staying connected with higher things. Find ways to sit under your own “fig tree.” It’s important to keep that spiritual time alone between you and God.

Sometimes that’s easier, and sometimes that’s harder. The thing is, when your life is at its most stressful and under duress, that’s exactly when you need special God time the most.

You humans value we figs for our delicious fruits. But we fig trees can tell you a thing or two about bearing fruit! We love getting fertilized and pruned. All of that care and attention helps us to bear abundant supplies of figs. When we’re in our prime, we can produce two crops of fruit in a single year!

Jesus told a parable about a barren fig tree. For three years, that poor tree didn’t bear any fruit! Sometimes, we figs, we reach the end of our productivity for bearing fruit. When the owner of the vineyard came by and saw my cousin barren for three years, he said to his gardener, “Hey, cut down this fig tree! It’s finished bearing fruit!”

But the gardener, he asked for more time. “Sir, please leave it alone. Let me give it some TLC. I’ll dig around and fertilize it. You might be pleasantly surprised!”

That’s the thing about bearing fruit. It requires energy! No energy, no fruit. We fig trees do really well when you prune and fertilize and water us regularly. I can tell that gardener knew exactly what we figs require.