Third Sunday Of Lent, Year C- Exhausting The Soil Or Bearing Fruit

Jerry Flury, who once worked in the insurance industry, said, “I constantly had to deal with people seeking to maintain their policies perpetually in what they referred to as the policy’s grace period. A grace period is defined as the additional period of time a lender, or an insurance policy issuer, provides for a borrower to make passed due payment on a debt without penalty. I believe that there are a number of Christians living in their spiritual grace period.1

Luke 13:7 from our Gospel today says, “Why should [the fig tree without fruit] exhaust the soil?”

People back then did not have the luxury of planting trees for beauty; they were kept for shade or for food.

Exhausting the soil refers to something that has been separated from its source of power. A fruitful life begins with daily prayer from the heart, which is the basis for true good works. The point of the parable about the fig tree is to have a sense of urgency to bear fruit.

Not like this example: Temporarily absent from home, Captain Webster left Daniel and his brother Zeke with specific instructions as to the work they were to do that day. On his return, he found the task still unperformed, and questioned them about their idleness. "What have you been doing, Ezekiel?" he asked. "Nothing, sir." "Well, Daniel, what have you been doing?” "Helping Zeke, sir.”2

St. Augustine said, “God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.”

“For one year,” the parable says, is the salutary period of grace before the critical showdown.

The fig tree represents Old Covenant Israel (Jeremiah 8:13; Hosea 9:10). God found no fruits of repentance, yet he was patient and gave them an ample three years to accept their Messiah (Romans 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9); many of them never did! Of course, we are also the fig tree, living, as it were, on borrowed time.

The gardener saw possibilities of digging around it and giving it fertilizer. Have you ever had a Christ-like gardener in your life? Perhaps a parent, a boss, or a spouse who believed in you?

The second chance: The gardener proposes another solution that might correct the problem to save the tree. Yet the fact that readers are left without a resolution to this narrative means that the story, like life itself, remains open.

Some questions for this third week of Lent-

Do we continue to make foolish mistakes? What habits are making me fruitful?

What habits are making me barren?

What sinful practices are hurting my soul, my faith?

What in your life seems to impede your ability to draw nutrients and bear fruit? What practical steps can you take to eliminate these impediments?

Who or what in your life nourishes you spiritually?

What fruit can you see from that nourishment?

Do we say, I can’t change because I’m too far gone? If so, the loss of one’s old life can be a condition for achieving a new one. It is important to understand and identify the thoughts and behaviors which led to past inappropriate behavior. This becomes the focus of relapse into sin by prevention- the behaviors to be avoided in the future to reduce the risk of re-offense of God or our neighbor’s spiritual life and well-being.

E.g., Preface III of Lent mentions some fruits—"For you will that our self-denial should give you thanks, humble our sinful pride, contribute to the feeding of the poor, and so help us imitate you in your kindness.”

The gardener is Jesus who saved us by hanging on the tree of the wood of the Cross.

We can ask for intercessors or advocates, like fertilizer, to pray for us, like Mary at Cana.

Life’s second chances are what the cross is all about!

We can’t waste this opportunity.

The Christian life is like an airplane -- when you stop you drop.

Repentance is on-going, thus the prefix “re;” again or repeat.

Repentance also means it is one's recognition that another way of life is superior to the one which he has been living and his commitment to the new way.

Like Moses seeing the fire flaming out of a bush without burning the bush. The fire burned for him, then in him, and through him. So many profound prayerful religious experiences happen alone, like Moses. Like Moses, prayer spark us to action to serve others.

In conclusion: The bad things in life can so suddenly awaken us to things that really matter, e.g. The people were telling Jesus about the recent bad headlines about Pilate killing a bunch of Jews from Galilee, and an engineering or construction disaster where a tower fell and killed 18 people.

When Jesus said, if you do not repent you will all perish as they did, means that those who die in a state of alienation from God, and death can come at any time, they will continue in that alienation if they don’t repent.