Repent… or lose your place
JESUS used parables to teach us life lessons. We learnt in school that parables are heavenly stories with earthly meanings. How many of us have actually taken up the Bible and read a parable? How many of us understand them? The Bible is a guide to help us trod this treacherous path and so we must make it our duty to read it.
Turn your Bibles with us to Luke 13:6-9 (GNB).
Jesus tells us about ‘The Parable of the Unfruitful Fig Tree’. There was once a man who had a fig tree in his garden. Whenever he went out to retrieve the figs, he found none. Thus, he frustratingly told his gardener that for three years he had been coming to this tree, and getting no figs.
Angrily, he commanded the gardener to cut it down as it was taking up space. However, the gardener gently told him to leave it for one more year and promised that he would take care of it. The gardener said that it would be great if it bore fruit the next year, but if it didn’t, then he could have it cut down.
The textual and historical context places this parable in a time of great conflict in Israel. Repeatedly, Israel was warned that unless they would repent, they would be cut down from their comfortable positions. They were living such privileged lives that they were indifferent to everyone, including God. This is one of the worse things that could happen to an individual. Not in all cases, but most, the individual becomes judgemental, hypocritical, and condescending. Have you ever met up on such a person? Think about a whole nation being like that!
The fig tree therefore represented Israel. The fact that the fig tree was growing, shows that it was planted to bear fruit. Israel was supposed to be fruitful, which ties in the owner, God, checking up to see if it was. As a result of their selfish and hardened hearts, however, they weren’t. Jesus, the gardener, becomes an intercessor right there. He pleaded not to have them cut down, even though he had been ministering to them for three years. He begged another year where he would get to work on them more and soften their hearts.
Just as Jesus pleaded on behalf of Israel, he pleads on behalf of us. Most of us can’t claim to have privileged lives like the Israelites. Some of us can barely find the $80 for bus fare. Yet we haven’t given our hearts to the Lord, or have mended our ways. Israel was cut out of God’s favour because the one year had passed and they had still not repented. Do you want that to be your fate too?
Some of the Israelites ‘accepted God’, yet they had not the humility to bear fruits. They merely said they were in the faith, yet never acted like Christians, thought like Christians or spread the word, as Christians ought to do. Declaring that you are a Christian with your mouth is not the same as declaring it with your heart. Dressing ‘Christian-like’ does not justify the dark hearts of many individuals.
If you find yourself in any of the two groups, don’t despair. Remember that Jesus asked God for time. Time for us to repent and clean our hearts. The Lord is knocking at our doors. All we have to do is open them.