A few years ago I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law and niece and nephew one spring afternoon. It was a nice early spring day and my brother was planting garlic and other vegetables in their garden. I was half helping and half watching my niece Cece as she wandered around the yard. She was 3 or 4 at the time and she found a dying sunflower and grabbed a seed from it. She put it on the ground and brushed a little bit of dirt on it. And five seconds later she was off to the next thing. It was kind of a rough location, away from the garden where there were more rocks than anything else. I thought it was cute that she was trying to plant something like her dad, but I didn’t have much hope for that sunflower seed. Well the next weekend when I visited I saw it was sprouting. I was amazed that it actually it took. And a few weeks later, I saw that sunflower was taller than she was. And a month after that, it was taller than I was! Without any manure or mulch or even any watering, that sunflower, planted by a toddler, grew to over 10 feet tall!
In the Gospel reading today Jesus tells a story about a plant that doesn’t grow. But it’s not the plant that’s the focus of the parable- it’s the gardener. The gardener who promises to take care of the fig tree. To spread manure around it, water it, give it the best possible care so that it’s bound to grow.
But before we get into the parable, let’s consider the first part of this reading that sets the context for the parable. This Gospel text begins with some challenging material. People come to Jesus and tell him about a group of Galileans that Herod killed. It seems like the speakers were wondering if those who died deserved it. Maybe God was punishing them for some sin and used Herod to do it? Jesus says no, that’s not how things work. They weren’t worse sinners than the rest of you. But their death should be a reminder to repent. Now it’s important to know that in the New Testament the word “repent” is a Greek word metanoia which literally means “change your mind”. Unfortunately the English word “repent” has come to be associated with feeling guilty and confessing our wrongs—but in scripture metanoia means to transform your worldview, to change the way you think about reality. So Jesus is saying that their deaths should make you stop and think about your own life and morality. What happened to them should make you change your mind and transform your thinking.
Then Jesus uses another example about a tower that fell on people in Jerusalem, something that was apparently a recent headline for them. He answers his own question that they were not worse sinners than anyone else. And yet this tragedy happened. He says that their death should also make us all change our thinking and transform our minds. In contemporary language, Jesus might’ve said: those people didn’t deserve to die any more than you, but any one of us might get hit by a bus tomorrow—and that fact should really make you stop and think about your own lives, reflect on your mortality, and think hard about the way you’re living and what you’re doing with your life.
Now Jesus is set up perfectly to answer the question of why bad things happen to good people. It would be really nice if he would address this theological conundrum of why evil and suffering exist. Of why people like Herod come to power in the first place. Of why deadly accidents happen, like a tower falling on people. Or natural disasters. Or deadly diseases. Or any number of the thousand things that cause suffering. But instead of articulating a theological position, Jesus tells a parable.
He tells the story of a landowner who is bothered by the fact that his fig tree hasn’t produced any figs yet. He’s ready to cut it down but the gardener reasons with him and promises to take care of this tree so that it’ll bear fruit next year. It seems clear that we’re supposed to understand the gardener as representing Jesus. The landowner may represent God, or may simply be the personification of time, since the gardener is more cast in the role of the divine. Scholars wonder whether the tree represents the people of Israel, or the Temple establishment, or perhaps all of humanity.
If we understand this parable as a commentary on the question that precedes it—the question of why evil and suffering exist—I think it says something important about humanity as a whole. The parable can be seen as being about the fruitlessness of humanity. Time is ticking before the tree is destroyed. And this Christ-like gardener offers to take the best possible care of it, to nurture it, to give it everything it needs to flourish. All the conditions have been made right for this tree to thrive, and unless this gardener doesn’t follow through, this tree will flourish and grow into what it’s supposed to be.
In our lives, through our own Divine Gardener, God gives us everything we need to grow and flourish. And just like a tree planted in good soil, so too the human being, given everything needed to grow into maturity, will naturally do so. It’s not a matter of works righteousness or needing to do anything special. This is God’s work. It’s not about how good we are, it’s about how good God is. That’s what will make humankind grow into the mature trees we were created to be.
So the parable is not saying that God is mad and ready to destroy us and we need Jesus to calm down this angry God. Rather, this parable is about our need for spiritual growth and the time and nourishment God gives us to reach our full potential. This is ultimately about how Christ-inspired spiritual growth will bring the tree of humanity to its fulfillment. So that human beings may be clear reflections of God’s image in this physical realm. It is this growth into the fullness of what God intends us to be, that will bring an end to the suffering described in the first part of this passage.
Jesus seems to be saying: “If you want evil and suffering to end, then grow! Grow like a fig tree that bears good fruit. And because humans are so unable to do this alone, I will help you grow so that you become the healthy children of God you were created to be.” Then we’ll be mature trees that bear good fruit, not immature plants that just waste the soil and the good earth.
And if we wonder what this world will look like when human beings grow into the mature children of God we were created to be, a description of that is found in the first reading we heard from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah describes a world in which those who hunger and thirst, but have no money, are invited to come and eat. There’s wine and milk without price! The wicked will forsake their ways and change their thoughts. They will return to the Lord and He will have mercy on them and abundantly pardon. God’s word will cause humanity to come forth and sprout and bring about this new creation. All people shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains will burst into song and the trees shall clap their hands. All creation will rejoice when humanity finally grows up into mature children of God. Into clear reflections of the divine image!
Jesus and the Old Testament prophets talk a lot about this idea. In some parts of Isaiah this prophecy is called the peaceable kingdom, and in other places it’s referred to as new heavens and a new earth. This same reality is called the new creation or theosis or the parousia (that is, “the coming”) in the New Testament. Jesus might call it the full coming of the Kingdom of God. Whatever term we use, the point is clear: scripture promises that God is patiently drawing humanity to maturity, to evolve and transform into a species that bears good fruit.
This growing process of humanity may take a very long time. And to be honest, there are times I watch the news and think we’re going backwards. Violence and war. Greed and corruption. The rich exploiting the poor. The strong abusing the weak. The kind of thing that happened for thousands of years before Jesus and has continued for thousands of years after. Looking at the world, it’s hard to believe in such a promise sometimes.
And yet we know that we have a Divine Gardener so willing to nurture us that he went to the cross for the sake of the world. Jesus may not have laid out a theological explanation about why suffering exists, but instead he laid down his life and entered into suffering; and bore all the cruelty and pain and sin of humanity on the cross. It is through him that the world is reconciled with God. Through him that we become light bearers to a broken world. And through him that the Holy Spirit works to purify us, refine us, and transform us.
And so even when it looks like the tree that is humanity is not bearing fruit. Even when it looks like the tree that is you is not bearing fruit. Know that Christ is working on you. And on all of us. Cultivating your spirit. Healing your wounds. And transforming your heart. So that you and me and all humanity may grow into what God intends us to be. For us it may be a lifelong process that may not be finished on this side of eternity. But it will happen, Jesus promised it. And for the world it may be longer than just one more year until the tree of humankind manifests the fullness of the divine image we were created to be. But it will happen, Jesus promised it. Jesus Christ, the Divine Gardener promises it will happen! Because he will tend to us. Care for us. And grow each of us individually and humanity collectively to be trees that bear good fruit. Thanks be to God.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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