If it bears fruit fine; but if not, cut it down.

Luke 13:6-21 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible (link on links page)

⁶ And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. ⁷ And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ ⁸ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; ⁹ and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”

¹⁰ And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹ And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” ¹³ And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. ¹⁴ But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, “There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” ¹⁵ But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? ¹⁶ And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?” ¹⁷ As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.

¹⁸ So He was saying, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”

²⁰ And again He said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? ²¹ It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.”

In the opening parable of our text Jesus is teaching that it is not enough to say you are a believer. A true believer and follower of Christ will also be a doer. Jesus commands us to love and serve both God and man. He also commands us to teach and preach, declaring the good news of the kingdom of God. This parable of the unfruitful fig tree is similar to a message of repentance spoken by John the Baptist in Matthew 3: 7-12    

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; ⁹ and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. ¹⁰ The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹ “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

It is not enough that we believe or belong to a group of believers. True followers of Christ will produce fruit, their lives will both enhance and spread the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

In the account of Jesus healing the woman there are a few things to note. The first thing that impressed me was that it says the woman's condition was caused by a spirit. For eighteen years she had been oppressed by this spirit of infirmity. Jesus speaks to the woman and lays hands on her to set her free from the sickness and the oppression of the spirit. There is a connection between sickness and evil spirits. Sickness and disease are not from God. They do not exist in heaven and so they also can not co-exist here on earth in the presence of God and the manifestation of the kingdom.  Notice then the reaction of the synagogue official in verse 14.  But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, “There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”    He doesn't deny the miracle which took place or that Jesus would continue to do miracles. He simply said that it wasn't part of the Sabbath day service. How many churches today are too locked into their own program and schedule for their gatherings to allow room and time for Jesus to do the miraculous?  If Jesus is truly present in our church miraculous things will happen. We need to allow Him to come and minister any time He wants. We can not put our traditions ahead of God's will to bring restoration to the world.

The final two parables, describing the kingdom of heaven as like a mustard seed or leaven continue and reinforce the themes Jesus has been teaching.  Just as He taught that to be part of the kingdom we must be fruitful, the parable of the mustard seed demonstrates that from the smallest seed the kingdom grows. That's part of the fruit of the kingdom which is to be evident in our lives, reproducing and expanding the kingdom. The comparison to leaven speaks to the kingdoms ability to change everything it comes in contact with. Leaven or yeast is an agent of change.   The parable says the woman hid the leaven but it didn't remain confined to the place she hid it. It changed everything. Just like the healing that was done on the Sabbath, the kingdom of heaven can not be confined, hidden or restrained. It will change everything it touches.

The question for us then is will we work for the kingdom, producing fruit and being agents of change to the world around us? Or will we try to contain and restrain the miraculous power of God, trying to make it fit into our own schedules and programs?

Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance.