St. Luke's Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Lent 3 – March 14^th, 2004

Dear children whose hearts have been changed by God's power.

Let’s think positive thoughts here this morning. Just for the sake of argument, let’s try to move our thoughts ahead to the days and months of Spring. We are in our gardens. We are fertilizing and digging around our bushes and trees. We are taking inventory of the plants and other things we have planted throughout our yard. As you are looking over your yard, you come upon your little bush that you have planted in the front flowerbed. It is supposed to be the centerpiece to your garden, but it hasn’t been very healthy and the leaves each year have been getting less and less. It is more of an eyesore than a plant. You now have to make the decision. Am I going to tear this bush out and put in a new one, or am I going to tend to this plant and find out what I can do to make it grow again?.

As we look at our lives on this earth, we realize very quickly that the words of our text are using this picture of plants that are healthy and fruitful in contrast or those that are unfruitful. What is God going to do with these different types of people? Today through God’s mercy we are going to have the wonderful opportunity to study and grow in our faith as we use this beautiful picture under the theme:

In this short parable Jesus described both the history and the destiny of the nation of Israel. Through the long centuries of their national life the Children of Israel had been following their own ways and had not been producing many spiritual fruits. Jesus now warns them again of the consequence of their unrepentant lives, and tells them that time is running out for them and that their destruction is drawing closer. But there is still a little time left; they have another chance; it is still the day of grace! It is important for the understanding of this message to recognize this original reference is to the history of Israel. At the same time we must realize that this is a message of our Lord to you and to me. We shall lose the full meaning of this text unless we study it in the context of our present day life.

The Lord of the vineyard says: "I want to see a fruitful tree." God demands a productive life! He has chosen you and me, as Israel was chosen in ancient times, that we might bring forth fruit. It is a sad business when we begin to think of being a Christian as something that is kind of negative. We think of the things God does not want us to do. But, there is much more to the Christian life than that! The fig tree was not condemned because it was crippled with blight or deformed by disease. To all appearances it was a perfectly healthy and beautiful tree. Only there were no figs on it. Nothing but leaves!

Tell me, are there not many human lives like that? When we look at their outward appearance there is nothing wrong with them. There is nothing that makes them look like bad people. I am thinking of people who are decent, honest and loving; who are not thieves, or murderers, or dope addicts. They don’t cause any trouble; they don’t start any riots; they refrain from terrible sins in their lives. Their lives are like a lovely tree standing in the vineyard, well formed and full of foliage. But there is no fruit on the tree! Nothing but leaves! The Lord is not satisfied with a beautiful tree — if it is barren!

And he is not satisfied with a beautiful life — if it is barren! You see, we must approach the Christian life in a positive way and think of it not so much in terms of things we can’t do, but rather as a privilege and opportunity. Our lives must be productive. It is not enough to denounce the immorality of the world; we must bring righteousness into the world! It is not enough to point put the sins of others; we must through our lives dedicated to thanking God be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. More is required of us than that we point out evil; we must serve God with our lives as human thank-offerings. We are not shade trees. We are fruit trees, and unless we yield a harvest of actions dedicated in love and thanks to God, the Lord of the vineyard will deal with us just like he does with this tree on which he found nothing but leaves. "For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?"

Sometimes in a movie scene, a man, driving a car, is rapidly approaching a railroad intersection. The red light of warning is flashing furiously, but for no logical reason the person drives forward at full speed to his destruction. A thrill runs through us as we view the dramatic crash, but in a moment we have settled back in our upholstered seat to await the next episode. That is the reaction that people sometimes have to a text like this. We need to be warned that we are not watching a movie now! The red light of warning that is flashing in our text is for you; you are driving the car, and unless you listen to this warning in time, your destruction is drawing close at very great speed. These words have a very direct application to people like ourselves who belong to the Church of God. The fig tree in the text was not a wild tree, growing out in the wilderness. It was planted in God’s vineyard, in the cultivated soil of his cared-for garden. This originally a reference to the chosen people of God in Old Testament times, but it is also a reference to us, the chosen people of God in our time. With privilege always comes responsibility. That is why the failure of Israel was so tragic. God had showered His blessings upon them. He had nurtured and cultivated the soil in which He had planted them. And they had produced — nothing but leaves! And our privileges — who will deny this? — are far greater than theirs! They had the prophets to teach them; we have the Son of God who talks to us everyday through his holy and inspired Word of God – the Bible! They were looking ahead to the time of the coming Messiah; we are living in it! They had the promise of the Gospel; we have the Gospel!

Oh, how great is our responsibility! Look at our own congregation. Are we not like fig trees planted in the rich soil of God’s vineyard? We have the Gospel in all its truth and purity. We never need to go hungry for lack of the Bread of Life. The Word of God comes to us with its message of redemption through the sacrifice of our Savior. Again and again we have experienced in our midst the miracle of God’s Sacraments. Here in our worship services, in our bible study opportunities, in our school, in our Sunday school, a bountiful supply of spiritual nourishment is offered us.

2. God Will Punish Our Unfruitful Life

If we, who are the most privileged people of God on earth, live barren lives — if we are just as self-centered, just as consumed by the things an stuff of this world as the people of this world —then God will punish and destroy us. That is the second point God points out tin this parable: God will punish unfruitful trees. This is a very self-evident and often repeated truth of Scripture, but there are many people today who have succeeded in convincing themselves that a God of love could not possibly be a God of wrath. It sounds so modern and so progressive and so humane to believe in universal salvation and to think of God as an gentle grandfather who tolerates the mischievous actions of his naughty children. But this is a tragic picture! The Children of Israel took lightly this warning of Christ, and see what happened! The 1,900 years that have elapsed since the destruction of Jerusalem are a solemn reminder of this truth that God does punish unfruitful trees. No one who ever lived loved as greatly as Jesus, but our text is very clear that God will not tolerate hearts that are not serving him with fruits of faith. He clearly says, "Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?" A barren tree is worse than useless; it is harmful. It takes up useful soil. It makes the soil sterile and prevents the growth of the neighboring trees. It is not a difficult matter to hide a unfruitful life underneath a coat of Church membership. People can come to church and sing the hymns and have their names on membership rolls at churches. This type of deception has gone on from the very beginning of the world. While people like this may be deceiving the world, they have not fooled God. God punishes unfruitful lives with a fiery and just wrath, and no man can escape the judgment of God!

The third truth in our text that deserves our careful attention is the thought that God gives us a second chance. In the parable the Lord exposes the unfruitfulness of the tree and says it deserves to be cut down. Then the caretaker of the vineyard intervenes and says: "Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down."

That God gives us a second chance has been demonstrated countless times in the history of his people. When God decided to send the Flood upon the world, he warned mankind of its danger and gave them 120 years to repent! The Children of Israel repeatedly defied the Lord and turned to other gods, but again God gave them another chance. In our parable Jesus is telling them that though they had stoned and persecuted the Prophets, they still had another chance to repent. Yes, even after they had crucified the Son of God, they were still given forty years to repent — and many of them did, but most of them did not. And then, at last, the time of grace was over. The fig tree had been given another year, but still had produced no fruit, and then it was cut down!

Today God is giving us a second chance to live fruitful lives. You and I can never thank God enough for the unspeakable patience that he has shown us. We know, or at least we should know, that we do not deserve the second chance that God is giving us. We have Jesus Christ to thank for God’s patience. It is a fact that you and I are still standing in the grace of God, like a fig tree in the vineyard, because of the perfect blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that was so willingly shed on the cross. It is for Jesus’ sake, not for any merit of our own, that we still have time to repent.

In the parable the fig tree was given a year of grace. A question that many ask is this: How long in our lives is this year of grace? How long will God be patient with us? How often will He give us a second chance? The parable makes it clear that there is a ending point to God’s patience, a point at which the tree is finally cut down. The Bible teaches that and the history of nations and of individuals bears witness. But when? That is the question. How long will God bear with us? Ancient Israel did not know the answer, and neither do we. God’s patience with our world, and with our nation — God’s patience with you and with me may run out today or tomorrow! None of us knows when our "year of grace" will be over.

There is a solemn warning in this thought for all of us. If we are impenitent, undisturbed by our failure to produce fruit. If there is nothing in this text which stirs up within us a desire to bow down at the foot of the cross and plead for God’s mercy and strength to live dedicated lives to him. If we are indifferent to the demands of God and defiant toward the judgment of God, then let us be warned: "The ax is at the root of the tree!" But if there is repentance in our hearts and we humbly stand in the presence of our offended Father in heaven and plead for His mercy and for the power to rebuild our lives, then we can be certain that we are still living in the "year of grace" and that God is giving us another chance to produce fruit. In other words, if you fear the wrath of God, then be not afraid, for God is long-suffering and gracious!