At first read, this parable about the fruitless fig tree can be unsettling. Many of us can imagine well the kind of life this tree had, growing along in a mundane way, roots down, branches up, just getting through each day without much of a spark. Days blur into one another, and life becomes mundane, monotonous, purposeless, directionless. Fruitless. In C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr. Tumnus has an apt way of describing this state of being to Lucy: always winter, never Christmas. A joyless existence, indeed, that exhausts not only the soil but the tree itself.
In today’s parable, we might tremble at the orchard owner’s harsh finality, judging the tree to be a fruitless burden. Perhaps the story unsettles us because we suspect that God might be the orchard owner, and we, all of us, stand before God as unworthy fruitless trees. Who then is the gardener in this scenario, who steps forward with hope, commitment, and care? In the gardener is where I discover Christ, and through him a full image of who God is. Yes, we are all called to live a full, fruitful life. But God does not stand by in harsh judgment when we fail, threatening to cut us down. Rather, like the gardener, God comes alongside in mercy and cultivates our ground, with his Word, with the Sacraments, with the gifts of the created world, and with community. It is up to our roots and leaves to absorb what is already there—and allow it to bring us to life.
