UNREASONABLE GRACE

A month ago, we had our editorial meeting in which we decided to do a Passion Week series to detail what Jesus did a week before He resurrected. For some reason that I cannot remember, I was compelled to write about the fig tree.

I didn't know what I would write about nor how I would feel about the piece. But the more I researched, the longer I wrote, I realised how powerful the story of fig tree is. I'm not going to go through the entire article but the summary points are:

1. A fig tree with leaves but no fruit is a telltale sign that the fig tree is barren. When Jesus cursed the fig tree, He wasn't being unreasonable. He was simply calling forth the eventual outcome.
     
2. Fig trees are symbolic in the Bible. A fruitful fig tree mirrors a prosperous nation and the withering of fig trees often represents judgement. Therefore, when Jesus cursed the fig tree, He was foreshadowing that judgment was coming to Israel who, like the tree, looked lush on the outside but was actually barren.

At this point, the story might seem dark and scary. Jesus was insinuating that like the fig tree, Israel was dead on the inside and that when judgment comes, it would be a death sentence.

But when I looked at the other parable Jesus told of the fig tree, I came across this account:

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” 

(Luke 13:6-9)

Do you know what I see from this parable? I see an image of a just master executing a fair sentence. I mean seriously, would you keep a tree which has been barren for 3 years? Yet, I also see a merciful gardener pleading for one more chance.

And when I look at myself, I know that I have failed God so many times. But time after time, God still forgives and He still loves. I really don't understand why. Some of us find it hard to love a person who has disappointed us the first time, what more a person who keeps slipping up?

But like the gardener, Jesus interceded for us on the cross when He said "Forgive them, Father for they know not what they do". And beyond reason, He is still pleading for us at the right hand of God.

What we thought was unreasonable turns out to be a grace that cannot be reasoned.