Fig Tree Parable
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘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?’ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’ Luke:13:1-9
Did you ever hear the story about the Galileans whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices? Nope? Me either. Or how about the tower that fell and killed all those people in Siloam? Nothing? Guess what. Nobody knows that story either. Anybody who knew what Jesus was talking about died almost 2,000 years ago. Jesus starts this passage by telling us the consequences of unknown events, then he ends it with a parable that has no conclusion. We have a fig tree that doesn’t produce fruit for three years (by the way, it takes a fig tree three years of growth before it produces fruit anyway) and the owner wants it gone, but the gardener argues for a stay of execution for the tree.
And we don’t know how it turns out!
What are we supposed to do with that?!?! If we knew what happened in the end, the parable would be easy to interpret. Ok, the tree bears fruit, then the lesson is, “Some people just need a little extra attention.” If the tree doesn’t bear fruit, then we can say, “Judgment eventually comes to us all. Bear fruit while we have the opportunity, or else!” But we don’t get either of those endings. We just move on to a different story. Whenever I hear somebody claim, “The Bible clearly says _____,” I remember this passage and remember the Bible has a habit of not being clear at all!
Why do bad things happen? Violence and natural disasters
We can’t pin down the exact situation Jesus was talking about when he brings up the “Galileans whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices,” but we assume it was an occasion when Pilate had a group of political dissidents murdered while worshiping at the Temple. We assume that because we do have historical evidence of Pilate making a habit of it. We can’t narrow it down to any specific time Pilate did that, because it happened so often. You might be thinking “People getting murdered in worship is terrible! Surely that would have been historically significant.” It is terrible, but these things happen. A lot. Even now. But our societal memory is short, and we move on pretty quickly. Without Googling, how many of you remember George Tiller or Oscar Romero? Just like the ancient Galileans, they were murdered for political reasons while they worshiped, but our memories of those events have faded over mere decades. The greater weight of time absolutely crushed the memories of those Galileans.
And stop calling me Surely.
What we do know is that there was regional prejudice between the Galileans and the people of Jerusalem. Galilee was at the northern extreme of the Jewish settled lands. They were more often controlled by foreign powers and didn’t come under the control of Israel until the Maccabean dynasty. The people of Jerusalem didn’t see them as Jews, just Jew-ish. Conversely, the rural farmers and fishermen of Galilee saw the elitism of Jerusalem as a moral failure. Jerusalem was too connected to Rome, and they had lost their way. Man am I glad we no longer have that rural/urban divide anymore!
It was likely that residents of Jerusalem brought this up to shame the Galileans. As if to say “Hey Jesus, Pilate killed those people at the Temple because the Galileans are bad, right?” In response, Jesus brings up a tragedy that happened in Siloam. Siloam is a natural spring in Jerusalem. We have no record of any specific tower being built there, but since it was part of the metropolitan area, a lot of stuff has been built there, so we can safely assume that at some point in time, a tower in Jerusalem fell and killed some people. Be it an accident or natural disaster, people always have the same response: I’m sure God did that because the victims deserved it. It’s a self-defense mechanism. We do it because the world is a scary place, and we want to feel in control.
Victim blaming: the worst way to maintain an illusion of control
In our quest for control, we end up sounding like monsters as we blame the victim. Even worse, we make God seem like a monster for enacting horrific events. The only thing that is clear in this passage is that Jesus doesn’t want us to think like that.
There’s this concept called Just World Theory[i] which states that most of us on some deep level believe that the world is safe, reasonable, and fair. When we see bad things happen, we can either accept the dark existential reality that the world is a cruel place and we have no control over our own lives, or we could try to defend this Just World view. The latter is much simpler! So, we tell ourselves that the victims must have done something bad. The woman must have done something or worn something to deserve it. The scary-looking Latino detained by ICE shouldn’t have had tattoos. It’s their fault for living in Tornado Alley/on a fault line/ along the coast/ next to a forest that could catch fire/ next to a prairie that could catch fire/in a place so dry anything could catch fire… In reality, tragedy, natural or man-made, can strike anywhere. Well, anywhere except for Minnesota. Everyone here is nice and there is zero potential for natural disasters![ii] In the face of such dark potential, our brains do the lazy thing and blame the victims to make ourselves feel safer. I’m sure those Galileans did something to deserve getting murdered at the Temple.
Jesus has a few choice words for that emotional shortcut. About 17,000 words. It’s called the Book of Job. God has told us many times that tragedy is not connected to sin. Prosperity is not connected to virtue. We want them to be, but they just aren’t. Since we didn’t figure all this out, Jesus gives us another fig tree story.
Jesus the Bad Gardener
Every time Jesus brings up a parable about farming or gardening, I think to myself, “Jesus was a rabbi and a carpenter, not a horticulturist.” Fig trees are weird, finicky plants that rely on wasp reproduction to fruit. To make it even more complicated, there are parasitic wasps, almost indistinguishable from the pollinating wasps, that try to ruin the whole process. We don’t know if the soil is bad, the tree is diseased, or if something happened to the weird and wild wasp ecosystem, all we know is that the owner wants it gone, and the gardener is going to do everything they can to save it, and we don’t even know if it worked!
I think all the unknowns here might be Jesus’s point. We don’t know what’s wrong with the tree or what will happen to it, but the gardener knows how to best provide for the tree. Similarly, we don’t know what’s wrong with the world, or what will happen to us, but we do know how to best provide for each other. Blaming the victim does not do any good in the world, but it does a lot of harm. We’re Methodists, remember? We have rules about this stuff! Rules that say we do no harm and all the good. Right now, Jesus is telling us not to hide from the bad stuff going on in the world, to blame others for the suffering that is happening, Jesus is telling us to go out and tend to his creation.
I’m not sure if you’ve been paying attention, but a lot of bad stuff is going on right now. A LOT. It’s too much to take in, and it’s coming at us from all directions. There is a strong urge to just disassociate.[iii] It’s easy to get caught up in my own busy life. It’s easy to ignore the world as I take my kids to our bi-weekly urgent care visit. But this hasn’t done anything to alleviate the constant anxiety and feelings of dread that follow me everywhere I go. The other night I did feel pretty good for a bit! I went to a neighboring church for their Wednesday Night supper, and I sat with this neat old farmer. For about half an hour we chatted about the typical “Hey, you’re a new church friend!” stuff. Talked about farming and his grandkids, marveled at how adorable my kids are (they take after their mother), and then he mentioned that every Saturday he goes down and protests our district’s congressman. He is a Vietnam vet, and he told me how much disdain he had for “those hippies” who protested the war before he went over. When he got there and saw how horrific the war was, he came back being thankful that “those hippies” did what they could to stop it. Protests might not have been the key to stopping the war, but the fact that they were trying to do all the good they could do meant something to him. 60 years later, he wants to do the same thing. He found his cause. He’s going to dig around it and fertilize it[iv] the best he can. We don’t know if that tree will bear fruit or not, but it makes him feel better doing what he can in a moment like this.
So what cause are you going to fertilize? I feel called right now to find a way to support the trans community. In all the chaos and harm flying around, I want to do something to support them, to help them feel loved. So, I’ve been emailing every LGBTQ+ ministry I can find asking if I can help. I’m trying not to be weird about it. I think there is something incredibly suspicious about a middle-aged cis man randomly asking to help, but I’m doing it anyway! As we go forward, I hope you find your cause. Give it all you can, and may it bring you a sense of peace and control.
[i] Here’s a phenomenal report from the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crimes that goes into great detail about victim blaming, the why, the why it hurts, and how to stop it. I suggest printing it out ASAP before they figure out how to do internet tariffs. https://crcvc.ca/docs/victim_blaming.pdf
[ii] Please don’t burst my bubble. I’m aware that most people are good everywhere, but bad people can be anywhere. I’m also aware that natural disasters can happen in Minnesota. After all, we have the Three B’s: Blizzards, Bears, and BIG FREAKING MOSQUITOES
[iii] You absolutely should not disassociate! But if you have good disassociation strategies you should totally share them with me… just in case…
[iv] I’m trying so hard not to make a fertilizer = ”giving a s***” joke. Trying so hard, but the best I can do is keep it constrained to the end notes
The Rev. Nate Mason
The Rev. Nate Mason is senior pastor at Christ Community United Methodist Parish Corydon, Iowa. This post is part of the Iowa Annual Conference's spiritual support series "Abiding in Hope.