Parable of Barren Fig Tree

Bible Study series: Luke 13:6-9. Israel or more specifically Jerusalem and the temple are issued a warning. Repent or face judgment.

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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!

Luke 13

In this post, links are provided for further study.

Let’s begin.

Scripture: Luke 13:6-9

⁶ Then he proceeded to tell this parable: a certain man owned a fig tree that had been planted in his vineyard, and he came to look for fruit on it and found nothing. ⁷ He said to the vinedresser, “Look at it! For three years I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and find nothing! Therefore cut it down! Why should it deplete the soil?” ⁸ But he replied to him, “Sir, leave it this year too, until I dig around it and throw manure around the soil; ⁹ if it were to bear fruit in the near future … but if not, you’ll cut it down.” (Luke 13:6-9)

Comments:

6-9:

“parable”: literally, the word parable (parabolē in Greek) combines para– (pronounced pah-rah and means “alongside”) and bolē (pronounced boh-lay and means “put” or even “throw”). Therefore, a parable puts two or more images or ideas alongside each other to produce a clear truth. It is a story or narrative or short comparison that reveals the kingdom of God and the right way to live in it and the Father’s ways of dealing with humanity and his divine plan expressed in his kingdom and life generally. The Shorter Lexicon says that the Greek word parabolē can sometimes be translated as “symbol,” “type,” “figure,” and “illustration,” the latter term being virtually synonymous with parable.

What Is a Parable?

Here is how we should interpret this parable, in my view:

Owner = God the Father (Is. 5:1-7)

Fig tree = Israel or maybe Jerusalem (Jer. 8:13; Hos. 9:10; Mic. 7:1)

Vineyard = Israel again, which surrounds Jerusalem (Is. 1:8; 3:14; 5:1-7; Jer. 12:10)

However, Bock says that just the nation of Israel is represented in the vineyard and fig tree (p. 1208).

Fruit = repentance towards and acceptance of the Messiah (Luke 3:8-9; 6:43-45)

Vinedresser = Jesus or another kingdom worker

Three years = merely background information or symbolize Jesus’s ministry (though most commentators say no), plus a little longer

soil = source of kingdom growth (Luke 8:4-8, 11-15)

Cutting it down = judgment

The main point is repentance while Israel still has time (Luke 13:1-5, 31-35; 10:13-16; 11:29-32; 12:13-21).

One background verse:

What misery is mine!
I am like one who gathers summer fruit
at the gleaning of the vineyard;
there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
none of the early figs that I crave. (Micah 7:1, NIV)

“Fig trees yield two crops annually, one around May-June, and the most important one in August-October. The budding of fig trees belongs to the early sings of spring, which is the background for another parable about signs of the times (see Matt 24:32-35; Mark 13:28-30; Luke 21:29-33)” (Garland, comments on 13:6).

“As the vineyard is used in the Old Testament as a metaphor for Israel (Ps. 80:8; Isa 5:1-7; Jer 2:21), the fig tree is used as a metaphor for Judah or Jerusalem (Jer 8:13; 24:1-10; Mic 7:1; Hos 9:1 …). The fig tree then becomes a transparent metaphor for Jerusalem or the temple (Hag 2:18-19); see the cursing of the fig tree in Mark 11:12-14, 20-25). The deaths cited in Luke 13:1-5 occur in Jerusalem, and Jesus takes this as an ominous omen of what lies ahead” (Garland again, comment on 13:6).

Another background passage:

I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
²He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

³“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
⁵Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
⁶I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”

⁷The vineyard of the Lord Almighty
is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. (Is. 5:1-7, NIV)

“three years”: it may be an idiomatic way of referring to a long time that “has tried the patience of the owner (see 2 Cor 12:8). For a long time, the owner has patiently come looking for fruit from this tree” (one more time, Garland, referring to 13:7).

God has planted his vineyard, and evidently he planted a fig tree right in the middle of it. It would have difficult for first-century Israelites to miss the meaning of the two kinds of plants. So does the fig tree in the vineyard represent Jerusalem? Jesus is about to predict its destruction (Luke 21:5-9. 20-24). So I say yes; however one commentator says this interpretation is a stretch, but does not tell us why. In any case, the Father enters the vineyard to inspect the fig tree. He finds nothing on it for three years. This is probably a reference to Jesus’s ministry, as he is heading towards Jerusalem to die. Most scholars agree that he ministered for at least three-and-a-half years. However, some commentators say not to make a big thing of the three years representing Jesus’s ministry.

The owner demands that the fig tree be cut down, but the vinedresser (in English a vinedresser is one who cultivates and prune grapevines, and the Greek says the same thing) asks for mercy in the form of a challenge. Leave it for another year and let me manage it. Yes, Jesus actually used the noun manure. I added “around the soil.” He used it in the right context.

What happens next? The Greek “if” clauses in v. 9 reveal subtle differences. In the first “if” clause, the wording indicates doubt, as if the tree won’t bear fruit. That’s why I have ellipses (three dots), because the Greek ends there and offers no answer. The second “if” clause indicates the most likely answer—it will not bear fruit and the Father himself will cut it down. However, if the Father ordains an instrument like the Roman army to cut it down, then the outcome is the same.

More specifically, here are some passages that Jesus, inspired by the Spirit and guided by the Father, was reenacting (all from the ESV):

… as leaves fall from the vine,
like leaves falling from the fig tree. (Is. 34:4)

When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.” (Jer. 8:13)

And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, (Hos. 2:12)

It has laid waste my vine
and splintered my fig tree;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
their branches are made white. (Joel 1:7)

All those passages, above, speak of God’s judgment. The fruitless vines and fig trees are withered at his judgment. Clearly Jesus is using the imagery here.

The parable is about Israel living under the old Sinai covenant. This covenant is about to be replaced (Luke 22:14-23). So does the parable apply to God’s people living within the New Covenant? That depends on whether one believes in once saved, always saved (you cannot lose or drift away from your salvation) or conditional security (no one can take it from you, except yourself). John 15:1-8 indicates that it is possible to live connected to the vine and not bear fruit, so the Father will cut off the branch. So the security in our relationship with God seems conditional. However, I believe it is best not to stray too far from the original context, but perhaps we can ask of our own lives whether we are bearing fruit. If not, God will prompt us by the Spirit, Scripture, and other Christians to help us bear fruit.

In any case, cutting down the fig tree refers to God’s judgment on first-century Israel. Please see my posts on divine judgment and his wrath for a general discussion in systematic theology:

God’s wrath is judicial.

It is not like this: