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The barren fig tree

Luke 13:6–9 · Journey to Jerusalem

Scripture

Luke 13:6–9

e spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. 7Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? 8And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: 9And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

King James Version · public domain

Lluka 13:6–9

dhe thoshte këtë paravoli: Një njeri kishte mbjellë një dru fiku ndë vreshtët të ti; edhe erdhi të marë pemë prej ati, po nukë gjeti. 7Edhe i tha Vreshtarit, Na tek po vinj tre vjet të marr pemë prej këti druri të fikut, edhe nukë gjenj; pre-e; përse të zërë edhe vëndinë mbë kot? 8Po ay upërgjeq e i tha, zot, lër-e edhe këtë mot, gjersa të rëmih rrotull’ ati, e t’i shtie plehë; 9Edhe ndë bëftë pemë, mirë; po ndë mos bëftë, dot’e preç pastaj.

Kristoforidhi, Dhiata e Re Toskërisht 1879 · zotërim publik

Summary

For three years the owner of the vineyard has sought fruit from the fig tree and found none; he would cut it down, but the gardener pleads for one more year to dig about it and dung it, and only then, if it stays barren, to let it fall. The Fathers read here God's long patience, which delays judgment to make room for repentance. The owner's demand for fruit is real and the warning not soft, yet mercy holds the axe, and the time given is itself a gift.

The tradition reads the tree on two levels at once. It is Israel, planted in God's vineyard and tended through the law and the prophets, yet found without the fruit of faith and righteousness when its Lord came seeking it; and it is each unfruitful Christian, who has the place and care of the vineyard but not the works of repentance. The three years are taken variously: some Fathers see the long ages of patience under the patriarchs, the law, and the prophets, others the years of the Lord's own ministry. The exact reckoning matters less than the point all hold: God's seeking has been patient, and barrenness after such care leaves no excuse.

The digging and the dung are the two hands of God's labor on the soul. The digging is the chastening that loosens hard ground, the trials that break up a life grown packed and infertile; the dung, lowly and unlikely, is the grace and humbling counsel by which despised things make the soul rich. In the gardener who intercedes the Fathers hear Christ, who stands between the barren and the judgment they have earned and asks that more time be granted. So the parable is a warning carried inside a mercy: the axe is laid by, but only for a season, and the year given is meant for fruit.

The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree (Luke 13:6–9)

Public-Domain Patristic Commentary

"A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none." For three years the owner has come seeking fruit and found none, and he tells the keeper of the vineyard to cut it down: "why cumbereth it the ground?" But the vinedresser intercedes: "Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down." Jesus tells this parable immediately after His double call to repentance, over the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, and the eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell. It is the parable of God's patience and the summons to bear fruit, and it is found only in Luke.

The voices gathered below are drawn from public-domain translations, chiefly the Catena Aurea on Luke (St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841). All texts are quoted verbatim.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

From his Commentary on Luke (on the "axe laid at the root," Luke 3:9), where he expounds the fig-tree parable, trans. R. Payne Smith, 1859. Public domain.

On the unfruitful tree cut down by God, yet not utterly, since a remnant was saved:

And to this thou mayest add also the parable in the Gospels about the fig-tree. As being therefore a plant unfruitful, and no longer of generous kind, it was cut down by God. He does not, however, say that the axe was laid into the root, but at the root, that is, near the root. For the branches were cut off, but the plant was not dug up by its root: for the remnant of Israel was saved, and did not perish utterly.

Titus of Bostra (died c. 378)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the occasion of the parable, the boasting of those who thought themselves spared:

The Jews were boasting, that while the eighteen had perished, they all remained unhurt. He therefore sets before them the parable of the fig tree.

Theophylact of Ohrid (c. 1050–1108)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the fig tree as each one of us, planted in the Church or in the world:

But each one of us also is a fig tree planted in the vineyard of God, that is, in the Church, or in the world.

On the three times our nature was sought in vain, and the three ages of human life:

Our nature yields no fruit though three times sought for; once indeed when we transgressed the commandment in paradise; the second time, when they made the molten calf under the law; thirdly, when they rejected the Savior. But that three years' time must be understood to mean also the three ages of life, boyhood, manhood, and old age.

On the Father as master of the household and Christ as the dresser who pleads by His sufferings:

Or the master of the household is God the Father, the dresser is Christ, who will not have the fig tree cut down as barren, as if saying to the Father, Although through the Law and the Prophets they gave no fruit of repentance, I will water them with My sufferings and teaching, and perhaps they will yield us fruits of obedience.

St. Gregory Nazianzen (c. 329–390)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On overcoming by gentleness rather than striking suddenly:

Let us not then strike suddenly, but overcome by gentleness, lest we cut down the fig tree still able to bear fruit, which the care perhaps of a skillful dresser will restore.

St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 339–397)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the fig tree as the synagogue, abounding in leaves yet barren of fruit:

There was a vineyard of the Lord of hosts, which He gave for a spoil to the Gentiles. ... As that tree abounds with wide and spreading foliage, and deceives the hopes of its possessor with the vain expectation of promised fruit, so also in the synagogue, while its teachers are unfruitful in good works, yet magnify themselves with words as with abundant leaves, the empty shadow of the law stretches far and wide.

On the Lord's threefold coming, and the gifts of purification, sanctification, and justification:

But our Lord sought, not because He was ignorant that the fig tree had no fruit, but that He might show in a figure that the synagogue ought by this time to have fruit. ... He came to Abraham, He came to Moses, He came to Mary, that is, He came in the seal of the covenant, He came in the law, He came in the body. We recognise His coming by His gifts; at one time purification, at another sanctification, at another justification. Circumcision purified, the law sanctified, grace justified.

On the merciful dresser who intercedes, that the Jewish people too might be saved through the Church:

But the merciful dresser, perhaps meaning him on whom the Church is founded, foreseeing that another would be sent to the Gentiles, but he himself to them who were of the circumcision, piously intercedes that it may not be cut off; trusting to his calling, that the Jewish people also might be saved through the Church.

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

From Sermon 60 on the New Testament (on Luke 13:6 and following), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6, ed. Philip Schaff, 1888. Public domain.

On the fig tree as the human race, and the three years as the three ages of time:

The fig-tree is the human race. And the three years are the three times; one before the Law, the second under the Law, the third under grace ... For when the first man sinned, he covered his nakedness with fig-leaves; covered those members, from which we derive our birth. For what before his sin should have been his glory, after sin became his shame.

On the gardener who intercedes, the saint who prays for those outside the Church:

The gardener intercedes for it, punishment is deferred, that help may be administered. Now the gardener who intercedes, is every saint who within the Church prays for those who are without the Church. And what does he pray? "Lord, let it alone this year also;" that is, in this time of grace, spare the sinners, spare the unbelievers, spare the barren, spare the unfruitful.

On the meaning of the digging and the dung, lowliness and the sinner's sorrows that yet bear fruit:

But what is the "digging"? What is the "digging about it," but the teaching lowliness and repentance? For a ditch is low ground. The basket of dung understand in its good effects. It is filthy, but it produces fruit. The gardener's filth is the sinner's sorrows. They who repent, repent in filthy robes; if, that is, they understand aright, and repent in truth.

On the warning not to presume on the delay, and the call to bear fruit:

Ah! unfruitful tree, mock not, because you are yet spared; the axe is delayed, be not secure; He will come and you shall be cut down. Believe that He will come ... Let him then who is barren repent, and bear "fruit worthy of repentance."

St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the Lord's threefold coming to man's nature, and the hearts that no waiting can correct:

But our Lord came three times to the fig tree, because He sought after man's nature before the law, under the law, and under grace, by waiting, admonishing, visiting; but yet He complains that for three years he found no fruit, for there are some wicked men whose hearts are neither corrected by the law of nature breathed into them, nor instructed by precepts, nor converted by the miracles of His incarnation.

On the fearful word "cut it down," and how the fruitless man cumbers the ground for others:

But with great fear and trembling should we hear the word which follows, Cut it down, why cumbers it the ground. For every one according to his measure, in whatsoever station of life he is, except he show forth the fruits of good works, like an unfruitful tree, cumbers the ground; for wherever he is himself placed, he there denies to another the opportunity of working.

On the dresser of the vineyard as the order of Bishops:

By the dresser of the vineyard is represented the order of Bishops, who, by ruling over the Church, take care of our Lord's vineyard.

On the dung as the sins of the flesh, from the remembrance of which the soul quickens to good works:

Or, the sins of the flesh are called the dung. From this then the tree revives to bear fruit again, for from the remembrance of sin the soul quickens itself to good works.

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673–735)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke. Public domain.

On the Lord seeking the fruits of faith in the synagogue and finding none:

The Lord Himself who established the synagogue by Moses, came born in the flesh, and frequently teaching in the synagogue, sought for the fruits of faith, but in the hearts of the Pharisees found none.

On the cutting down fulfilled under the Romans:

Which indeed came to pass under the Romans, by whom the Jewish nation was cut off, and thrust out from the land of promise.

Note on sources and other Fathers

The readings are complementary. Cyril reads the fig tree in the light of John the Baptist's "axe laid at the root," and finds mercy even in the judgment: the tree "was cut down by God," yet "not dug up by its root," for "the remnant of Israel was saved, and did not perish utterly." Titus of Bostra sets the parable against the boasting of those who thought themselves spared while the eighteen perished. Ambrose and Bede read the fig tree as the synagogue, "abounding with wide and spreading foliage" yet barren of works, whose cutting down "came to pass under the Romans"; Ambrose also unfolds the Lord's threefold coming "to Abraham ... to Moses ... to Mary," with its gifts of purification, sanctification, and justification, and reads the merciful dresser as interceding "that the Jewish people also might be saved through the Church." Theophylact turns the parable inward, "each one of us also is a fig tree planted in the vineyard of God," and names the master of the household as the Father and the dresser as Christ, who waters the tree "with My sufferings and teaching." Gregory Nazianzen draws the pastoral lesson to "overcome by gentleness" rather than strike suddenly, while Gregory the Great expounds the threefold coming "before the law, under the law, and under grace," reads the dresser as "the order of Bishops," and warns with "great fear and trembling" that the fruitless man "cumbers the ground," denying others the opportunity of working. Augustine develops the fullest allegory the Fathers gave this parable: the fig tree is the whole human race (recalling the fig-leaves of Eden), the three years are the ages before the Law, under the Law, and under grace, the interceding gardener is "every saint who within the Church prays for those who are without," and even the basket of dung is read with hope, "the gardener's filth is the sinner's sorrows," the lowliness of true repentance that alone makes the barren tree bear fruit. Across the tradition the owner is God, who comes seeking fruit; the vinedresser is read as Christ, as the saints, or as the bishops who intercede; and the tree is read both as Israel and as every soul that has heard the Gospel and must now "bear fruit worthy of repentance."

The parable's setting, after the call to repentance over the Galileans and the tower of Siloam, is carried into the next episode in Luke, the healing of the woman bent for eighteen years, which Augustine treats in the same sermon. The Catena Aurea preserves further voices on this passage, among them Gregory of Nyssa and Basil, not all of which are quoted here.

Patristic sources