We have a “volunteer tree” in our backyard. For those of you, like me, who are not familiar with this term, it’s a tree that germinates and grows all by itself. We didn’t plant it, but one day we looked out and noticed it happily growing up among other plants. On more than one occasion, I actually cut it down thinking it was a weed before Valorie intervened. It is now 7 feet tall and doing quite well.
When our oldest daughter came home after 2 years on the mission field, she immediately identified it as a fig tree. I’m not a big fan of figs unless they are in “newtons”, but she loves ripe figs, and she went out to harvest. There were none. This led us to a neighborhood wide search for ripe figs before ending up right back at our next-door neighbor’s whose mature fig tree had plenty.
Jesus tells a similar story about a fig tree that only shows up in the book of Luke. But this parable, like all parables, has a deeper meaning. And the context Jesus tells this story in is full of racial conflict, political intrigue, natural disaster, and national tragedy. In the past several years we’ve been faced with similar challenges – racial tensions, COVID, Palestine/Israel conflict, hurricanes Helene and Milton, and a contentious election just three weeks away. What does a fig tree have to do with that?
On Sunday we’ll unpack this interesting parable to find the message that Jesus modeled at the time and calls upon us to live out today. I hope you’ll join us!
He is the vine, we are the branches,
Kurt Jones
P.S. We’re looking forward to a very special baptism this Sunday. We’ll also share the answer to your prayers and fasting for the elder meeting Tuesday night.
P.P.S. After a year of care, our “volunteer” now has two tiny figs on it! There’s hope for all of us!