First, Try Some Manure
We’ve just seen an illustration of how four people can hear the same passage of scripture and each experiences it differently. John, Drew, Jay and David each zeroed in on the barren tree. I read the passage and I noticed the manure. It’s not often that one reads the bible and sees the word manure and seeing it got my attention. I want to know more because there it is--manure. It’s in the bible and now it’s on Facebook. I see that several of you are looking for it or are fertilizing each other’s farms with it. Manure must be an important thing to notice.
Just when the man in the parable is about to call “time of death” on his fruitless little fig tree, Jesus introduces us to the gardener in the story. It’s the gardener that tells the man to chill and have some patience. He says take no radical actions until first putting some “manure” on it. This is a curious story for Jesus to tell. It’s awesome that Jesus is advocating patience in this parable because… he had “history” with fig trees. Do you remember?
Both Matthew and Mark’s gospels record a story of Jesus being hungry when he happily spots a defenseless fig tree. When he approaches it, it- has- no- fruit. Apparently it wasn’t the proper season for fig trees to bear fruit, (the wrong time) so Jesus takes what can be only seen as radical action. He becomes enraged and he incinerates the poor tree. Poof. No more fig tree. Timing wise we don’t know which incident came first but I suspect Jesus needed to bear some fruit himself, fruit in the form of patience. So in our parable he isn’t willing to call time of death on this fig tree. Instead he tells us a story of patience, care, and, yes--manure. He tells the story to an audience of people realizing that life can be full of very scary manure.
Could one thing Jesus wants us to know is that sometimes manure just shows up in our lives, shows up because of nothing we did. And sometimes the manure is self-inflicted. Clearly we need to discern what to do with the manure of our lives. Is it time to nourish a situation by feeding it manure or is it time to recognize that we’ve got some manure to deal with. I think Jesus was calling for a little of both.
It seems clear because of the circumstances which Jesus encountered; the reasons he chose to tell the story in the first place. His audience was a little freaked out. The parable was not intended to eliminate their fear but rather to channel it in a more positive direction. The parable was a kind of intervention of and with… manure.
Jesus had arrived among the people in the middle of a panic. It wasn’t earthquakes, tsunamis or an economy in recession. Blood thirsty Pontius Pilate had killed again. Pilate was governor of Judea from A.D. 26-36 and the brutality of his administration was legendary. Pilate would later have Jesus beaten. This time Pilate went after some Galileans. Who would be next? Who was safe? Was anyone safe? What the people wanted to know was whether the Galileans who had been murdered were bad people? Could their death really be explained that easily?
This is called judgment theology. It’s the belief that bad things happen to us because we’ve done something bad. It’s the belief that when bad things happen it’s a judgment from God. HIV/AIDS has been explained as a punishment from God. So has the earthquake in Haiti.
Jesus knew that the people were panicked but before he came to their aid, he pushed them a little. They ask him about the Galileans and Jesus says “Forget the Galileans, did you hear about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them?”
Man, that’s cold! Well, he did have their attention.
Jesus was telling them that that to think disasters are consequences God’s anger is just, well, manure!
So "No," he tells the crowd, "but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did."
Yikes. I’m glad he cleared that up. That is the good news right? Jesus says, there is no connection between the suffering, calamity and bad behavior. But sorry, I’m not quite feelin’ it Jesus.
The takeaway here is that sometimes life just stinks, and when it does- go with God, not against God.
That’s when and why he tells the parable.
The land owner is being way too hard on the fig tree. The story tells us that its manure to call a time of death on our destiny, whatever that destiny may be. It may not yet be the season when we are to bear fruit.
God’s not finished with us yet.
The story tells us that no matter the manure of our lives we have got to stay the course.
No matter the circumstances around us, do not panic. Dig a trench of grace around it.
Lent is about reflecting on our manure. In less than 28 days, Jesus will be lain in a tomb. The world tried to call a time of death on Jesus and then three days later, he rose.
Any gardener or farmer knows that you can’t have a fruitful harvest without the manure. Growth is the point of manure.
Apparently Jesus knew you can’t have a fruitful life without it either.
Amen.