God Is Not a Vending Machine, But “Repent” – Luke 13:1-9

Home Guides gardening section has some interesting facts about when fig trees are supposed to bear fruit.  Young fig trees, they assert, do not bear fruit the first year, and in fact, “Most figs will not produce a crop for the first four to five years” according to Rutgers University.  Of course, weather, improper pruning, and even improper fertilization, can all affect the “fruiting” of fig trees.

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”  (Luke 13:1-9 ESV)

It is a prevailing misunderstanding in the world that the worse a sinner you are the more trouble God sends you in life.  This is a works oriented perspective and it treats God as a vending machine.  Do good and you are rewarded, do bad and you are punished.  But Jesus affirms that those who suffer are not necessarily worse sinners than others.  Everyone’s sin deserves judgment and all who do not repent at the kingdom of heaven will perish.

Jesus does give us opportunity to repent, however, even if we are not showing the fruit of faith and obedience to God.  The fact that we hear the message from Jesus, or from any of his representatives, of our need of repentance is evidence that he is giving us another season to produce fruit.