Figs B1

The first time I went to Florida, I discovered banana trees. It was an odd thing to see bananas growing on trees.  I had eaten bananas my whole life, and finally realized where they came from.  We would just walk out to my grandma’s backyard and pick bananas off the trees.  We also had lime trees, and would make fresh limeades.  When you grow up in cold weather places your whole life, fruit trees like this just don’t make sense.  What do you mean your trees never die?  Are you kidding me?

Anything foreign to our culture is a challenge to understand.  It just doesn’t make sense to have trees that produce fruit all the time.  Sometimes we read God’s Word, and try and understand how and why this story or idea impacted the people at that time so much.  It can be confusing to truly understand the disciples as ordinary men doing God’s work.  Why?  Well, simply, because to us they are people like us; they are God’s chosen vessels to carry the Gospel forward.  Even this week someone came to me to ask about Judas.  How could God’s chosen vessel be a betrayer?  No amount of money makes sense as to why he would think it was a good idea to betray the Son of God.  What was his motivation and how was he affected culturally to feel pressure, and want so desperately to betray him?

This week we talk about the Parable of the Fig Tree.  Parables have to be some of the most confusing parts of Scripture to us.  Why? Simply because although Jesus’ words are timeless throughout Scripture, when we look at these stories meant to connect with the culture of that day, that culture is foreign to us.  Fig trees produce fruit throughout the year, an odd concept to people who just faced snow days and inches of snow. Ironically, fig trees are also hard to pollinate.  Then there is the challenge of who the Pharisees were, and the references to heaping manure on the trees.  At least that reference we can get, understanding how the ground becomes fertile again.

This weekend we continue on in Lent by taking a look at a parable Jesus told about trees producing fruit.  As Christians in our world today, we discover a deeper understanding of how to become disciples of Jesus.  Jesus was constantly teaching people how to accomplish this.  He was challenging them because they felt like they had it all figured out, and He does the same for us today.  We take time this week to reflect on that, and how we can become like fig trees, and what in the world that has to do with us.