Year 4, Day 222: Luke 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Bear Fruit

• Bear Fruit: We bear fruit after we grow.  Bearing fruit is ultimately the goal of abiding and the goal of being called into the Kingdom of God.  However, while bearing fruit is our calling, it is not the end.  We bear fruit so that we can then prune, abide, grow, and bear more fruit in another season.  Bearing fruit is not the end, but rather only a portion of the whole rhythm of life into which God has called us.

Luke 13 is a fairly ominous passage with several points of warning.  We begin this chapter with the stark warning of Jesus, “Repent or perish!”  Immediately Luke takes us from this challenge into the parable of the fig tree.  We have an analogy that supports Jesus’ challenge.

In this parable, this is the third year that the master had come looking for fruit.  But as the theological commentary linked above explains, this is likely the seventh year of the tree’s existence!  I don’t think any of us would really fault the master for expecting some kind of fruit in a tree’s seventh year!

The master is willing to be patient with the tree.  The gardener tells the master that he is going to mulch the tree with all kinds of nutrients.  The gardener wants to put the tree in as best of a position as possible.

God is no different when it comes to us.  God expects us to bear fruit.  But God has also given us the best position as possible in order to do so.  God has given us His Son.  God has given us His Spirit.  God has given us spiritual people around us to support us and strengthen us.  He has every right to expect us to bear fruit given the situation in which we have been placed by Him.

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