Today’s scripture: Luke 13:6-9 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (John Seksay):
Today’s reading deals with fig trees. While I like Fig Newtons, I really didn’t know much about figs and fig trees until today!
It is the most widely mentioned fruit tree in the Bible. There is evidence of fig cultivation going back 11, 000 years, predating the development of grain agriculture. While there are many species of fig, most have one characteristic in common; the figs are pollinated by the members of a specific family of wasps that both feed and breed exclusively in the fig. This unusual relationship is maintained by the fig’s unique approach to reproduction. It keeps its blossoms inside a capsule with a tiny entrance that admits only the wasps that serve as its pollinators. The fig capsules occurs in 2 forms, a female/male and an hermaphroditic asexual; the wasps will feed in both, but can only lay their eggs in the female/male capsules due to differences in the capsular flowers. The wasps feed and lay their eggs inside the casing, which serves as their only home. If a fig is introduced to a non-native area without the accompanying wasps, the fig trees will never produce fertile seeds in their fruit.
The tiny seeds and fruit all develop inside the protective capsule we picture as the fruit of the fig. The 2 types of capsules produce different qualities of fruit, with the less juicy, asexual type, called caprifigs, generally considered only suitable for goat fodder. It is the fertilized fig that we prize as juicy and edible. This difference in fig fruits is even highlighted in the 24th Chapter of Jeremiah, where the Jews in exile are presented as good figs, and the Jews who remained in Judah as bad figs. Exile was apparently a testing, a cross-pollination with challenging ideas that deepened the understanding and commitment of the exiles to God’s purpose for them.
Today’s parable is about a fig tree with a particular issue: no useable figs at all. Given that fig trees will generally produce multiple crops every year, a tree that goes 3 years without fruit would be quite a liability in the garden! Yet the gardener asks for one more chance to make it bloom. He promises to fertilize and give it the best care to see if it can be salvaged. This turn of phrase reminds me that salvation and salvage have the same linguistic root from the Latin word we translate as — to save. The history of God’s people repeatedly follows the remnant salvaged through trials. Thank Heaven for the patient Gardener!
Thought for the day: This parable reminds me of how often I stumble along the way and need my salvation to be salvaged as well. Some days I may be more fruitful than others, but I must be wary of the impulse to bear no fruit at all. If I am not grateful for the presence of others — even pesky little wasps, welcoming their challenges into my life — I may not see my own “salvation” bearing any fruit!
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.