Gospel of the second and last chances!

Luke 13:1-9

13  1 About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. 2 “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? 3 Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. 4 And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? 5 No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

6 Then Jesus told this story: “A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. 7 Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden.’ 8 “The gardener answered, ‘Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. 9 If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.’”

Food for thought!

Today's reading is troubling me. Yesterday, I buried my great friend and colleague. I am right now traveling home from his funeral. And I feel the words of Jesus directed especially to me: "And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God." My friend died. I am still around. Why am I still alive? Why do I still breathe air, eat the food, and use mother earth's resources? Have you ever asked yourself this? Why have you not yet died? Is it because you are holier than all who have died before you? Is it luck for you and bad luck for them? 

This is the issue Jesus is posing in the parable:  ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s just taking up space in the garden.’ What is Jesus saying here? Well, we must remember that repeatedly, directly and by implication, Jesus reminds us that we shall be judged according to the opportunities we have enjoyed in life. Oh yes, we shall be judged according to what God gave us. Never was a generation entrusted with so much as ours and, therefore, never was a generation so answerable to God.

Jesus is saying that uselessness invites disaster. It has been claimed that the whole process of evolution in this world is to produce useful things, and that what is useful will go on from strength to strength, while what is useless will be eliminated. The most searching question we can be asked is, "Of what use were you in this world?"

Back to my friend's funeral. I can still hear the speeches; people after people were all in accord that he was useful in this world; he made a difference in many people's lives. And this is what Jesus is teaching us today, that nothing which only takes out can survive. The fig-tree was drawing strength and sustenance from the soil; and in return was producing nothing. That was precisely its sin. 

In the last analysis, there are two kinds of people in this world--those who take out more than they put in, and those who put in more than they take out. I don't know where you belong; I know where my friend belonged: he put into this world more than he took out; he lived just 42 years!

In one sense we are all in debt to life. We came into it at the peril of someone else's life; and we would never have survived without the care of those who loved us. There is laid on us the duty of making a difference in the world before we live it; we have the obligation of putting into life at least as much as we take out.

The question we face is What is the meaning of life? As Viktor Frankl says, It is not man who poses the question, What is the meaning of life? but he who is asked this question, for it is life itself that poses it to him. And man has to answer to life by answering for life; he has to respond by being responsible; in other words, the response is necessarily a response-in-action.

Before we go, Jesus is teaching us something beautiful. A fig-tree normally takes three years to reach maturity. If it is not fruiting by that time it is not likely to fruit at all. But this fig-tree was given another chance. It is always Jesus' way to give us chance after chance. God is infinitely kind to us who fall and rise again.

And lastly, this is not only the Gospel of the second chance; it is also the Gospel of the last chance. Jesus is clearly saying that there is a final chance. If we refuse chance after chance, if God's appeal and challenge come again and again in vain, the day finally comes, not when God has shut us out, but when we by deliberate choice have shut ourselves out. God save us from that!