Gospel of second chance!

Luke 13:1-9

Some people arrived and told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this he said to them, ‘Do you suppose these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other Galileans? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell and killed them? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.’

He told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none. He said to the man who looked after the vineyard, “Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?” “Sir,” the man replied “leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.”’

Food for thought!

Today, we have a parable that is at one and the same time lit by grace and full of warnings.

(i) The parable reminds us that we will be judged according to the opportunities we had in life. All of us and each one us was given much, was equipped for productivity and success. The Bible says, "God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them" (Gen. 1:27). In other words, we have the image and likeness of God and yet sometimes we behave like we have the image and likeness of beasts. Never was a generation entrusted with so much as ours and, therefore, never was a generation so answerable to God.

(ii) The parable teaches that uselessness invites disaster. The tree was given all it needed to grow, and yet did not produce expected fruits. This is why the most searching question we all have to make to ourselves is "Of what use are we in this world? What difference have we made in this life?"

(iii) Further, the parable teaches 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. Where do you belong?

(vi) 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. As you know, man is the weakest animal at birth. Many beasts can survive on their own immediately at birth, but not man. Without our mother, none of us would have survived. After carrying us for nine month, our mother carried us, fed us, washed us, educated us, etc. That is why we must  be grateful to our mothers, and must be mothers to some one; we must give life and living to others. Each one of us must pass on to others what she or he got; we must put into life at least as much as we take out.

(v) The parable tells us of the gospel of the second chance. 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 those who fall and rise again; with God there is always a second chance.

(vi) But the parable also makes it quite clear 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!