Luke 13:6-17

     It is probably only the hellfire and brimstone Christians who are fond of the image Jesus uses here. He tells a story of a man with a fig tree that doesn’t bear fruit. He tells the man taking care of things, the vine dresser, to cut it down. After all, the tree is drawing nutrients from the soil without giving anything back. Here we would ignore the modern understanding that a plant of any kind, even without fruit, is adding oxygen to the air. The fig tree, like any fruit tree, is planted for the purpose of bearing fruit. But the vinedresser disagreed with the man who wanted to cut down the tree. At least give it another year while the vinedresser digs around it and gives it fertilizer. If that doesn’t help, then it could be cut down.
      For some, the image will inevitably be ominous. The ax is waiting. If things don’t change in a hurry, the axe will fall. But the story is also about hope. True, no fruit is in evidence, but give the tree another chance. Give it help and support, don’t just discard it.
      As with all parables, the different parts of the story should not be turned into metaphors and symbols. For example, we should resist trying to invest identity in the land owner or the vinedresser, such as trying to make one into a judging God and the other into Christ. God and Jesus are one in a way that defies human imagination. And God wants God’s children to succeed and bear spiritual fruit. God has given not one but many new opportunities. God has much more in common with vinedresser, or the father in the parable of the prodigal son than with the landowner who wants to cut the tree down.
      Nonetheless, the story can serve as a reminder that humans are called to a purpose and we are missing out on the best of life when we fail to live up to that calling.
      Luke follows this parable with an account about one day when Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues. A woman was there who was crippled, bent over so severely that she couldn’t stand straight. With no other explanation, it was described as a spirit that had crippled her. From a modern point of view it sound like severe arthritis or some other degenerative condition such as multiple sclerosis. When Jesus saw her, he called her over, laid hands on her and proclaimed her free of her disease. Right off she straightened up and began praising God.
      On the side, this woman exemplifies faith in the midst of disease. In the first place, she remained faithful (she was at the synagogue) despite her years of pain and disablement. When she is healed, no matter what the means, she praises God. God must have smiled joyfully when he looked at this spiritual woman who was now healed.
     But there were others there that day, others who thought the rules were more important than people. The Sabbath was a day for rest, and the orthodox understanding of that could be quite rigid. Jesus had violated this by actually healing on the Sabbath. The leader of the synagogue was indignant with Jesus. He may have been also fearful that the day would turn into a madhouse of people seeking healing. So he told the congregation that there were six working days to come. They should come and be healed on one of them, not on the Sabbath.
      Imagine what the poor woman felt at that point. Though she hadn’t even initiated the healing, it must have seemed as if the leader of the synagogue was pointing a finger of judgment at here as much or more than at Jesus.
      Jesus was obviously frustrated and angry. Here this faithful woman had been healed and was doing nothing except praising God...what more appropriate thing could take place on a Sabbath? But the leaders couldn’t rejoice with her. There was obviously more than the one who was objecting because Jesus’ response was about ‘you hypocrites.’ Those pious men would give their ox or donkey water on the Sabbath, but resented the healing of this daughter of Abraham.
      The opponents of the healing were put to shame (other translations say confused or humiliated). But the rest of the crowd was delighted at his words.
      To us, it may seem a no-brainer- the woman was crippled, Jesus had the ability to heal her, so why shouldn’t he do so at the earliest opportunity? But this shouldn’t be taken to think Jesus didn’t respect the rules and customs of the Jewish people. He would even say that he hadn’t come to change the smallest part of them. But it was a time when the rules had been codified, inflated, and expanded to such an extent that no one without ample time and money could observe them all. It was understandable. When people feel under siege, they take control in whatever way they can. With the Romans occupying their country and security and life being uncertain, for some people, the rules may have operated as one of the few things under their control and authority. Although Jesus may have understood their motives, he himself never forgot that the rules God wanted humans to follow were for their benefit. It was good and important to have a day of rest, a day to think about God and order one’s life in the right direction. But the rule wasn’t meant to be kept for its own sake. The woman had been ill for eighteen years, what better time to heal her than the Sabbath?

Do we have our own rules or customs (individually or as the church)? Are we offended when someone else breaks them?
What fruit are we bearing?
Where do we need second chances?