The Last Chance Parable

Luke 13:9 “And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.”

All of the Parables of our Lord Jesus are truly amazing, but one in particular has great meaning to me personally. I find it extremely helpful in sharing the full counsel of God’s Word. I call it the Last Chance Parable. It comes from Luke 13:6-9. Here is the full text.

“He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.”

As we begin to look at this parable, keep in mind that a parable is simply a story that Jesus uses as a physical example to make a spiritual point. In this parable, Jesus tells of a fig tree that has been planted in His vineyard, but is not producing fruit. Finally, after three years of patiently waiting for the tree to produce fruit without success, the owner of the vineyard says to 'cut it down.' It is just a burden and taking up space. He could cut it down, burn it and plant something else in its place. Graciously, the Keeper of the Vineyard, the Gardener, pleads for one more chance for the unfruitful fig tree. He also has a plan, and is not just stalling for time. 

His plan is to break up the soil, this makes it easier for the roots to reach out and get nutrients, he also wants to put in fertilizer – dung. If that does not work, nothing will. So if no fruit is produced by next year, the Gardener also concedes that it needs to be cut down.

If someone is pretending to be a Christian, running from and ignoring God, or maybe they have heard the Word, but are not acting upon that Word in faith…there will be no fruit in their life, no evidence of salvation. So God has two choices, He can show no concern for that person’s soul and let him go on thinking he is saved only to be surprised on Judgment Day, or He can do something to encourage the person to produce fruit i.e., get real with Him. So how does this Parable say He will do that? 

The prescription for unfruitfulness is two-fold: (1) Break our heart – soil always represents our hearts in the parables, and (2) Dung us – this means that God is going to cause/allow a bunch of dung to come into our life, maybe even to the extent He allowed to come into Job’s life.

Some say, ‘that is mean…how could God allow/cause deaths, disease, pregnancies, divorces, poverty, struggles, heartbreaks, etc. to come into our lives?’ Well, imagine you and your family were driving over a bridge on a rainy night, and the bridge was over a gorge some 2,000 ft. deep. Your car spins out of control and crashes into a guardrail. Your car is totaled, and you are stranded, but everyone is alive and well in the car. Are you going to get out of the car and curse and kick against the guardrail? No, of course not. It just saved your family’s life. So whatever it takes for the Lord to save your soul and keep you out of an eternity burning in hell, praise Him for taking the time and going to such great efforts for a single soul…yours. 

The reason this parable hits home with me is my personal testimony. It took God breaking the heart of my wife and I, by allowing three people in our family to die in a short time, and then He added a huge truckload of dung in the form of me going almost completely blind over a period of three months. It took all of that for us to reevaluate things and begin seeking God. God eventually healed me of my blindness, and praise God for it. But even before He did, I still praised Him for saving our souls through the ordeal. I told Him that the vision I had in my heart now far outweighed the joy my physical vision gave me. It was worth the trade.

God starts out with a gentle calling, then maybe a small tap, but our stiff-necks and hard hearts may take a firm slap to get our attention. If only we would declare the things of the Lord to people before it came to this point.

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