13:6-9. And
He spoke this parable. A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard,
and he came and sought fruit thereon, but found none. Then said he unto the
dresser of his vineyard, Lo, three years indeed I come seeking fruit on this
fig-tree, and find none. Put it down therefore: why does it make the ground
also barren? But he answered and said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year
also: until I dig around it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit in the coming year,
well, and if not, you shall cut it down.
THE Psalmist shows the surpassing gentleness of
Christ, the Savior of us all, in these words; "Lord, what is man, that You
art mindful of him, or the son of man, that You visit him?" For man upon
earth, as far as his bodily nature is concerned, is dust and ashes: but he has
been honored by God, by having been made in His image and likeness: not in his
bodily shape, that is, but rather because he is capable of being just and good,
and fitted for all virtue. The Creator therefore takes care of him, as being
His creature, and for the purpose of adorning the earth. For as the prophet
Isaiah says; "He made it not in vain, but that it should be
inhabited:"----inhabited of course by a rational animal, who can discern
with the eyes of the mind the Creator and Artificer of the Universe, and
glorify Him like the spirits that are above. But because by the deceiving arts
of the serpent he had turned aside unto wickedness, and was held fast by the
chains of sin, and removed far from God, Christ, to enable him once again to
mount upwards, has sought him out, and fashioned him anew to what he was at
first, and granted him repentance as the pathway to lead him unto salvation.
He proposes therefore a wise parable: but we ought
perhaps first to explain what was the occasion which led to it, or what at all
the necessity why He brought it forward.
There were therefore certain ones who told Christ,
the Savior of us all, that Pilate had put to death cruelly and without pity
certain Galileans, and mingled their blood with their sacrifices. And others
that the tower near Shiloh had fallen, and eighteen persons perished beneath
the ruins. And afterwards referring to these things, Christ had said to His
hearers; "Verily, I say unto you, that except you repent, you also shall
in like manner perish." This was the head and root of the present parable,
and that at which it was, as it were, aimed.
Now the outer sense of this passage needs not a
single word for its explanation: but when we search into its inward and secret
and unseen purport, it is, we affirm, as follows. The Israelites, after our Savior's crucifixion, were doomed to fall into the
miseries . . . Jerusalem being captured, and its inhabitants slaughtered by the
sword of the enemy. Nor were they to perish thus only, but their houses were to
be burnt with fire, and even the temple of God demolished. He takes therefore,
as I said, the fig tree spoken of in the parable as a figure of the Jewish
synagogue, that is, of the Israelites: and "three years," He says,
"He sought fruit upon it, and found none." By which, I think, are
signified to us those three periods during which the Jewish synagogue bore no
fruit. The first of these, one may say, was that in which Moses and Aaron and
his sons lived: who served God, holding the office of the priesthood according
to the law. The second was the period of Joshua, the son of Nun, and the judges
who succeeded him. And the third, that in which the blessed prophets flourished
down to the time of John the Baptist During these periods Israel brought forth
no fruit.
He says therefore, "Lo, three years do I come
seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none. Cut it down therefore: why does
it make the ground also useless." As though He would say, Let the place of
this barren fig tree be laid bare: for then there will come up or may be
planted there some other tree. And this too was done: for the multitude of the
Gentiles was summoned into its room, and took possession of the inheritance of
the Israelites. It became the people of God; the plant of Paradise; a germ good
and honorable; that knows how to bring forth fruit, not in shadows and types,
but rather by a pure and perfectly stainless service, even that which is in
spirit and in truth, as being offered to God, Who is an immaterial Being.
The owner then of the ground said, that the
fig-tree, which during so long a time had been barren and without fruit, must
be cut down. But the vinedresser, it says, besought him, saying; "Lord,
let it alone this year also: until I dig around it and dung it: and if it bear
fruit in the coming year, well;] and if not, you shall cut it down."
Now it is necessary to inquire, who is to be
understood by the vinedresser. If then any one chooses to affirm that it is the
angel who was appointed by God as the guardian of the synagogue of the Jews, he
would not miss a suitable interpretation. But if anyone should say that the vinedresser
is the Son, this view also, has a reason on its side not unbefitting right
arguments. For "He is our Advocate with the Father," "and our
propitiation," and the husbandman of our souls, who prunes away constantly
whatever is to our hurt, and fills us with rational and holy seeds, that so we
may bring forth for Him fruits: and so He spoke of Himself. " A sower went
out to sow his seed."
Let Him therefore be supposed to be the Advocate
in our behalf: and He says, "Let it alone this year also, until I dig
around it and dung it."
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