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Commentaries
English
Luke
  
6He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.7Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’8But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it.9And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’"


God has a vineyard that is the world, in which there are precious trees. Each man is supposed to bear fruits worthy of the spirit of heaven, also the trees of the vineyard are to bear their fruits at all times. But God found nothing in men but wars, boastfulness, fornication, bigotry, and scandals, so he decided in his heart to consume the evil kind.
Our present society is no better than the Jewish society at the time of Jesus. Jesus did not find at his time holy fruits for God in his nation, and he knew that God was determined to consume the nation.
Jesus describes himself, in this parable, as the interceding vineyard-keeper who asks God for a delay of one more year before he cuts and exterminates the nation, though it uses the earth to no avail. Perhaps another nation takes its place and bears fruits better than it. They deserved to be consumed, but Christ asked for them one more year for repentance, saying: "I want to do everything to correct them, to cultivate their hearts with the words of judgment which are like the cleaving plowshare, and to revive them with the blessings of my power that they may repent, believe truly, and love practically. If this people does not ripen during this year and return to their Lord, let him cut them in pieces. In fact, God inflicted the Jews as a nation, pulled them up by the roots, and burnt them for hundreds of years in the furnace of his angry judgment.
We must not feel secure about God’s wrath, for transmitted news report to us everyday the facts of pride, hatred, impurity, and lying. The whole world became like a tent of adultery, where the Spirit of God only dwells in few persons. Till when, do you think, God will bear with us? We all deserve destruction, but Christ’s intercession for his church, and the power of the Holy Spirit who is working in the believers prevent God’s wrath. Christ had cultivated peoples for one thousand nine hundred years with the word of his holiness, and fertilized it with the power of his Holy Spirit. Does God become satisfied with the shallow fruit of little believers? Or does the Lord stand with his high ax to inflict the last blow on us, and consume men, for they disobeyed his Soul running after every strutting leader who will certainly perish?
We all live from Christ’s intercession and faithfulness. We wish with all our hearts that his last word in us would not be to cut us, but that we may bear fruit to his satisfaction. Do not imagine the coming of good days, but repent, and ask spiritual repentance for your people, not with undulations of sentimental feelings, or repentance with lying tears, but let the Lord renew the hearts practically, convert the minds, and establish the works of his love through filling the hearts with his gospel.

Prayer
O interceding Lord, we thank you for your love to all men, and for interceding for us before the Father. Forgive us our selfishness and covetousness, consecrate us to serve love in purity, have patience with us and with all men, and help us to surround our friends and neighbors with our prayers, and preach them with the gospel that they may bear holy fruit.
Question
What do we learn from the intercession of the keeper of the vineyard?