Luke 13:7, commentary and pictures

The owner is God the Father, the dresser is Christ the Son, and the highly favored tree taken for His own is the Jewish nation, visited year after year through Christ's three-year public ministry of blessing, healing, pleading and warning in search of fruit. The order to cut it down is the voice of justice against a privileged yet fruitless people, which the gardener does not dispute but answers with further care, joining warning of judgment to invitation of mercy. To cumber the ground is to take up soil, rain, sunshine and labor while yielding nothing, occupying the place of fruitful trees, darkening them, and withholding from the world the blessing God designed. The fruit He seeks is a pure holy character like Christ's — righteousness, love, humility, faith, obedience and self-denying service that warns sinners, does good deeds and bears souls for His glory — for men are condemned not for corrupt fruit but for none. Judgment on Jerusalem fell when added mercy was rejected, yet execution was delayed nearly forty years while Christ ministered through the cross, the Spirit, and the apostles to give the children a further probation before the sentence became irrevocable. So still He bears long and pleads for the fruitless life with digging, watering and conviction, but if light is continually refused the heart hardens past feeling and forbearance ends in sudden or final removal as a useless occupier of the ground.

Figures and Wording

The owner of the vineyard is God the Father and the dresser is Christ the Son. The fig tree is the Jewish nation, His chosen people, planted and taken for His own and greatly favored with temporal and spiritual blessings. From such a favored tree He looked for the fruits of righteousness, with every opportunity and means provided to become righteous and bear fruit that blesses the world. God watches such spiritual growth with deep and tender concern.

The three years of coming seeking fruit mean year after year of God coming to His people hoping to find fruit and finding none, during which He was long forbearing. This was fulfilled in Christ's three-year public ministry, when He went about doing good and calling them to Him, pleading, blessing, healing, comforting, forgiving and warning Jerusalem. He searched for fruit from the highest bough to the lowest, having done all that could be done by clothing divinity with humanity, living a continual miracle, and carrying a rebellious people on His heart. The same three years of fruit-seeking are also applied to more than two years of God looking for the fruit He may expect from the church's Conferences.

The command to cut it down is the voice of justice urging the destruction of the fruitless privileged people, expressing God's just judgment upon fruitlessness. Yet the gardener shares the owner's interest in the tree and wants it to become fruitful, does not dispute the sentence, and welcomes the chance to give the tree more care. The parable thus links the warning of judgment with the invitation of mercy, illustrating Christ's mission of mercy in its relation to God's justice and judgment. He came not to destroy lives but to save them, God sending His Son not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. In mercy Christ pleads for more time to cultivate and care for the failing person, and the added time is a period of probation in which He continues His loving work and offers every help heaven can give.

To cumber the ground means to take up ground without benefit and without bearing fruit. It means to receive rain and sunshine and the gardener's care and draw nourishment from the soil while remaining unproductive. Such a tree occupies soil that could be used by fruitful trees, and its unproductive boughs darken the ground so that fruit-bearing plants cannot flourish in its shadow. Likewise a fruitless person brings no blessing to the world, deprives others of room and opportunity to flourish, robs them of privileges that might otherwise be theirs, and hinders the good that others might do.

Israel's Visitation and Ruin

Christ came seeking fruit and found only leaves, for that generation made a greater show of piety than Jews in earlier ages while destitute of the sweet graces of the Spirit of God and the precious fruits of character seen in Joseph. Outward appearance without useful fruit did not satisfy His search, and profession that appears flourishing but bears no fruit is revealed by His search to have no evidence of God's love. Profession without practice, like promising leaves without fruit, ends in judgment, and those who remain unfruitful despite opportunity to serve God face being cut down for taking up ground without purpose.

As cumberer of the ground Israel's very existence was a curse, because it filled the place in the vineyard that a fruitful tree might fill and robbed the world of the blessings God designed to give. The Israelites misrepresented God among the nations, and were not merely useless but a decided hindrance, their religion to a great degree misleading and working ruin instead of salvation. That warning mercifully foretold destruction through calamities already befalling it.

The nation itself was responsible for its ruin because it rejected blessings, opportunities, counsel, light, warnings and calls to repent and obey. Its closed hearts produced no response to increased care, and unbelief and resistance made it hard-hearted and impenitent. Their destiny depended on response to advantages and blessings Heaven gave, and Christ's later cursing of the barren fig tree showed they had determined their own destruction when they failed to profit from them.

The command to cut it down because it cumbers the ground was the voice of justice urging destruction of the fruitless privileged people, fulfilled in the terrible destruction that came upon the Jewish nation. When added mercy was rejected the irrevocable sentence fell that their house is left desolate. The tree's threatened removal marked the end of the city's probation and the judgment that followed continued rejection of gracious warnings and invitations, after Christ had gone about doing good and calling them to Him and doing all that could be done by clothing divinity with humanity.

Divine mercy delayed that judgment for nearly forty years, showing mercy and long-suffering and giving further time through the apostles' preaching of Christ's life, death and resurrection. The delay gave light to children who had not received the opportunities their parents rejected, and they were not condemned for parents' sins. They became accountable and joined in guilt and completed the nation's iniquity only when they knowingly rejected that added light.

During that added probation Christ ministered with unwearied love giving all heaven could give, from His prayer for forgiveness on the cross to preaching first at Jerusalem, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the power of the first gospel church, and Stephen's testimony. His care and labor were not lessened but increased in keeping and watering every moment night and day.

Fruit God Requires

The fruit that matches the blessings bestowed is a pure and holy character formed after Christ as the perfect model, with growth in reverence, love, humility, confidence in God and gratitude for all mercies, seeking to bless those around, manifesting the spirit of Jesus in the family, teaching His word to children and making known His wonderful works, and representing Him by both being good and doing good. Where such fruit is present there is a fragrance about the life and a loveliness of character that reveals a child of God and an heir of heaven. He has given talents that make people capable of bearing precious fruit to His glory, has opened heaven and brought all needful grace within reach, and the Saviour died so that by His grace people can become partakers of the divine nature; because of that great sacrifice He expects fruit and watches and waits with deep interest for some return.

That fruit includes godliness, self-denial for others, meekness, a loving heart, penitence, faith, and obedience to God's law and commandments, lived out by following Jesus' life. It includes righteousness, peace and joy expected from those who have received spiritual light, and faithfulness, justice, honesty and conduct that lets Bible religion shine clearly. Greater blessings bring greater responsibility, and unfaithfulness is especially serious where influence harms others, for the world watches professed Christians and may rightly expect self-denial and self-sacrifice from those who claim to believe. A profession of truth without living connection does not meet the expectation, for God examines each heart and life and looks for a life connected with Him and bearing fruit to His glory, with light received shared in works and service proportionate to that light for the good of others.

Fruit means the good and noble deeds He requires, accomplished through His grace strengthening them. Merely being planted as trees in His garden is not enough, for people are accountable not only for wrong acts committed but also for all the good they could have done through His strengthening grace and neglected. Those who congratulate themselves on wrongs they do not commit while neglecting required good deceive themselves as to their true condition before God, fail His expectation, and are registered in the books of heaven as useless occupiers of the ground.

No one can live His law without ministering to others, for men were created and redeemed to bear fruit for His glory and others' good through unselfish service. A truly converted Christian bears fruit in service to others by warning sinners of sin, praying with them, seeking to lead them to truth and righteousness, letting light shine in good works, catching the light and diffusing it to bless others, communicating light, cultivating pity, manifesting His grace, and giving talents of time, influence, ability and money to set truth before those in darkness. Indifference to souls around makes one fruitless and accountable for people who perish unwarned, and failure to use abilities and opportunities in service is sinful neglect and slothfulness that leaves His people years behind what He requires; presenting only leaves means making no effective effort to save souls and calls for growth in understanding and character with resolute purpose to win people to investigate the truth.

Leaves without fruit picture profession without practice and without living connection with Christ, when His life does not flow through and the fruits of the Spirit are not seen. An outward show of godliness with abundant signs but no fruit can conceal a formal, selfish, boastful, hypocritical life of pride, selfishness, oppression and hypocrisy, for God sees beneath appearances and distinguishes pretenders from genuine Christians. Thinking that profession is the sum of Christianity is fruitlessness, as is living in hope of growing better someday while never advancing a step. Such fruitlessness dishonors Bible religion by lowering its standard to meet personal attainments, fails to prepare to meet the assaults of Satan, fails to engage in constant warfare against selfishness and pride of heart and to crucify self, and leaves the open sinner with more hope than the pretender who says but does not.

The tree is condemned not for corrupt fruit but for none, having occupied ground without fulfilling its purpose. Its lack reveals selfishness and failure to use warnings, privileges and entrusted talents, to serve God, to bring others to Christ, and to benefit others, and the fruit borne reveals what kind of person one is and determines standing before Christ's judgment as good or unfruitful. To cumber the ground means to receive rain and sunshine and the gardener's care and draw nourishment from the soil while remaining unproductive, with unproductive boughs darkening the ground so fruit-bearing plants cannot flourish in the shadow, so gifts lavished convey no blessing to the world and rob others of privileges that might otherwise be theirs, with the wasted life standing recorded against the name in the book of heaven.

Forbearance and Final Sentence

God bears long with those who have received great advantages and hold sacred responsibilities yet bear no fruit, returning again and again to seek fruit from their lives while their continued fruitlessness brings accountability and the prospect of removal. He knows each person's responsibility and circumstances exactly, and calls for repentance and faithful service while probation still lingers at its limit. He watches spiritual growth with deep and tender concern, rightly expecting righteousness in return for planting, care, light and privilege, and He watches and waits with deep interest for some return for talents given and for heaven opened with all needful grace through the sacrifice that makes partakers of the divine nature possible. He restrains destruction and puts constraint upon His own attributes, so that omnipotence restrains omnipotence, because even in wicked places some are still within the possibility of forgiveness. His hand remains stretched out to a spiritually backward life graciously preserved moment by moment from unseen dangers, giving renewed advantages and renewing the invitation to return and make His goodness and mercy pass before him.

The sentence is delayed while Christ as Advocate pleads for another opportunity with more light given, lest the unfruitful tree taking up ground without bearing fruit be removed at once. That delay is a further probation to prove and test, to heed warnings, repent and bear fruit to God's glory, in which He impresses truth on the heart, convicts of sin, digs and dresses, cultivates and cares, and continues loving work with every help heaven can give. His care and labor are not lessened but increased in keeping and watering, stretching out His hand with renewed advantages, and mercy may even work through the prayers of a faithful mother to spare for a time one joined to idols. The graciously preserved life is thus given time to live faithfully after much light and many privileges, yet continued refusal leaves the person subject to judgment when mercy is exhausted.

If the heart still does not respond to divine agencies it becomes hardened until no longer susceptible to the Holy Spirit, and then the word of doom is finally spoken. That hardening comes through indifference, coldness and ingratitude toward redeeming love, through neglect and refusal of light and grieving the Spirit, while the person dimly knows he is a cumberer in the vineyard. To cumber the ground is to receive rain and sunshine and the gardener's care and draw nourishment from the soil while remaining unproductive, with unproductive boughs darkening the ground so fruit-bearing plants cannot flourish and God's lavished gifts convey no blessing to the world and rob others of privileges that might have been theirs. The owner's sentence therefore sounds as a warning down to this generation over the careless heart outwardly in the church, taking the name of Christ yet conscious of no living connection with the great heart of love, the tide of His life not flowing through and the sweet graces of His character, the fruits of the Spirit, not seen. Today the call still stands to return, be healed of backsliding, grow as the lily and revive as the corn, with fruit found from God, before that hardening becomes final.

Probation and life are uncertain and may end suddenly, for the Lord may decide today to remove a fruitless life as useless. The order to cut down may go forth at any moment, cutting off suddenly by disease or accident or death one who stands in rebellion, refuses the commandments, and counts on years of worldly pleasure while unready. To be so removed is to have no part in the first resurrection and to be lost, with no place in heaven for a character that would seek supremacy and create rebellion there. The axe laid at the root and the threatened removal therefore call for immediate change, for continuing in sin, envy, jealousy, hatred, passionate abusive speech and unholy temper leaves a person unfit for heaven and endangers mind and life. The time to change course and overcome is short and uncertain, and narrowing a widening separation from the world by loose reckless talk and chosen worldly company is the fruitlessness that brings one under this sentence.

Yet even the case of slighted mercy and abused grace is not utterly hopeless while long-suffering love still pleads to awake and redeem the time. Merely being trees in God's garden is not enough, for fruit is expected in the good and noble deeds He requires accomplished through His strengthening grace, and those who congratulate themselves for wrongs avoided while neglecting required good deceive themselves as to their true condition and stand registered in heaven's books as useless occupiers of the ground. With such the heart of long-suffering love yet pleads to come to Christ just as helpless, hang the helpless soul upon Him, repent, be converted and have sins blotted out through the open door. As Nineveh was spared when it repented and left transgression, those enlightened who leave the ranks of transgressors, stand under Christ and obey find mercy, forgiveness and greatly reformed religious life. God deals with disobedient transgressors and wicked cities where violence and crime reign with compassion, long-suffering and tender mercy, forbearing as long as any possibility of repentance remains.

If warnings, loss, affliction, trials and pleading do not turn the wrongdoer back, forbearance ends, for His Spirit will not always strive and His patience will not last much longer. Continuing in one's own course under another spirit, refusing light, choosing one's own action and grieving God's Spirit wastes golden time and opportunity to do good and brings one to the end of mercy in death and loss of heaven, though it is not yet too late to right wrongs and throw the soul upon the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour. Then the word goes forth, He is joined to idols, let him alone, as with the covetous money-lover whose life bears no fruit for the kingdom and who, after Christ's pleading for short extended time to make most earnest effort, rescue himself from Satan's snare, turn square about and set willpower against covetousness, still refuses to turn and at last cries in bitter anguish over riches' deceit for selling the soul for money. The candlestick is removed from the church that has a name to live but is virtually dead through loss of love for God and one another, where self cherished strives for supremacy and much human working replaces pure grace, and though given great light it bears evil fruit if not good unless reconverted and repentant. Sin costs the favor of God and heaven, grieves the Holy Spirit and gains only death, and God's long-suffering sparing of the life that merely occupies space will be revealed in distinct lines from the book of remembrance at the judgment bar, when every case is decided and each man's responsibility and influence over other souls is shown in full.

Warning to Church Today

Those in high and sacred trust in God's work who enjoy great advantages yet bear no fruit have in heart separated from Jesus years before, and the order to remove the tree that only burdens the ground is their ultimate and complete separation from Christ like a dead branch severed from the vine, coming after long patience gives opportunity for fruit, requiring instead work corresponding to the sacredness of truth received with old things passing away and all becoming new, a lesson for all connected with God's work, for lack of Christlike love makes unfruitful and brings the sentence to be cut down as useless upon those who bring hated principles into the sacred work and refuse required change.

Believers continually meet those who bear the Christian name but produce nothing, pictured by the fruitless fig tree, while Christ expects those in His vineyard to be converted fruitful trees, and to continue year after year without fruit disappoints Him and brings terrible denunciation when the mandate goes forth to cut down the cumberer of the ground. The young who remain unfruitful despite light and opportunities, continuing in self-indulgence and evil associations instead of choosing Christ over the world as with the Wessels children, will face judgment as a tree cut down because it serves no purpose, for the choice between Christ and the world shows whether they bear the fruit God seeks. The church threatened by indifference and lack of true grace has lost love for God and therefore for one another, with self cherished and striving for supremacy and much human working replacing pure grace in the heart, and though given great light and abundant opportunity it bears evil fruit if not good and becomes virtually dead with a name to live, needing reconversion, repentance and putting wrongs right before rejection and removal of the candlestick, since the Spirit will not always strive and the unfruitful tree occupying ground without producing may be cut down.

The parable belongs to Christ's warning of the coming kingdom with sharp rebuke of ignorance and indifference, for people quick to read sky signs foretelling weather did not discern the signs of the times clearly pointing to His mission. Those receiving divine light, the example of goodness, and repeated opportunities and lessons may be facing a final trial in which careless neglect brings removal as unfruitful, for the tree after patience is cut down because it takes up ground without benefit and defrauds the Lord of the fruit He seeks. God looks for fruit not mere profession of righteousness, for a fruitless tree is of no use in the vineyard, and gospel teachers are commanded to feed His sheep with pure teaching and make the gospel's saving power known everywhere. Those professing God's name but neglecting responsibility and work bear no useful fruit like unproductive branches taking ground and shading trees that could bear fruit, while God claims whole heart, talents and property for His service, and Christians searched for expected good works must live and work among people rather than withdraw, serving as preserving influence whose good works point others to God, since leaves concealing pride, selfishness, oppression or hypocrisy cannot satisfy His search and profession without fruit makes a cumberer of the ground.

A life spared through probation but still bearing no good spiritual fruit will finally be judged and cut off, for continued disappointment cannot last forever and remaining time must be used to change, since God bears long with wrongdoing and seeks fruit, allowing loss then affliction to lead to repentance and the Saviour, but if warnings, trials and other efforts do not turn the wrongdoer back He removes the unrepentant tree. Workers in the sacred Office who take up space without fruit, treating sacred work lightly and not laboring for souls, are cumberers warned to consecrate themselves to God and center affections and hopes in Him. Those failing to bear fruit by neglecting trust and not heeding or using warnings and privileges will be judged as cumberers of the ground, and presuming on mercy does not excuse that neglect.

God's final sentence falls on those refusing Him heart, mind, soul and strength and the high holy character needed for everlasting life, though every provision is made and light points to the strait gate and narrow way, for choosing the broad road and carrying evil tendencies, cheapness of character and evil associates, listening and laughing at their wit, drags lower until judged unfruitful and ordered removed as useless to the ground. Church members who do nothing to spread truth, ignoring work and personal responsibility, are unproductive trees occupying and darkening ground where fruit-bearers might stand, leaving a mournful blank in God's book and standing recorded in heaven, and their neglected soul-work and missed opportunities will be exposed at judgment, so living faith must show in works and every effort to bring souls from darkness to light by catching and diffusing light, requiring recognition of neglect, repentance, doing entrusted work according to what is received, and penitence and forgiveness lest slothful indolence bring self-conviction in the great day, for Christ gives every member a work not ministers and officials only. Those bearing no spiritual fruit deserve cutting as useless, yet God may patiently spare them with time and possibility of forgiveness if they repent.

A life destitute of spiritual fruit, self-important and self-deceived with no good influence or benefit, and a life producing only leaves despite patience and mercy, calls for guarded action, trust in God and faithful use of gifts rather than hiding them, since God expects fruit from those receiving care and light and His search cannot be ignored. Ministers who stir interest but leave work unfinished produce only leaves with no effective soul-saving effort, and after further test the unfaithful will be laid aside as useless servants to God's work. Neglecting daily opportunities for service leaves people fruitless and withered like trees bearing nothing in the Lord's garden. The fruitless tree using ground without producing despite repeated opportunities represents fruitless churches that yield nothing. In soul-saving, failure to produce results after proper labor may mean moving the worker to another field, and if still fruitless removing him from that work to earn a living otherwise while helping support effective soul-winners.

Those lacking vital godliness and heart-holiness have stunted faith and lives not abounding in good works and face threatened removal as the searched tree stands fruitless. The barren tree is one of Christ's lessons drawn from nature to impress divine truth and keep it in memory. A life without good unselfish works, spent in selfish pleasure and planning only for self with time valued only for gathering and self so large as to lose touch with humanity, fails its purpose and faces examination of the life record at the end of probation as one bearing no fruit, observing forms without repentance and faith and saying but not doing, hateful vain pretense in which the open sinner is less guilty than the fruitless professor, yet during extended probation useful fruit can still be borne through earnest effort, self-denial, service and responsibilities carried for God's glory, for no one can live God's law without ministering to others as God created and designed men for unselfish service and help in every possible way. A life made fruitless by neglecting spiritual nourishment from God's Word is left weak and unable to do His will.

The covetous money-lover whose life bears no fruit for the kingdom is through Christ's pleading granted short extended time to put forth most earnest effort, rescue himself from Satan's snare, turn square about and direct willpower long exercised wrongly to now overcome covetousness, but if he does not turn pleading ends with He is joined to idols let him alone, and all money-lovers will cry in bitter anguish over riches' deceit for selling souls for money. Those seeking financial benefit without spiritual fruit burden the church with unproductive influence that can keep others from heaven's light and are ordered cut down as taking up ground. Fruitless trees in the church will be separated and cut down as cumberers, and when removed God's hidden faithful will be revealed, for those having time yet taking ground without producing will be separated from the faithful. The fruit God seeks includes widening separation from the world, refined choice conversation and godly company, and narrowing that separation until obliterated with loose reckless talk and chosen worldly company brings the sentence of removal as useless with no part in the first resurrection and loss. The wrongdoer going on in heedless indifference like a tree only taking room will be cut down, so plain reproof and counsel must be spoken not held back to warn before judgment falls. Lives unprofitable and barren, failing to bear sought fruit, are still given time by mercy to change and bear fruit to God's glory. A life crowded by worldly business and gain to exclude prayer, devotion and spiritual life is in danger of being cut down and lost, for apparent success cannot make up for missing fruit and continued place in the vineyard is no reason for complacency, since its purpose is to bear fruit and persistent barrenness brings judgment.