LENT III 2019

Study of a Fig Tree: John Singer Sargent

• Isaiah 55:1-9  • 
• Psalm 63:1-8  • 
• 1 Corinthians 10:1-13  • 
• Luke 13:1-9

The Gospel this week addresses a question that has troubled human beings at all times and places. Why do terrible things -- both human cruelties and natural disasters -- happen to some people and not others? Jesus is asked about both kinds of case – the innocent people who were the victims of Roman ruthlessness under Pilate, and the hapless people who were in the wrong place when a stone tower collapsed. In an ideal world, surely, bad people would suffer and good people thrive. Jesus expressly denies this. The victims in these instances were not any worse than anyone else, he tells his inquirers. But then he tells a parable about a fig tree. What could be the relevance of this?
      It is this parable that connects the Gospel with the other readings, which, in one way or another, all have to do with food and drink. The emphasis, though, is on true nourishment and refreshment, contrasted with the more mundane sort that we naturally incline towards. 'Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy'. Isaiah asks. 'Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price'

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Child Drinking Milk: Mary Cassat

      Without money and without price' is the key phrase. We do not need material wealth for the most precious possessions in life. To think that we do, is profoundly mistaken twice over. First these things are priceless; secondly, hey are a gift. This is a truth that is easily neglected, and that is the point of the parable of the fig tree. The people ask Jesus about the victims of brutality and disaster as though in losing life they have lost everything. But 'real' life is of a different order. It is to be found, the Psalmist tells us, in the worship of God. ‘I have gazed upon you in your holy place, that I might behold your power and your glory. For your loving-kindness is better than life itself’. The parable of the fig tree tells us that nourished in the right way, our spiritual nature can flourish, and bring us to the point where the love of God’s goodness is sufficient, however our material lives go. To neglect this spiritual life, conversely, is to lose everything that matters. As the familiar line from Isaiah says: 'Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near'.

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