1. Some shared with
Jesus the latest news of a horrible massacre. Pilate had attacked some
Galileans in the midst of their worship in the temple and slaughtered them. The
crowd was being harsh and making a very harsh judgment on these Galileans. They
thought that their fate was due to their sins. They saw everything as the
fulfillment of what Jesus was preaching all these days.
2. Jesus clearly
refuted their thoughts. He warned them of the same fate and did not really
approve their understanding of the tragedy. Jesus did not connect suffering
with sin. He narrated another story to make them understand that sin alone is
not the cause for the suffering. If that is the case, all of us should be
constantly suffering due to our sins.
3. People must bear
fruit or else they shall perish. Jesus wanted to drive home the need for
repentance by sharing the parable of a man’s seeking fruit. The man represents
God; the vineyard keeper represents Christ; the vineyard represents either the
world or Israel.
4. The fig tree was
greatly privileged. It was planted in the vineyard. It had the same soil,
nourishment, rain and sun from heaven. This is true of all persons who are born
in nations where the gospel is freely preached. But there is a great
responsibility on the part of these privileged ones.
5. Who were the
Galileans slaughtered by Pilate? Two suggestions are made about the Galileans.
First they were followers of Judas of Galilee who opposed taxation imposed by
the Romans (Acts 5:37). Pilate either knew that some of Judas’ followers were
in the temple worshipping or mistook some group of Galileans as his followers
and slaughtered them. This is much known. Pilate set out to build a new water
system in Jerusalem. He need money for that and so insisted that money be taken
from temple finances. Galileans were an inflammable people and therefore their
protest might have caused this tragedy.
We cannot think of
buying a piece of land today as the prices have gone very high and today owning
a piece of land means a lot to an individual. Everywhere we see flats and
apartments. Why is this demand? People want to occupy more and more space for
themselves. The basic question we need to ask ourselves is ‘what is the purpose
of my living’? If I do not contribute positively for the welfare of my fellow
human beings we would be just occupying space like the fig tree wasting the
soil. Our life here on earth is not to occupy space only for ourselves but to
create space for others to live. If my whole world is ‘I, Me, Myself and Mine’
we would be wasting the space we have occupied and leave the world doing nothing
Courtesy
Preacher’s Outline
and Sermon Bible
William Barclay’s
New Daily Study Bible
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