Good Fruit

Luke 13:1-9

Change Your Hearts

13 Some people there with Jesus at that time told him about what had happened to some worshipers from Galilee. Pilate had them killed. Their blood was mixed with the blood of the animals they had brought for sacrificing. ² Jesus answered, “Do you think this happened to those people because they were more sinful than all other people from Galilee?³ No, they were not. But if you don’t decide now to change your lives, you will all be destroyed like those people! ⁴ And what about those 18 people who died when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Do you think they were more sinful than everyone else in Jerusalem? ⁵ They were not. But I tell you if you don’t decide now to change your lives, you will all be destroyed too!”

The Useless Tree

⁶ Jesus told this story: “A man had a fig tree. He planted it in his garden. He came looking for some fruit on it, but he found none. ⁷ He had a servant who took care of his garden. So he said to his servant, ‘I have been looking for fruit on this tree for three years, but I never find any. Cut it down! Why should it waste the ground?’ ⁸ But the servant answered, ‘Master, let the tree have one more year to produce fruit. Let me dig up the dirt around it and fertilize it. ⁹ Maybe the tree will have fruit on it next year. If it still does not produce, then you can cut it down.’”

Ask your children: Have you ever wanted candy for breakfast or maybe to eat chocolate cake for dinner?   Have you ever gotten to do that? If not why? Why wouldn’t your parents let you eat sugar for a meal?

Today on our journey to the cross, Jesus wants to teach the disciples and us something about who God is. So he tells a story about a gardener. 

The owner of the land had a fig tree. But this tree in Jesus’ story wasn’t producing or making any fruit. So he goes to the gardener and starts to complain. The owner of the land wants to dig up the tree and throw it away but the gardener said to give it more time and that he will put some special fertilizer on it.

Let’s pretend the gardener is God. God just like the gardener has some extra special fertilizer. This fertilizer helps us grow good fruit.

The good fruit that we grow is the Fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

God offers us only the best things that we need in order to live life fully.

God, thank you for your love, care and wisdom. Help us to pay attention to you and to listen to you so that we may fully receive your love, care, and wisdom and share it with those around us. Amen.

Fig Tree

Figs are a fruit that contain vitamins and minerals that are good for you. In other words, they are a healthy food. They are also very tasty and sweet. In earlier times Olympic athletes ate figs as a way to get into good physical shape for the races and games that would follow.

In many countries, figs are considered to be sacred and the Bible refers to figs more than any other fruit.