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Luke
13:6-9
He spoke also
this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he
came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the
vineyard: Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig
tree, and I find none. Cut it down therefore: why cumbereth it the ground?
But he answering, said to him: Lord, let it alone this year also, until I
dig about it, and dung it. And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then
after that thou shalt cut it down.
Commentary
This parable
foreshadows Our Lord's cursing of the fig tree during His entry into Jerusalem
on Palm Sunday as a sign of the faithless of the Old Covenant:
Matthew 21:19:
And seeing a certain fig tree by the way side, he came to it, and found nothing
on it but leaves only, and he saith to it: May no fruit grow on thee henceforward
for ever. And immediately the fig tree withered away.
The parable is
a statement to and about the faithless of the Old Covenant -- the Covenant
whose faithful became Christians. It is immediately followed by this (verses
10-17):
And he was teaching
in their synagogue on their sabbath. And behold there was a woman, who had
a spirit of infirmity eighteen years: and she was bowed together, neither
could she look upwards at all. Whom when Jesus saw, he called her unto him,
and said to her: Woman, thou art delivered from thy infirmity. And he laid
his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified
God.
And the ruler of the synagogue (being angry that Jesus had healed on the
sabbath) answering, said to the multitude: Six days there are wherein you
ought to work. In them therefore come, and be healed; and not on the sabbath
day.
And the Lord answering him, said: Ye hypocrites, doth not every one of you,
on the sabbath day, loose his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead them
to water? And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound,
lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
And when he said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all
the people rejoiced for all the things that were gloriously done by him.
See also the Parable
of the Wicked Husbandmen (Matthew 21:33-46 ; Mark 12:1-12 ; Luke 20:9-20).
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