LENT 2016 - GOING TO JERUSALEM

Friday, March 4

The Lesson of the Fig Tree:  Matthew 24: 32 - 35

             Look, I know that it is only early March and it’s a long time until spring. There’s nary a bud, leaf or blossom to be seen anywhere. I used to drool over the seed and plant catalogues by late winter. I noticed this week that Canadian Tire has all their garden stuff out on the shelves in preparation for the upcoming planting season. The Sears’ spring catalogue has arrived. So the signs of winter’s end and the arrival of spring are all around us.

            “From the fig tree learn it lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.”

            To be honest with you, just as I am eager to put winter behind me, so I am going to be very glad to get out of chapter 24. It has been a tough chapter to interpret. Much of the imagery seems to be stark, vivid, alarming, bleak and ominous. I am ready for some new shoots and blossoms ahead. Is there any hope that the trials and tribulations will end and we who endure such a harsh Spiritual Winter will be saved?

            God has always been a Master Gardener. Look at the wonderful environment of Eden. It had everything a body and soul would ever need. God’s promise to the Hebrew slaves fleeing from Egypt was a land flowing with milk and honey. The Jewish homeland was a sacred blessing, even though it was always in peril or was being taken away from them. Jesus often used agrarian metaphors to teach about God and the Kingdom. The Bible ends in the revelation of a new earth, and the planting of a new garden with “the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God… On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelves kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations,” (Rev.22:1 -2).

            “So also, when you see all these things, you know that he [the Son of Man] is near, at the very gates, “(Matthew 24:30).

            God’s future impacts the present times we live in. We are looking for the tender signs of renewal, transformation, healing, rebirth, new life, in the world around us. Our desire is that the unholy, ugly sacrileges of life are composted. When we bring forth the tender shoots of faith and bear fruit in word and deed, we are signs of Jesus’ nearness and presence. Fruitfulness is always a sign of the presence and nearness of Jesus.

            No matter what is happening all around us, no matter how bad things get, no matter how terrible the course of events in our world, God’s promise is full of hope, life, redemption and salvation. You can count on it!

            For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

            and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
                        making it bring forth and sprout,
            giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
            so shall my word be that hoes out from my mouth;
            it shall not return to me empty.
                        but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
                        and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

            For you shall go out in joy,

                        and be led back in peace;
            The mountains and the hills before you
                        shall burst into song,
                        and all the trees of the filed shall clap their hands.
            Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
                        instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
            and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
                        for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.  (Isaiah 55: 10 – 11)