Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 13:6

"And he spake this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit thereon, and found none." — Luke 13:6 (ASV)

A certain man had a fig tree.—The parable stands obviously in very close connection with the preceding teaching. The people had been warned of the danger of perishing, unless they repented. They are now taught that the forbearance and long-suffering of God are leading them to repentance. The sharp warning of the Baptist, Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down (Matthew 3:10), is expanded into a parable.

As regards the outward framework of the story, we have only to note that the joint cultivation of the fig tree and the vine was so common as to have passed into a proverb (2 Kings 18:31; Song of Solomon 2:13).

The interpretation of the parable as to its general drift is easy enough. The barren fig tree is the symbol of a fruitless profession of godliness; the delay represents the forbearance of God in allowing further time for repentance. When we come to details, however, serious difficulties present themselves. If we take the fig tree as representing Israel, what are we to make of the vineyard? If the owner of the vineyard is Christ, who is the vinedresser? Do the three years refer to the actual duration of our Lord’s ministry? Answers to these questions will be found in the following considerations:

1. The vineyard is uniformly in the parabolic language of Scripture the symbol of Israel. (See Note on Matthew 21:33.)
2. The owner of that vineyard is none other than the great King, the Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 5:7).
3. If this is so, then the fig tree must stand for something else than Israel as a nation, and the context points to its being the symbol of the individual soul, which, inheriting its place in a divine order, is as a tree planted in the garden of the Lord. (Jeremiah 18:8.)
4. The “three years” in which the owner comes seeking fruit can, on this view, correspond neither to the three stages of Revelation—Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Prophetic—nor to the three years of our Lord’s ministry, but represent, as the symbol of completeness, the full opportunities given to men: the calls to repentance and conversion that come to them in the several stages of their lives, such as youth, manhood, and old age.
5. The vinedresser, following the same line of thought, is the Lord Jesus Himself, who intercedes both for the nation as a whole and for each individual member of the nation. He pleads for delay. He will do what can be done by digging into the fallow ground of the soul and by imparting new sources of nourishment or fruitfulness. If these avail, well. If not, the fig tree—by implication, every fig tree in the vineyard that continued barren—would be cut down.