YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
We begin today with some comments on the second stanza of The Great Invocation; a stanza about Love. The first three stanzas of this prayer should be understood as reflecting the effective potencies of the Trinity which is God and which, when brought down to an individual level, the Trinity which is Man. Briefly the analogies are:
|
Aspect of God |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
|
Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
|
Son |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within the Form |
These names are, except for the God column, not to be considered as a final say on what these aspects and potencies are but are give in relation to the understanding that we have developed. There is much depth to this all and many ways of viewing this; The ideas in this chart are intended to give us a basic understanding concerning this part of the constitution of man and his relationship to God.
The second stanza prays:
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.
As we have in the past, let us define Love as we should see it in relation to our spiritual lives and in relation to this prayer; our definition of Love is: In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men1. Plus the ever important High Ideal as taught by the Christ: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12). This will be our starting point for our understanding of this stanza.
This stanza of the prayer starts with the idea of the Heart of God and this, like the mind of God must be deduced from the sayings of the Master and of the writers of the epistles. We begin with “God is love” (1 John 4:16) which corresponds to the chart above; Love is the potency of an aspect of God. What can we say of the Love that can stream forth from the heart of God? We can only glimpse it from the ideas that “God is love” and that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). In the combination of these we do only get a glimpse; Love is His very being and He shared it with us through the Christ who was sent to teach us and to suffer. Now we should also consider here that man, as a Soul, is also to be seen as the Love of God; Love is the nature of the Soul and of the Christ. The prayer then can be understood to be invoking the Love that is God and the Love that is the nature of the Soul and the nature of the Christ; that this Love be made to stream into the hearts of men which, like the mind is a part of the conscious personality. In fact, as we have established in previous posts, in bible terms the heart is the conscious personality. Looking then at our definition of Love and understanding its source, the Christ of God and our own Christ Within, we are praying that universal good will abound in the human family. And finally, we are invoking the Christ Himself to return to Earth and to bring with Him that Pure Love of God and His Peace and His Truth. Simply put, this is what we ask in praying this prayer.
From our previous posts we should have an understanding of the potency of Love in the teachings of the Master and this especially from His Great Commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37-39). In the words of the Master and of His Apostles there can be found no limit to the power of Love and the need to use it in our everyday lives. As a final testimony to the importance of Love we need only look at this saying by the Master: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15) which He repeats again as “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:23-24). And we know that to Jesus the Greatest Commandment is His commandment and it is His words. So it is Love and Love again and this is put to us ever so straightforwardly; no parable, no proverb.
Getting back to our study of the Parables of Jesus we today come to the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree. It goes thus:
“He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down” (Luke 13:6-9).
This parable is found only in the Gospel of Luke and appears to be of an obscure meaning however, considering that this is a parable, this should be expected. Taken on its surface it is a lesson in letting things grow and giving them all of the help and nourishment that one can; a tree can not be forced to bear fruit. Some commentaries paint this as the fig tree being the Jewish nation and/or the Pharisees and scribes. The certain man is God the Father and the dresser is the Master. The Jewish nation did not bear fruit and the Father suggests cutting it down but Jesus intercedes to try to ‘save’ the tree and get it to bear fruit. We know the end of the story. This is how this is interpreted in the (The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible)8: 6-9. fig tree–Israel, as the visible witness of God in the world, but generally all within the pale of the visible Church of God; a familiar figure (compare Isaiah 5:1-7, John 15:1-8 , &c.). vineyard–a spot selected for its fertility, separated from the surrounding fields, and cultivated with special care, with a view solely to fruit. came and sought fruit–a heart turned to God; the fruits of righteousness; compare Matthew 21:33, Matthew 21:34 , and Isaiah 5:2 , “He looked that it should bring forth fruit”; He has a right to it, and will require it. 7. three years–a long enough trial for a fig tree, and so denoting probably just a sufficient period of culture for spiritual fruit. The supposed allusion to the duration of our Lord’s ministry is precarious. cut it down–indignant language. cumbereth–not only doing no good, but wasting ground. 8. he answering, &c.–Christ, as Intercessor, loath to see it cut down so long as there was any hope (see Luke 13:34 ). dig, &c.–loosen the earth about it and enrich it with manure; pointing to changes of method in the divine treatment of the impenitent, in order to freshen spiritual culture. 9. if . . . fruit, well–Genuine repentance, however late, avails to save ( Luke 23:42, Luke 23:43 ). after that, &c.–The final perdition of such as, after the utmost limits of reasonable forbearance, are found fruitless, will be pre-eminently and confessedly just ( Proverbs 1:24-31, Ezekiel 24:13 ).
Knowing that this is a parable and that the surface meaning is not going to be what the Master meant, we are left to either our own ideas or to the explanations given by the commentaries about it. Though the above may be a likely way to interpret this, one would think that this line of explanation, as noted above, would not be necessary for the Master to cover in this way as He had already told them as much and clearly. So what is it that we can say about this Parable of the Barren Fig Tree?
First, it is interesting that the fig tree is planted in a vineyard among the vines that presumably produce their fruit. It is also interesting that the Master tells this story immediately after explaining the idea of repentance in regard to the Galilaeans killed by Pilate and the eighteen upon whom the tower fell in Siloam. If we take these ideas along with the actual parable, perhaps we can discern the intent of the Master in telling it. We have taken His answers to the questions about the Galilaeans and the fallen tower and have called it the Parable of Preparedness (In the Words of Jesus part 120) of which we said that the Master was explaining that these people did not die because of any wrong that they had done or because they were any worse than other people; they died because they were where they were at that time. The message to us is that we never know what may befall us and what may be our demise but we need to be ready, we need to repent and to change and to live righteous so that when the end does come we will be accounted worthy. If we are not worthy of the Kingdom while we live here on Earth, it is unlikely that we will be seen as such at the end.
Let us look now at the idea of the fig tree being in a vineyard. A vineyard, as we know, is a place where grapevines are planted and where one would work to grow grapes. In the Old Testament there reference to the metaphorical use of the word as the vineyard of the Lord being the House of Israel6 and this is likely the source of part of the commentaries above. For our purpose here let us see the vineyard as what it is, a place where we plant and grow fruit, and let us assume that it is fruitful. Vincent helps us here to understand the ideas enclosed in the words translated as “why cumbereth it the ground“; speaking of the fig tree he says: besides being barren in itself, it also injures the soil. “Not only is it unfruitful, but it draws away the juices which the vines would extract from the earth, intercepts the sun, and occupies room” (Bengel). The verb cumbereth (katargeo) means to make of no effect4.
Putting these ideas together with the parable we can come to this interpretation of the words of the Master remembering that in His word we should always find something of redeeming value to us today and not just a historical perspective. We have the fig tree planted in the vineyard representing a man living on the Earth. We assume that Jesus means to say, by not saying anything, that the vineyard is fruitful and so we extend this idea to the Earth or the area of the Earth where this man is. In the previous Parable of Preparedness we saw that the Lord does not take action to eliminate persons because they are sinners or because they are greater sinners than others and we need to extend this thought to this parable the Master tells at the end of His explanation of this. We have then a fig tree that is not fruitful and that is able to take away some of the resources of the healthy and fruitful plants in the vineyard and the thought arises that the tree be cut down to allow the sun and the moisture and the nutrients to flow unimpeded to the other plants. It matters not who we call the owner of the vineyard nor who we call the dresser and we will discuss this a bit later; for now, we will just say the thought arises to cut the tree and then the idea is reconsidered and the plant is allowed to exist for yet another year. For another year the tree is cared for and nurtured and encouraged to bear its fruit.
As with many things that we discuss here regarding the Lord, we should see this too as not being a real time frame nor a final act but as a part of an ongoing action. We should see that this same tree will be talked of in this same way until it bears fruit or ceases to be a tree in the vineyard. So the point here is that the Lord is not going to destroy a tree or a person because he is unfruitful much like as in His previous answers where Jesus tells us that the Lord is not killing those men (the Galilaeans and those killed by the fallen tower) because they were more evil than others; in fact, He is not killing them at all. Here, in this parable, we have also the introduction, into the whole of the two parables woven together, of patience and longsuffering. The Apostle Peter tells us of this in saying that “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish , but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9) which, in a sentence, can be seen as the reality of this Parable of the Barren Fig Tree. This same idea comes to us from the Old Testament as: “But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering , and plenteous in mercy and truth“. (Psalm 86:15). So we have precedence for our explanation in the Psalm and confirmation in the words of the apostle.
As to the persons, we can see this in a number of ways but this does not seem to really add anything to the established point. We can see the owner as the Father God and the dresser as the Christ saying that God would destroy the tree, or the man, but the Christ says let us wait another season and that He will take extra care of the tree. Does this really make good sense to us based on what we know of our God and of the Christ? We can also look at this in a more personal way as we are prone to do with many of the sayings of the Master; we can posit that the owner is our Spiritual self, the Life that IS and that the dresser is the Soul, the Son, the Inner Man, who brings the Life that IS into manifestation. We can then say that the fig tree is the carnal man who does not hear the call of his Soul, of the Christ Within. Here we would need to say that the Life that IS grows tired of this existence and sees nothing coming from it but the Soul says let me try another season to get the carnal man’s attention and so it goes for another season. This would be a cumbersome idea from which to govern life in form especially seeing how much there is that is unfruitful.
So we are left with the ideas of the commentators or with our idea; in ours only is there a message for today. Be ready for what can happen and do not despair for the Lord is patient and longsuffering. Come to fruit as quickly as you can because you never know when your opportunity will end and the Lord will wait until the end for you to come.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment. If you have not seen this before, this should be viewed as, like John and Jesus to the Jews, something new and different.
The Quote of the Day for today is called The Great Invocation. It is a world prayer given to us by The Christ. We will leave this up and go through it in parts over the coming days. This prayer should be to us today what the Lord’s Prayer was yesterday.
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.
From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
- 1 Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 6Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
