Friday January 5, 2024
Luke 13:8-9
“Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should
bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”
Here Jesus tells us a little of what takes place behind the scenes with the coming of the new year.
In heaven there is conversation about unfruitful trees. There are many such in the orchard of God. They have been standing there since Baptism. For a while all went well. They grew and bore fruit. They lived childhood’s innocent life with God.
But then they stopped growing, and there was no fruit. The child had grown old enough to break with God.
Heaven has constantly, each year, tended and cared for the tree. And has expected each year that there would be fruit.
Thus the unconverted are permitted to live in their sins year after year. Under the protection of God, while God calls them.
But then a crisis occurs. That is what this Word of Jesus tells us about today. It becomes a question of cutting down the unfruitful tree. For it stands in the way. The unconverted husband hinders his wife, the unconverted father and mother hinder their children; the unconverted brother hinders his brothers, his sisters, and his companions from being converted.
Then Jesus intercedes for this unconverted person. He still has this way of seeking to save him.
I shudder at the thought that among those who hear these words today are some who at the beginning of this new year really should be cut down. But He has prayed that He might make one more attempt to save you.
Will Jesus succeed in this attempt?
That is for you to decide. This year. Now notice carefully the words of Jesus. You are living this year only because He made intercession that you might live. But He added these words, fraught with sadness and seriousness: “If it does not then bear fruit, cut it down!”
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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