Luke 13:6,7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And he spake also this parable With a view to awaken them more effectually to a deep and serious repentance: A certain man had a fig-tree in his vineyard And because it was planted in good soil, he came and sought fruit thereon Having good reason to expect it. Observe, he did not send, but came himself, which manifested his great desire to find fruit. Thus God came in the person of his Son, to his vineyard, the Jewish Church, Isaiah 5:1-7, seeking the fruits of righteousness. Observe, reader, the God of heaven requires and expects fruit from those that have a place in his vineyard, that are favoured with his word and ordinances, and the various means of edification and salvation. The leaves of an outward profession will not satisfy him; the crying Lord, Lord; nor will the blossoms of beginning well and promising fair suffice: there must be fruit; fruits meet for repentance, and proper to manifest that the gospel is not heard, and the ordinances of God administered and attended, in vain. And found none Little or no fruit did the Lord Jesus find produced by the Jewish people when he came to visit them. There was profession, indeed, in abundance, but little fruit. And it is an awful consideration still how many enjoy the privileges of the gospel, and yet bear no fruit to God's glory; neither ceasing to do evil, nor learning to do well, perhaps in almost any one instance; but going on in their old course of sin and vanity, unchanged, unreformed, both in principle and practice. Then said he to the dresser of his vineyard To the vine-dresser, as Dr. Campbell renders it. We may either understand God the Father by him that had the vineyard, and Christ by him that kept and dressed it; or Christ himself is he that hath it, and his ministers are the keepers and dressers of it. Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree The length of time it has been barren, while it has been favoured with all advantages for being fruitful, shows that it is good for nothing. Cut it down Root it out, and throw it away; why cumbereth it the ground? That is, not only beareth no fruit, but taketh up the ground of another tree that would bear some. This is spoken either by God the Father to Christ as the dresser of the vineyard, to whom all judgment is committed, or by him to the ministers of his gospel, who are in his name to declare this doom. “Many have supposed that the three years here mentioned allude to the time of Christ's personal ministry, which, as most have computed the chronology of the New Testament, had now lasted three years; but it is certain the patience of God bore with them much longer than another year. Grotius, therefore, thinks it more probable it may refer to the nature of a fig-tree, which, if it bear at all, generally begins to do it within three years after it is planted; but might certainly be looked on as barren, if it had disappointed the expectation of the planter three years together, after the time in which it should have yielded fruit.” Doddridge. Or, perhaps, the years in this parable may denote the whole duration of the Jewish dispensation. God came seeking fruit of the Jews in one space of time before the Babylonish captivity; in another, after their restoration; and in another again, in and by the preaching of John the Baptist, and of Christ himself. “But though this parable was originally meant of the Jews, it may be applied to unfruitful professors of religion in every age; for it exhibits a rule observed in the divine administration which should strike terror into all who enjoy spiritual privileges without improving them. Every man is allowed a certain time of trial, during which he enjoys the means and helps necessary to piety. If he continues ignorant of God's visitation, despises the riches of the divine mercy, and goes on obstinately in sin, these advantages are commonly taken away from him, his day of grace ends, the utmost term of God's patience is passed for ever, the Divine Spirit, being grieved, is provoked to depart, and the man is delivered over to a hardened heart, after which his repentance and salvation become impossible.” Macknight.