What does Luke 13:8 mean?
Jesus is warning a crowd of Jews that their identity as a group is in danger. He's telling a parable about a fig tree that hasn't borne fruit for three years. The owner wants to cut it down; the vinedresser wants one more chance to nurture it into growth by digging up the soil so water can reach the roots and covering it with nutrient-rich manure. If such care doesn't work, he will chop down the tree (Luke 13:6–7, 9).The fig tree represents Israel as a nation, but the idea can also be applied to individual Jews in the crowd. The owner is God the Father and the vinedresser is Jesus. "Digging up the soil" may refer to Jesus' teaching that disturbs the Jews' preconceived ideas about God and the world so the Holy Spirit can bring truth deep in their hearts. The three years parallels other periods of three years or three days in which a situation develops before a final decision or judgment (Genesis 40:12–13, 18–19; Exodus 15:22–24; 2 Samuel 24:13; 2 Kings 17:5; 18:10; Ezra 8:15, 32; 10:8; Nehemiah 2:11; Daniel 1:5; Luke 13:32–33).
Scholars say that the three years in which the tree did not bear fruit do not directly correlate to Jesus' three-year ministry. If it did, however, this extra year may be the ministry of the apostles in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Many Jews, Samaritans, and proselytes did accept Jesus as their savior (Acts 2:41, 47; 4:4; 6:7), but still the religious leadership, like the nation at large, did not (Acts 24:1–9).
Peter may have thought of this parable when he wrote, "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). God gave the Jews almost forty more years to turn to Christ. They refused, so God let the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and scatter the Jewish people throughout the world for some nineteen centuries.
The vinedresser has a parallel in Moses. While he was on Mount Sinai receiving God's law, the people were building and worshiping a golden calf. God told Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you" (Exodus 32:9–10). Instead of taking God up on His offer, Moses begged for mercy for the people. He also pointed out that destroying the people would tarnish God's reputation among the pagan nations. God relented. This seems to have been a test for Moses to solidify his understanding of God's character and to strengthen his resolve to lead the "stiff-necked people" (Exodus 32:11–14).
