Everyone wants to blame somebody. Human relationships are full of it. And I don’t just mean politics and courts and insurance. I’m just meaning every day life. At the most basic level, we are negotiating how much of life happens to us over against how much of life happens because of us—usually in the negative. Luke 13:1-9 puts us in that kind of conversation, where Jesus tells his audience to look closer to home with their fault-finding. But pay attention to the parable, because the caution is not a conviction, but an invitation.
The fruitless fig tree isn’t ready, and the owner wants to clear the space in his garden. But the gardnener understands something—the third year is the year of fruit. So, he asks for another year to cultivate tree. Jesus’ caution is an invitation to not be stuck as the worst. It’s a call to not “otherwise perish.” It’s a call to repent, because even now he cultivates you to urge you into a year of fruitfulness.