Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Third Sunday in Lent

He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ” (Luke 13:6–9)

Now the literal sense of this passage does not need a single word of explanation. When we search into its inward, secret and unseen meaning, we affirm it as follows. The Israelites, after our Savior's crucifixion, were doomed to fall into the miseries they deserved, Jerusalem being captured, and its inhabitants slaughtered by the enemy's sword. Their houses would be burned with fire, and even the temple of God demolished. It is probable that He compares the synagogue of the Jews with a fig tree. The sacred Scripture also compares them with various plants: the vine, the olive, and even to a forest.… He says, “Look, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?” It is as if He would say, “Let the place of this barren fig tree be laid bare; then some other tree will come up or may be planted there.” This was also done. The crowds of the Gentiles were called into its place and took possession of the inheritance of the Israelites. It became the people of God, the plant of paradise, a good and honorable seed. It knows how to produce fruit, not in shadows and types but rather by a pure and perfectly stainless service that is in spirit and truth, as being offered to God, who is an immaterial Being.

Now it is necessary to to inquire, who is to be understood as the vinedresser.… If anyone should say that the vinedresser is the Son, this view also has a suitable reason on its side. He is our Advocate with the Father, our propitiation, and the gardener of our souls. He constantly prunes away whatever is harmful and fills us with rational and holy seeds so we may produce fruits for him. He spoke of Himself, “A sower went out to sow his seed.” It does not influence the glory of the Son to assume the character of the vinedresser. The Father assumes it Himself, without being exposed to any blame for so doing. The Son said to the holy apostles, “I am the Vine; you are the branches; My Father is the Vinedresser.”

Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on St. Luke 96