“I shall fertilize it and cultivate around it
and maybe it will bear fruit. If not, then cut it down.”
There is something called a false dilemma or false dichotomy.
It is a rhetorical tool to win an argument.
It is not a tool that seeks truth.
It puts two apparent opposites as a contrast
to force somebody to choose one or the other
when the truth lies somewhere in between.
It is the false idea of either/or versus both/and.
We use it playfully sometimes in our language
in small sort of meaningless things;
like was it hot today; or was it cold today?
It’s hot in the sun but it is cold in the shade.
It’s neither/nor right?
Or I could give an example in politics but,
yeah,I might scorch myself or somebody else
so let’s not do that.
But it is used in moral argumentation all the time rather manipulatively
to try to get you to be either for us or against us.
It’s that kind of thinking
“you are either for us or against us;
if you are not for us then you must be against us.”
It is not to seek the truth.
It is to win an argument so it is manipulative actually by its intent.
The religious leaders, the Sadducees and the Pharisees,
are constantly using this rhetorical tool of false dilemmas
with Jesus about God and trying to entrap him.
They are at it again today.
That is where we pick up this reading.
Remember they believe that God was a God of good & evil
and therefore if you were good then God blessed you;
and if you were evil then God cursed you.
It was a black or white thing; it was either/or.
There was no in-between.
If you died accursed, then you must have been evil
even though we didn’t know it.
And if good things happened to you,
you must be good even though we didn’t know it.
That was their logic.
And they were constantly trying to catch Jesus to say that.
The example that comes up today is the Galileans.
Pilate had killed these Galileans while they sacrificed
which meant that their blood got mingled with the sacrifice,
which was the against the law so therefore they must have been evil
even though we didn’t know it.
That is the logic.
Then Jesus gives us another example:
The 18 people who were killed when there was an accident
and the Tower of Siloam falls on them in Jerusalem.
And they all said, “Well that is a terrible accident;
they must have been evil even though we didn’t know it
because that bad thing happened to them.”
And Jesus turns it right back on them.
He says ‘look, no. They are no more evil than you are.
In fact, you need to repent because of your sins
or you will die like they did.”
Then he gives the example of the fig tree.
Remember when Jesus gives an example in a parable,
there is a zinger coming. Right?
We have to break this open to understand what the zinger is;
he comes along and sees the fig tree.
If it is not producing any fruit, he wants to cut it down.
Again, using their logic of black and white.
It is not a producing tree; it is useless so cut it down.
And then the gardener says. “Oh, no, no.
Let me fertilize it and then hopefully it will bear fruit.”
In other words, Jesus brings in this God of Mercy
and they do not like that message.
It is not an either/or thing but a both/and.
Now here is the zinger:
the fig tree did not produce bad fruit.
What type of fruit did it produce?
No fruit. None at all.
He is looking to them and of course,
the zinger is that it is not enough just to obey the law
but unless you produce fruit, you are no good.
I am going to come back and cut you down.
We all come to Church here on Sunday and we do no harm.
We are not out killing anyone.
We are not fighting in some sort of terrible war.
We might think, “Well, I’m not doing anything wrong.
I didn’t produce any bad fruit.”
But did we produce any good fruit?
We have no fruit at all.
It is not enough just to avoid evil.
We actually have to do good.
We have to produce fruit.
And that is where the real zinger comes in;
it is not enough just to fulfill the law by doing
what we need to do to avoid evil;
we have to actually do more than just be a believer in Jesus.
We have to be a follower of Jesus.
We have to go back to the first reading
to understand how does then God work;
and how are we called to follow him
Let’s break this open a little and understand the context.
Moses was a murderer.
He is not the one who held up the law.
He murdered an Egyptian official
because he had said or done something against the Jewish people.
Now, he is running for his life.
He is in the desert, wandering around and he is a shepherd.
As he is walking, he notices a bush is on fire but it is not burning.
Now that is something extraordinary happening
to an ordinary bush that is on fire.
And what he does is he walks in to take a closer look.
As he walks in to take a closer look, God says,
“Moses. Moses. Stop. You are on holy ground.”
We notice what happens first is that Moses has to move.
He has to notice God in the ordinary.
Something extraordinary happens in the midst of the ordinary.
Then he moves and then God gives him his new call.
Now there is what we are meant to follow.
We are meant to notice God in the ordinary
and then move towards it and then God speaks to us;
not in a bounding voice or a thunderous clap
but he speaks to us in quiet voice that speaks to us.
It might not be coming from a burning bush
but in the ordinary, we will hear God speak to us.
That is all great exegesis and that’s wonderful, Fr. Brendan.
What does that mean for our daily life?
If we are struggling with something like
when we are trying to work with someone who is difficult at work;
and we tend to just want to judge them and move away,
we are called instead to move a little closer
and see where the wonder of this is in the middle of it.
And as we move in closer to them, and listen to their story,
we will then hear how God is calling us to walk with him.
Or for those students who are here,
maybe that one kid in the classroom
that always seem to bother us;
we just do not understand.
Instead, if we remain at a distance;
we judge him at a distance;
but if we move in close,
we will see how God is operating in his live.
Or for all of us, that homeless person;
or that person who struggles with mental illness;
or that person who right now is a refugee in Ukraine;
we can look and say, “Oh, really. That’s terrible.”
But when we move in close, and watch and listen to their story,
our heart has to be broken by these stories.
That is what Lent is all about.
Lent is metanoia, changing the direction in which we are going;
we move and we turn towards God.
That is what will produce more fruit.
That is the cultivation of the soil of our hearts.
Where is God asking you to move?
Where is God asking you to shift?
And to listen to somebody’s story?
To be moved by the reality, the pain and suffering of somebody’s life.
So that we can produce more fruit.
“I shall fertilize it and cultivate around it
and maybe it will bear fruit. If not, then cut it down.”
