The Barren Fig Tree

by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut


Then Jesus gave to the people the parable of "The Fruitless Fig Tree." He said:

"A man who had a fig tree growing in his garden came at the time when figs were ripe, looking for fruit, but found on it not a single fig. So he said to the gardener, 'Here I have come for three years looking for fruit on this tree, without finding any. Cut it down! Why should it take up room and rob the soil?'

But the gardener answered him, 'O please, sir, leave it one year more. I will dig around it and enrich the soil; then it may bear fruit next year. If it does not, then let it be cut down.'"