NOTES: 1] Neither Pilate's atrocity, nor the incident of the tower are known to us from any other source. They were no doubt local oral history. It was commonly held that disaster of any kind was punishment for sin! 2] The incident of the fig tree shows how well Jesus is tuned in to the concerns of daily life in a bare-sustenance society.

WARMING UP: Does our wide exposure to the media make us more compassionate about disasters, or deaden us to them?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Afterthoughts from, follow-up to last week’s Group, or since?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

1-5        Why do bad things happen to good people, or at least to people who aren't obviously bad? Have we ever had to wrestle with this issue in our personal life? What point have we reached in our personal journey? Is it really God doing bad things to people? Even if God doesn't cause them, why doesn't he do something to prevent them? Why would a good God let such things happen? Does what Jesus says here help break any connection we see between evil & punishment? Or is he just thinking like a typical 1st C person - which he was, humanly speaking? What is there about God revealed in Jesus, that moves us away from the traditional 'crime & punishment' view of bad things happening to anyone at all, good, bad, or indifferent?  Could we explain what we believe about this issue to someone outside the Body? What about inside?
            Do we ever look at other people & measure them on some sort of scale of goodness / badness? Do we ever not just  think of people like that, but go on to treat them according to how we think they rate on our scale? Is that our 'job', or are we usurping Someone Else's if we think that kind of thing / do that kind of thing? Despite the fact that we confess our sins & are assured of forgiveness in the liturgy, are we actually living a life that reflects our repentance & forgiveness - here & now, rather than there & then? Does living that quality of life necessarily insulate us from / protect us from harm in any form? If it doesn't, what does it do for us? What's the point, then, in persisting in repentance & the forgiveness we say Jesus brings?

6-9       Might this little parable possibly give us a glimpse into Jesus' mind, be a personal reflection by Jesus on the point his own ministry has reached over three years? Or is that too far-fetched?
            So far as our own ministry is concerned - yes, we all have one! - have we ever reached the point of not just throwing in the towel, but also 'chopping down' what we've achieved already? Are we ever tempted to take 'the axe' to someone / some project? Do we ever leave that figurative axe leaning up against somebody / something as a threat - or a promise? How good are we at 'digging around', 'fertilising' our understandings of faith, e.g. our congregation, projects we're involved in, our Home Group, etc., so that they grow on & produce fruit in due season? What might 'digging around', 'manuring' involve in our own setting?
             Is the threat of being cut down because we're not bearing fruit a thought we can bear? What use is a non-productive tree in God's garden? What if we're all living in that last year of grace granted to that unfruitful tree? Is there a message here?
Is there one good reason why we shouldn't respond to the thrust of the parable: be fruitful, or else!? Or is God not like that?