⁶Then [Jesus] told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. ⁷So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

⁸‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! ⁹If not, then cut it down.’ ”

 (Luke 13:6-9 NIV)

Gottfried Thomasius served as a parish pastor in Nuremberg, Germany for 17 years and as a professor of dogmatics at the University of Erlangen for 33 years. In 1865, the General Synod of Bavaria recommended a set of Scripture readings he suggested for the church year to be used in all the churches of Bavaria. It became widely circulated and is still used by some churches today.

 One selection Thomasius made is the Luke 13:6-9 passage quoted above. He assigned it as the Holy Gospel for New Year’s Day, and since we are ready to begin a New Year ourselves, let’s go forward with a look back.

 That strange idea is at the heart of Luke 13:6-9. To reiterate, it’s the story of a tree that has given no fruit for three years. The landowner wants to cut it down because it’s using up space and depleting the ground of nutrients that other trees could use. But the caretaker of the vineyard pleads to keep it. All he wants is one more year to see if he can get fruit off of it. If not, he said the landowner could then cut it down.

 Start moving ahead with a backwards look! The tree needed a look back on lost opportunity and also on the kindness shown despite its failure to produce. If we look back on the last year, we can find ourselves in the tree’s condition. We are still here, but none of us would welcome or be able to stand up under a thorough audit by God of our fruitfulness.

 In the year now passing, did we do as much for Him and others as possible, given our space and time? Did we appreciate His resources, the time, the energy, the finances, and the people He has provided? Did we acknowledge our need every day for His saving grace, and did we take the fullest possible advantage we had to receive His means of grace every week?

That’s a difficult look back, but it’s a necessary look when we face the limited length of time we have on this earth. No one has a guaranteed extension of time. Now is the time for fruit! Jesus said, “As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4).

If we answer truthfully, we have to admit that the Landowner of all things is correct in saying that we deserve to be cut down based on our lack of fruitfulness. And like the caretaker for the tree in the parable, Jesus, our true and perfect caretaker sent from heaven, pleaded with the Father not to cut any of us down even though we deserve it by nature. “Father,” He said, “I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am” (John 17:24).

 And just like the caretaker in the parable, Jesus dug around us in the waters of baptism and keeps fertilizing us with His Word and Sacrament in public worship. But unlike the caretaker in our parable, instead saying the owner of the parable could cut the tree down if it proved to be unfruitful the following year, Jesus let the owner cut Him down on the tree of the cross where He paid for all our ongoing unfruitfulness year after year after year.

 And that’s the best way to go forward with a look back. As we move into 2007, God grant us to look back at what Jesus did for us on Calvary and how faithfully He took care of us in 2006. Those two things should be all the encouragement we need to produce our own fruit. But what fruit does God really want? That is also answered with a backwards look.

 You see, a look back shows more than our lack of producing, it also shows us our Savior promising to send us the Holy Spirit who brings us the forgiveness of sin. And where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. In other words, the fruit that God wants is faith in Christ as our perfect substitute before Him.

 Faith is the open hand that receives the gift. Faith is what gives us the conviction to believe that every day in 2007 will be a day under God’s grace no matter what sickness, loss, or trial might come our way. Faith is the conviction that everything works to the good of those who love God, and faith brings with it thankfulness for God’s graciousness beyond our expectations.

 The New Year is here. Two-thousand and six was a year of great blessing for Trinity. It was also a year filled with challenges, our new building, notwithstanding. And 2007 will also be a year of challenges, our new building, notwithstanding. But under God’s grace we have the victory, for our great God and Savior has taken care of the greatest problem each of us has—our own sin. And with sin forgiven we can continue looking ahead by looking back!