In reply he said to him, ‘Master, let it alone also this year, until I dig around it and put on manure;

4. After three and a half years of ministry by his representative on earth, in what way did the Planter find no fruit on the symbolic fig tree?

⁴ Jesus gave that parable sometime after the Jews celebrated the autumn festival of tabernacles (Succoth) in 32 C.E., hence, three years after he began his public ministry in the land of Israel. He was now in the fourth year of his evangelizing work. So in less than six months the nation of Israel would reject him and have him put to death on a stake outside the walls of Jerusalem. In return for three-and-a-half years’ work among the Israelites, he had only a few hundred disciples as fruitage of his labors. His heavenly Father, Jehovah God, had planted that symbolic tree of Israel. Rightfully, after three years and a half of special care and attention by his Son and representative on earth, he looked for fruit. But, comparatively speaking, he found none in the way of followers of his Son, the Messiah. Like the “vinedresser” of the parable, his Son had kept ‘digging’ around the symbolic fig tree halfway through the fourth year of his ministry. But to no avail.