“A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’ But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will bear fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”
(Luke 13:6-9)
This parable speaks about the contingencies which caused the coming of Jesus to the earth. The fig tree in the vineyard means humanity in Creation. Human beings did not yield the corresponding fruits as spiritual beings should. They where not collaborating with their share for the development and beautification of the immense vineyard of God. On the contrary they would become an illness inside Creation. This situation would provoke, by the inevitable consequence of the laws of Creation, a downfall of the entire humanity and as the sterile fig tree would need to be eliminated. Why should it be maintained in the vineyard?
The servant asking the owner of the vineyard if he could do a last trial implies an especial act of grace given by the Creator, not originally planned, conceding at least a last chance for a part of humanity to avoid total annihilation, which approached rapidly through those wrong doings. This act of love from the Creator consisted of sending His Son, as part of Himself to the site where the fig tree was planted with the objective to fertilize the soil so that fruits could be produced within the time granted.
The few people who have assimilated the teachings of Jesus started producing corresponding fruits. On the other hand, all the rest were just hanging on in the gigantic fig tree of humanity which now at the end of the granted period will be effectively cut off.