Fourth Week in Lent

March 24th, 2025
by Schertz UMC

Bible Study & Questions

This would make a good study to do alone or with a small group.

Read Psalm 63:1-8

O God, eagerly I seek you

God, you are my God; I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
when I think of you on my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night,
for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

Read Luke 13:1-9

The parable of the fig tree

At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish just as they did." Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the man working the vineyard, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.'"

Study Questions

Bearing fruit is an important theme in Jesus’ teaching ministry (Matthew 3:10, Luke 5: 43-44, John 15:5-8). Why do you think “bearing fruit” is important for Jesus’ followers and what does it look like?

How is staying in love with God (Psalm 63) vital to bearing fruit? [Finding our strength and joy in God is crucial when the way grows weary.]

“I will meditate on you in the watches of the night.” What does it mean to meditate on God? [It could mean, as the preaching notes for this week suggest, “finding a memory, a word, a verse from the Bible, or, even better, a moment—a moment of joy and hope, a moment of encounter, of intimacy and healing, a moment of shared love and closeness and holding it like a jewel in your mind.”]

Rather than speculate on who the “worse sinner or worse offender” is in the two incidents mentioned in Luke 13:1-5, Jesus turns the focus back on the questioners, warning them to repent. How is Jesus’ sharp retort a helpful word to us? [1. Jesus has little interest in argument for the sake of argument. 2. Judging others isn’t in our job description. 3. True change starts with us.]

In the parable, the man working in the vineyard recommends practicing patience with the barren fig tree. What people or situations is God inviting you to practice patience with this coming week? What would “digging around it and putting manure on it” look like?

Prayer

O God, you are our God, help us to seek you with every fiber of our being, to praise you with every breath, to cling to you as if our lives depended upon it. Because they do. Reach down and hold us up, God. Hold us up. Amen.

Posted in Lent
Posted in Fourth Week in Lent, Bible Study, Bearing Fruit