Jacob 5

Do you remember the words of the prophet Zenos to the family of Israel?

The family of Israel, says Zenos, is like a cultivated olive tree in a man’s vineyard.

When the olive tree grew old and began to decay, the devoted vineyard master attempted to preserve its life. He pruned, cultivated, and fertilized the ground around it. Many days later, the tree began to sprout a few tender new branches, while the top of the tree began to die.

When the master saw this, he directed his servant to go gather fresh branches from a wild olive tree, to graft on and replace the dying branches. The dying branches were then removed and burned so that they would not clutter the grounds of the vineyard. In addition, the master collected some healthy new shoots from the favored tree and planted them himself, in hidden places around the vineyard, in order to preserve the fruit in case the favored tree’s roots should die. Having done this, they continued to prune, cultivate and fertilize the favored tree in hopes of preserving its life.

After a long while, the master and servant came again and surveyed the vineyard to see the results of their efforts. The wild olive branches that had been grafted onto the favored tree had thrived and now began to bear fruit that resembled the tree’s former fruit. The master told his servant that if they hadn’t grafted on the wild branches, the favored tree would have surely died, but now would yield good olives. There would be an abundance for them to gather, preserve, and enjoy.

When they went into the far reaches of the vineyard to observe the branches from the favored tree that had been planted, they saw that the first of these branches thrived and also brought forth abundant fruit. The servant asked why the master had chosen this particular location, as it was one of the poorest places in the vineyard. The master replied that he knew it was a poor spot, but told the servant to look for himself, and notice that because of the master’s efforts the branch had taken hold and given good olives to be gathered.

The next branch had been planted in an even worse spot, but it too thrived and bore good olives because of the master’s efforts. Gather up these olives also, the master directed.

The last branch had been planted in good ground and had been equally cared for, but only a part of the tree brought forth good olives, while the rest of it gave wild fruit that was of no value. The master then directed the servant to remove the branches from this tree that yielded the wild fruit and burn them. But the servant suggested that they should prune, cultivate, and fertilize the tree instead, and see if giving it more time would bring better fruit. Accordingly, all the trees were then equally nurtured.

After another long stretch of time, the servant and master again visited the vineyard to survey the trees and gather up the olives for storage. The favored tree, onto which the wild branches had been grafted, now bore fruit in abundance, but none of the olives were any good. The master asked the servant what he thought should be done to get harvests of good olives. The servant observed that even though the olives were bad, the grafting had preserved the roots of the tree from dying. The master replied that the living roots did him no good if the tree brought forth bad fruit. Even though the roots were good now, the tree had brought forth so many wild branches and so much bad fruit that it was again beginning to die. Unless something was done to save the tree, it would end up in the fire.

They went out into the far reaches of the vineyard to visit the branches from the favored tree that had been planted. They found that all of them now bore bad olives, also. They found that the bad branches from the last tree had overpowered the good branch and caused it to die. In anguish, the master cried aloud, asking what more could he have done? All of his olives were now bad and the olive trees in his vineyard were good for nothing except burning.

The master now lamented the fact that he had not cut off the bad branches from the last tree which had been planted in good ground, as they had overwhelmed and destroyed the good branches. “How has my good vineyard become so corrupted that it now needs to be destroyed and burned?” cried the master.

Again, the servant intervened, and pointed out that the wild branches were overwhelming the good roots, and taking their strength for bad purposes. When the servant asked the master to wait a little longer before destroying the olive trees, the master conceded. He directed the servant to remove the best branches from the planted trees and graft them back on to the favored tree to replace the worst of the favored tree’s branches, for its roots were still strong. Perhaps this would restore good olives to the vineyard and they might yet overcome the bad ones.

So the master and all of his servants went again and labored in the vineyard, knowing that this was the last time that an attempt would be made to restore the favored olive tree. When the branches were grafted, the last ones to be removed were the first to be replaced, and the first ones removed were the last to be replaced. All the trees were again pruned, cultivated, and fertilized for the last time. As the newly grafted branches began to grow, those that brought forth bad olives were cleared away at once so that they could not overpower the good roots. Room was made for the good branches to thrive as the bad branches were cleared away and burned.

The branches that had been removed from the favored tree were brought back and grafted together again. The favored tree began to thrive as the bad branches were destroyed. Through diligent effort, the good branches and the good roots were kept in balance so that the bad branches no longer overwhelmed the favored tree’s vitality. In the end, the branches of the favored tree were restored and all the branches yielded good olives again.

Seeing the success of their final effort, the master called all the servants into the vineyard and said to them, “Look, the vineyard has been restored according to my will and the olives are as good now as they were in the beginning. I bless you for your diligence in carrying out my instructions, and share with you my joy at our success. For the last time I have pruned, cultivated, and fertilized the vineyard. When the time comes that bad olives again present themselves, both will be gathered, but the good olives will be preserved, while the bad ones will be cast into the fire and destroyed at the end of the season.”