In botany, we learn that we must have a balance between the roots and the branches. If the roots become too strong, they will keep the nutrients down there, and they will not be pushed up into the branches. If the branches are too big, though, they suck up all the strength from the roots.
In the parable, a lot of effort was expended on keeping the tradition, the roots, the covenant, and the foundational elements of Israel balanced with not running too fast, not looking beyond the mark, knowing their (and our) place, and not getting too lofty. Those lofty branches are always lopped off. A lot of them are suckers that never produce anything way up there, but they take a lot of strength away from the root.
I have seen a lot of olive trees in California, Galilee, and other places, but it was not until we went to Sicily, driving along the highway, I noticed that all of the olive trees there had a flat top. They had butched the top of these trees. We ended up staying in a place where it was actually a farm, an agricultural touristic place, so we were able to talk to the owner who was very proud of the quality of the olive oil that they produced there. I asked him why the trees are all cut off. He said, "Well, there are two reasons we cut those off. The first is to make it easier to pick because they grow way up there. The second, we do not get really good fruit up high. The best fruit is grown on the lower branches."
Figure 6 Very old Olive Tree, in the garden of the Church of All Nations, Jerusalem. Photo: John W. Welch
Figure 7 Well-pruned olive orchard in western Sicily. Photo: John W. Welch