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Today's Reading
John 15:1-17 - The wine and the branches
Today's reading is taken from John chapter 15, verses 1 through 17.
The wine and the branches. I am the through wine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the wine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the wine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers.
Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory, that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples.
As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my father's commands, and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends. For everything that I learned from my father, I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit. Fruit that will last, and so that whatever you ask in my name, the father will give you. This is my command, love each other.
This is the word of the Lord.
Moving From Upper Room to Upper Room
We're in this season of Lent where we're moving with Jesus and the disciples from the moment of the Last Supper, the Lord's Supper, to the betrayal and Jesus' arrest in the garden. And then, of course, the events of Easter, Him going to the cross and rising to new life on Easter Sunday, the story doesn't end there, of course, and we see eventually another upper room where the disciples are gathered and the Holy Spirit that Jesus promises, particularly in this passage, in these passages, comes upon the people of God. So we're moving from upper room to upper room, and it's very instructive for all of us when we see what happens behind closed doors.
We're in a bit of a time in our world where things that have happened behind closed doors or closed emails are coming to light. In reams and reams of files, in churches, we're seeing what leaders have been like behind closed doors when they haven't had the spotlight on them, and sometimes that has been very ugly indeed.
Of course, we also have the opportunity to see what happens behind closed doors when you or I are under pressure, when we're facing something very stressful, and we look at the way in which we respond to our family, who we are when no one's watching, and we know that in this moment what is in our heart is revealed. Well, when Jesus is with his disciples behind closed doors, we see a heart that is for their good. We see a man full of purpose and integrity. We see one who is facing well, great suffering and death, and yet whose concern is for his friends.
Identity, Purpose, and Mission
We see this. On the night before he died, Jesus loved his disciples by speaking to them of identity, purpose, and mission. He comforted them, yes, but he also prepared them to bear fruit. Now, this whole part of John's Gospel, chapter 13 to 17, is about identity, purpose, and mission. Jesus' identity, Jesus' purpose, Jesus' mission, the Father's identity, the Father's purpose, the Father's mission, the Spirit's identity, purpose, and mission, and the disciples' identity, purpose, and mission, our identity, purpose, and mission.
So Jesus begins in chapter 13 not with words of identity, purpose, and mission, but with an action. He, as the meal is coming to a close, wraps a towel around his waist and washes the disciples' feet. In this action, he explains his identity as one who serves their identity and their purpose to serve and love one another, and he gives them this new command.
John 13 - A New Command
This is chapter 13, a new command I give you, love one another. As I have loved you in this way of sacrifice, of service, of purpose, you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.
Now, I read particularly from chapter 13 because when we get to chapter 15, we're really seeing the same message, the message that was enacted by Jesus, the new commandment that was given, and then now hear these words to the disciples for them being prepared to bear fruit. But let's have a look in the text what Jesus tells us, first of all, about the Father's identity, purpose, and mission and his identity, purpose, and mission, and we'll take a moment to unpack these while we're having a look at them.
The Father as the Gardener
The Father, Jesus says, is the gardener. He, it is his job to prune and remove, to bring about the best conditions for there to be fruit, because what is his mission? Well, he is glorified by fruit, by fruit being born by human beings. He loves the Son. He gives commands to the Son. He answers prayers in the Son's name. The Son is the true vine. He has the purpose of remaining in believers and them remaining in him. He loves as the Father loves. He obeys the Father. He reveals the Father, and he has a mission to choose and appoint disciples who will bear fruit.
So, why would it be important that the Father and the Son are revealed in this way to us on this last night when Jesus has this moment behind closed doors with his disciples? Well, I wonder if you think about the Father as a gardener, whether it takes you back to the Garden of Eden. We think about humankind made in God's image and placed in a garden. Their job was to cultivate the garden and make sure that it was beautiful and fruitful, and the intention of God was that the conditions of Eden, the beauty that was there, would actually start to move across the whole earth.
That the whole earth would, through the work of humankind as they grew in number and understood their purpose and mission to live in the Father's love, in the conditions in his garden, and bring about fruit on the earth. That was the purpose. That's what it was going to glorify. That's how we were going to glorify God. By bringing the beauty of Eden and the right living between people and God and people and people and people on the earth over the whole face of the world.
The True Vine
But as that began to unravel, I don't know, it didn't take very long, the the Father chooses another way. The gardener chooses another way. And we've had the story of Abraham and the establishment of the people of God. And God calls the people of God, at lots of places in the Old Testament, either his vine or his vineyard. So when Abraham goes to a land that wasn't his and the people of God is established there and it grows, and that's described by the prophets and in the Psalms as a vine being planted.
In Canaan. And the purpose and mission was that that vine, this little people of God, again would grow. That the fruit from that, the health from that, would get larger and larger. It would reach everywhere. And people would come basically to eat of its fruits, to enjoy it. They would want to be part of it. They'd actually want to be part of this vine or vineyard themselves because it was so wonderful.
Now the prophets start to talk about how that unravelled as well by saying that the vine went wild. It started to, rather than producing beautiful, useful grapes, it produced wild grapes of violence and injustice and idolatry. It became unfruitful. And so Jesus talks, uses some metaphors about the way in which the people of God, like a vineyard, really hasn't been fruitful at all. And when the gardener, the owner, was to come, what would he find there?
But Jesus then, in saying, I am the true vine, says, okay, the Garden of Eden, well, it failed. The vine of Israel, it failed. God's purposes, however, never fail. And so the Messiah comes as the true vine. And he is planted on the earth amongst human beings, as a human, and he bears fruit. And you read the Gospels and you see the fruit. You see the fruit of compassion. You see the fruit of restoration, of multiplication, people being fed, people being healed, injustice being confronted, hypocrisy being called out.
And this is exactly the sort of fruit that God intended for his original vine, the people of Israel, to show. When you read in Isaiah 5 about the vine that God planted, the grapes that he wanted them to bear, well, actually, it was justice and righteousness. God wanted to create a people on the earth who would do the things that humans need to do so that all humans can flourish and be blessed.
The Fruit of the Spirit
And so when Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, these are the same sorts of things that God intended that humans would have so that the sorts of things that are happening in Iran, the sorts of things that maybe sometimes happen in our homes and families, don't happen. The fruit of the Spirit, Paul says, is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
If the vine of God's people, if humankind, bore this kind of fruit day in and day out, what our homes would be, what our nation would be, what our world would be, what our relationship to ourselves would be. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the things that humans need to help humans to flourish.
But if humans couldn't do it, then God would bring a Messiah who would be the true vine and who would start it again, who would be the vine or the vineyard that would grow and bear fruit. And as people came to him and shared in his life, then they too would bear the sort of fruit that he bore.
So when last week Jesus says, you will do the works that I do and you'll do greater works than these, it's not because somehow we're going to be kind of taking his mission and running with it and making it more strategic and, you know, getting our KPIs even more sharp, all of those things. No, it's because we are going to be participating in his life as the vine moves out over the whole earth. And so the Son is the true vine and we, the disciples, are the branches in the vine. Or it's possible that both the image of vineyard and vine can kind of work together, that Jesus is the vineyard and we are the vines, he is the vine and we are the branches. Both are true. We are clean because of his word.
Clean Because of His Word
In chapter 13, Jesus is washing their feet and Peter says, no, you're not going to wash mine. And he says, yes, I must, you must be clean by me. And Jesus and Peter says, no, okay, well then wash my whole body. And he says, no, you're already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Now that's quite fascinating and we often skip over it in this because we've got this amazing, much easier picture of a vine and branches. But Jesus' words in John's Gospel are way more than education. They are spirit and life. They are actually coming, the expressions of who he is himself, because what does he say? He is the word. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
When he speaks his words, he's not just telling us about the Father, his words are actually powerful. And so when we listen to them, when we receive them and respond to them, his salvation life is actually doing its thing in us. We're not just learning something. Jesus' words clean us. They are powerful and effective.
Remaining and Bearing Fruit
And so this is who we are. This is our identity. We're branches in the vine. We're clean because of his word, but then we have a purpose. We're called to remain in him and in his love. Sometimes that word's translated abide and we'll talk about that in a minute. Our purpose is to remain in the life of the vine and then our mission is to bear fruit when we remain.
Now we know that we long for the comfort of Jesus in this time because he's going to the cross, but actually he refuses just to give comfort that would be passive. He says no, no. Yes, you have an identity that you're remaining in me and I in you and that is beautiful, but you have a purpose and you have a mission and it is to bear fruit and you know that because you could be pruned for greater fruitfulness because by bearing fruit you show that you are my disciples.
You are my friends, but my friends are fruitful. You are chosen. That's identity. You are appointed. That's purpose. To go and bear lasting fruit, that's mission. We are invited to ask in his name for the purpose of our mission and then we are commanded to bear the greatest fruit of all which is love for one another. How will people want to come and be part of this vineyard or vine? They will see our love for one another. So let's take some time to think about fruitfulness, abiding and pruning.
The Passionfruit Vine Lesson
So Jesus comes straight out with it. I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit whilst every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. God wants us to bear fruit for him, but it's not something that we can do on our own.
This is a passion fruit vine. My gardening is moderate, but this is my sister's passion fruit vine. My sister is a teacher in a Christian school and so she does not lose any opportunity for an object lesson. This is her shed and she sent me a picture of this earlier in the year. This is the great passion fruit vine looking amazing and this is it on the inside of the shed.
Now actually she and I had a grandma whose house had vines inside it through the walls. It was a very old house in Malvern and it added to its charm. But this one is in the shed, less concerning, comes through from the outside and what struck her was that the environment in the shed was not at all conducive to fruit being born on a vine. It's dark. Knowing sheds and my sister, it probably had rodents in it and it did not have rain. It did not have sun. It did not have really fresh air.
But it bore fruit, not because of its external circumstances, but because it was part of this guy. This guy had the life. This guy had the roots in the ground. This guy had what it needed to flourish and then the fruit could grow, well, it could grow anywhere. The disciples of Jesus are facing times, which indeed would be very dark. You and I face many challenges, not only in our own personal lives, but thinking about our friends and family here and overseas. But the Lord promises that we do not need external circumstances to bear fruit. We simply need to remain in him.
Now, I've trimmed my grape vine and I actually brought some fruit as well. There were lots of fruit on this vine and the Karawongs enjoyed every last one of them. They pick them like individually and then toss them back. It was... Anyway, I enjoyed that they enjoyed it. Phil and Phoebe don't eat grapes anyway, so I don't know what I was going to do with all of them, so I picked these.
The truth is that even if there was water in this jar, these branches that are now no longer on the vine would never, ever, ever grow fruit. Ever. I could put them in the sun. I could give them the best water. I could put, you know, something fancy and expensive in the jar that I was funneled to buy on Instagram. And still they would not bear fruit. They'll only bear fruit as they remain, as they abide in the vine.
Abiding in the Vine
Now, sometimes when we hear abide, we imagine something quite devotional, that we need to... Abiding is spending time soaking in the Lord's presence, that we abide in him through prayer. Now, you can do that tomorrow night here, 7.45 for an 8 p.m. start, and it won't do you any harm at all. But it's only a sliver of what Jesus means by abiding. What he means is that we would be in a lifelong, everyday, permanent, covenant relationship with him.
This was a beautiful quote from a new commentary I recently received, and I thought it was fascinating, given that this is in the context of the Last Supper, Lord's Supper installation that Jesus would have... that they kind of talk about in the Synoptic Gospels, but it's not spoken about in John at this evening upper room meal. Jesus in John never mentions the word covenant, like this is the new covenant in my blood, but abiding in love goes to the heart of it. A permanent, living bond of trust, long-term faithfulness, and utter commitment to God and other people.
So John's account of the Last Supper omits Eucharist and covenant, the establishment of the Lord's Supper, yet through this figure of the vine or vineyard, together with the image of abiding, it offers us a way of understanding, deepening, and living both Lord's Supper and covenant. Centered on who Jesus is and the call to abide in him. Yes, absolutely, abiding means praying. We've seen that in Jesus' life as he connects to the Father. But abiding is a day in and day out obedient commitment in a covenant of love with God.
There's not a scale of am I abiding enough really, like I think if only I, then I would, no, you're in the vine or you're not in the vine. And the vine brings the life. You remain in Christ through your faithful commitment to him. You don't measure sap flow, you remain connected. You don't even worry necessarily about intensity of feeling. It's about direction of trust, always. Are we turning toward him?
- And if you want to see fruit, is it quicker and quicker each time you turn away?
- Are you choosing obedience when it's costly? What are your words like to your parents, your children, your siblings, your spouse?
- Are you resisting sin rather than excusing it? Are you breaking generational cycles in your family through allowing God to make sure your sin doesn't impact your kids or your sibling or your spouse?
- Are you delighting in God's Word and world? Instead of being overcome by cynicism and despair.
- Do you long for others to know Christ even if you're not really sure how to play your part in that?
This was my description. This is my way of thinking about my abiding. Are we loving Jesus day in and day out? Remaining in him, the fruit will come. You're probably showing a lot more of it than you think. So fruitfulness comes through remaining in Christ.
And as I said earlier, one of the key ways that Jesus talks about his life being in us is in his Word. Dorothy Lee in her commentary says to abide in Jesus' words is the same as abiding in Jesus himself and in his love. To abide in Jesus' Word means to make one's home in him. To find a center there, rest and discover the trust which overcomes anxiety and fear. I loved what Nick did with the kids. Because isn't that right? There will always be the power of God for us in the Word of God and we abide in Jesus himself as we remain in his Word.
The Pruning Process
But let's talk about pruning. Now, again, this was okay. Like Phil hates it when I prune because it feels, not because I'm super bad at it. I am a little enthusiastic. But because it takes such a long time for plants to grow. I've complained about nill and big soil before. And so once you prune them, you feel like, ah, but that, they were just getting this lovely and I'm big and the... No, if you want something to grow, to flourish in a garden, particularly a domesticated plant that bears fruit, it has to be pruned.
We've come to an agreement on it now. It's totally fine. But, so this, even if I'd cut back the vine to something that looked super ugly, like just a stump. Sometimes that's what you have to do, right? If the gardener prunes something for autumn and winter and it ends up looking scarred and horrible and sad, that actually does not mean that in spring and summer it stays like that. In spring and summer, in the right time, after God's pruning, then the plant flourishes and grows and bears more fruit than it even would have before.
Sometimes you even have to cut some of the fruit off, so that the fruit that is left grows bigger and comes to its proper sweetness and size. Paul Metzger talks about pruning like this, I hate it when God takes away my props and my crutches. Whoever said Christianity is a crutch, that person had no idea what true Christianity is like. I wish it were a crutch. I would feel so much more secure. Instead, God keeps pruning me, removing the crutches and the props that I depend on, so that I will depend only on Jesus.
The disciples were moving toward a time of pruning, absolutely. They would learn things about themselves that were ugly and they needed to see them. They would go through grief that would shock them into saying, God, what are you doing? They would need to be with each other. They would, much of what they thought they had received from the Lord would feel weak and yet this was the way in which it was appointed for them to become more fruitful.
They were not plan B, they were plan A of the Messiah's people and they needed to be pruned and they and us would continue to need to be pruned as history unfolded. I hope the church is going through a pruning now, worldwide, for fruitfulness. And I know that for some of us as we go through suffering and worry, actually God is doing that pruning work. So, remaining and pruning are the ways in which we will bear fruit.
Called to Love and Bear Fruit
And I just wanted to finish with Jesus' words of purpose and mission. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. And so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you.
This is my command, love each other. We're called to be a community that is not just comforted by the presence of Jesus, but bears fruit for him. We are called to be a community that doesn't just have prayer when people are in need, but prayer for our participation in the mission of God. And we are called to be a community that will be so attractive to the world because we love each other.
