Abiding In Christ, Lesha Cantrell

John 15:1-13 

¹I AM the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.

    ²Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.

    ³You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word which I have given you [the teachings I have discussed with you].

    ⁴Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.

    ⁵I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

    ⁶If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.

    ⁷If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.

    ⁸When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine.

    ⁹I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me].

    ¹⁰If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father's commandments and live on in His love.

    ¹¹I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.

    ¹²This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you.

    ¹³No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.

John 15: 1-8 — I Am the Vine

The various themes introduced in John 13 were developed through chapter John 14, including the key elements of a farewell speech. Finally, Jesus said, ‘Rise, let us go from here’ (John 14:31). However, they do not do this until John 18: 1. Some scholars suggest that John 15-17 were inserted later. However, even if John 14:31 originally led into John 18: 1, the gospel as we have it today, and in every ancient copy, includes these chapters here. Others suggest that they set out at John 14:31 and these three chapters are delivered by Jesus on the way to Gethsemane. Since these chapters develop many of the key themes, it is better to see Jesus’ comment as giving some urgency to the Discourse. After all, it is not unusual at dinner-parties to say, ‘we really must be going’, several times before actually departing, such is the interesting conversation!

The true vine and the farmer

Jesus now introduces the last ‘I am’ saying: ‘I am the true vine’ (John 15: 1).The vine, from which wine comes, reminds us immediately of the institution of the holy communion in bread and wine in the other gospels, but absent here. This may be a hint for those who are ‘in the know’ to look beyond the words to the deeper spiritual level, as Jesus prepares his disciples for his death. He gives them another ‘figure’, or mashal, like the door and the shepherd(John 10: 1-6). In the other ‘I am’ sayings, Jesus applied the great Hebrew images of bread, light, shepherds and so forth, usually used for the law, to himself. Here he takes the vine — the supreme image, not just of the law or faith, but the very people of God themselves. Israel was a ‘vine brought out of Egypt’ and planted by God (Psa. 80: . Regrettably, most references suggest a lack of fruitfulness. Isaiah speaks of a ‘vineyard on a very fertile hill … which only yielded wild grapes’ (Isa. 5: 1-4; see also Jer. 2:21). None the less, the vine was an emblem on the coins of the Maccabean leaders, which recalls the good and bad shepherds (see on John 10:22).

In contrast, Jesus is the ‘true vine’. The eucharistic discourse after the miraculous feeding said that his flesh is ‘true food’ and his blood ‘true drink’(John 6:55). He has been called the ‘true light’ and the ‘true bread from heaven’ (John 1: 9; John 6:32), other key Jewish images. Now, as the ‘true vine’, he is nothing less than the ‘real’ Israel. God his Father is the vinegrower, georgos, the farmer who planted the vine. Again, Jesus is dependent on his Father: as the one who sends precedes the one who is sent, so the vine grower precedes the vine. And it is the farmer, ‘George’, who prunes the barren branches from the vine (John 15: 2). He ‘cleans out’ the small shoots budding with growth and using up precious nutrients, but not producing fruit. To have something ‘nipped in the bud’ can be painful, but it is the only way to promote healthy growth. The verb used for ‘pruning’, kathairo, means to ‘clean out’; so Jesus remarks that the disciples need not fear since they have been ‘made clean’, katharos, by his word (John 15: 3). This refers back to the foot washing when they were all made ‘clean’, katharos, except for Judas, who, like a dead branch, has fallen away (John 13:10).

Abide in me

Branches can only survive as an intimate part of the vine. So Jesus tells them, ‘abide in me as I abide in you’ (John 15: 4). The word ‘abide’, meno, links us to the ‘abodes’ in the Father’s house and the way the Father and the Son dwell in each other and make their home in believers (John 14: 2, 10, 23). Now this word occurs ten times in these few verses. The lesson is applied both negatively, that branches cannot bear fruit by themselves (John 15: 4) and positively, that branches remaining on the vine bear ‘much fruit’ (John 15: 5).When branches are pruned from a fruit tree, they can remain lodged in the tree, looking as healthy as the others; but as time goes by they turn brown, fall out and are fit only for the bonfire (John 15: 6). Christians who have severed their connection with Christ may remain caught up in the church, but eventually they fall away, fruitless. To keep our life rooted in Christ’s, we must protect time for prayer and worship. If we do this, we will so abide in Jesus that we will only pray that which is his will (John 15: 7; see John 14:13-14). When such prayers from our abiding in Christ are answered, they produce not just fruit, but also glorify God the Father (John 15: 8; see John 13:31-32; John 14:13).

Prayer

You are the vine and we are the branches; keep us abiding in you and prune us clean that we might bear much fruit to your glory.

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