The Vine and the Branches

Based on John 15:1-8

Today’s gospel reading teaches us of the interrelationship among God the Father, Jesus Christ, and us. The key word in this interlocking relationship is the word “abide”, which appears eight times in vv. 4-7. To abide with someone is to have your identity melded with that person. The mother-child relationship is an abiding relationship. The marriage relationship is an abiding relationship. These relationships are core to your identity. You are in a married relationship, whether your spouse is in your presence or not. You will always be the child of your mother. Just so, when we say that we abide in Christ, we are saying that our relationship with Christ is part of our identity. We are always in relationship with Christ, whether we are at church or not. We don’t leave Jesus in the church building. We live our lives as Christians, in relationship, abiding with Christ, wherever we are and at all times. That’s what abiding in Christ means.

There is another key word that is not specifically in this passage of scripture but the concept is what this passage is all about. That word is “interrelationship.” In other words, this passage says to us that we are all in this together. The branch needs the vine to produce fruit. The vine needs the branches to produce fruit. After all, a vine can’t produce fruit by itself. That’s what the branches are for. So, if the vine is to be fruitful, it needs branches that will produce the fruit. And the vine grower also needs the vine and the branches to be functioning properly so that fruit can be produced. The vine grower can’t produce fruit out of thin air. Finally, the world needs the vine grower, the vine, and the branches because the world needs the fruit the vine produces. Without them, there will be no grapes, no wine, no jelly. The vine grower plants the vine to provide fruit for others to receive and enjoy. It is all interconnected. In the same way, the gospel writer is saying to us that the Father needs the Son and the Son needs the Father. We need the Son. The world needs the Father, the Son, and us. God, Jesus, us, the world, we are all wound up together in this life, interconnected, entangled, all in this together.

Let’s look at this more closely. Let’s start with ourselves. To produce fruit, that is, to live a life that fulfills God’s purposes for us, we have to be connected to the vine. We have to abide in Christ, who is the vine. We cannot fulfill our purpose without abiding in Christ. Indeed, we cannot be fully human, our truest and best selves, unless we abide in the true vine, which is Christ. The Holy Spirit, that energizes us and nourishes us, passes from Christ the vine into us. If, somehow, we close ourselves off to the Spirit, or to the vine, we spiritually whither and die. So, as John Wesley often said, we do no good thing on our own, but only by the grace of God do we do any good thing. It is only by abiding in Christ that we produce good fruit.

But also, Christ needs us to produce good fruit. What good is a vine if it produces no fruit? What good is Christ if we are not producing fruit? Christ cannot produce fruit by himself. We are his hands. We are his feet. We are his witnesses. We are the branches. Jesus says that with the Holy Spirit we can do things greater than what he did. Jesus wants us, needs us, to produce fruit. When we are connected to the vine and producing fruit, then we are doing what the vine wants us to do and will give us what we need so we can produce the fruit the vine wants produced. When we produce fruit, we continue the ministry of Christ in the world, the ministry that he entrusted to us. So, the good works we do as Christians is not about us, for our own glory, or to meet our need to be needed. It is done for the sake of Christ who enabled us to do these good works and in fact is the author of them. We are producing fruit of the vine, good works of Christ, not of ourselves. Without us, there would be no works of Christ, no fruit. To the extent that we are fruitful, Christ is fruitful, because this is the fruit of Christ being produced through us.

But also, the vine grower, who is God, needs both the vine and the branches to be working together in order to produce fruit. A vine grower plants a vine so that fruit will be produced. The vine grower has a purpose in mind when the vine is planted. God had a plan in mind when God sent Jesus and planted him on the earth. The purpose was not to destroy the world but to save the world. God, the vine grower, wants the vine, Jesus Christ, to produce fruit of righteousness, fruit of salvation, for the sake of the world that needs saved. Without the vine, the world cannot receive the fruit of salvation. Without the branches, there can be no fruit. So, the vine grower needs us to be connected to the vine so that we can produce the fruit that brings the world to the vine, to Jesus, to receive the fruit of salvation. Without us producing the fruit, those in need of salvation will not be able to get the fruit of salvation and this frustrates the purpose of the vine grower. People come to Christ, come to God, because of the attractiveness, the nourishment, the blessing, the goodness of the fruit that we produce. Our fruit, our good works, our active love, this is what draws people to the vine, who is Jesus. Without the fruit, or a vine that produces fruit, the people of the world pass by and miss out on the fruit of salvation. The vine grower needs the vine to feed the branches so that we, the branches, can produce an abundance of fruit that draws the people of the world to the vine to eat from the fruit and live. And perhaps, like what has happened to us by the grace of God, those who come may be grafted into the vine and become branches themselves.

And this is what this is all about. The vine was planted for the sake of people who have not yet been grafted into the vine. To be fully human, to be our best selves, it takes being grafted into the vine and producing good fruit. This is our purpose, our reason for existing. We, as Christians, do not exist for ourselves. We do not live our Christian life for our own sake. We do what we do for the sake of the world, for the sake of others and to the glory of God. We do what we do so that others will be drawn to Christ, to benefit from the work of Christ produced by us, and be incorporated into the life of Christ, be grafted into the vine by baptism, and become branches in this great vine which is the body of Christ.

It is the understanding of these intertwining relationship that help us understand verse 7, a verse that, taken out of context, can be misused and can be a source of confusion. Let’s hear this verse again: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” If we are abiding in Christ, connected with the vine in order to produce fruit for the sake of the world, then whatever we ask will be given us because we will ask for what God wants for us. We will not get what we ask for if we do not ask for what God wants for us. Why would God give us what we ask for that would harm us or frustrate God’s desires for us? The point here is to want what God wants for us. To the degree that we want what God wants for us we will receive what we ask. And it’s likely that if what we ask will assist us in bearing good fruit, that God will grant our request. Maybe not the way we had in mind or planned, but granted nonetheless. God desires to equip and strengthen us so that we can love to the best of our ability. This is what we should desire, to have the mind of Christ, to be on the same page with Christ and with God and one another. To the extent that we can do that, the fruit that can be produced through us will be awesome.

There is one more key word that I want us to reflect on today…pruning. In order for a plant to keep producing fruit it has to be pruned so that it can be revitalized, so there can be new growth. The more fruit we produce, the more pruning we experience, so that we can be even more fruitful. Pruning means cutting off what is diseased or not fruit bearing. Remember when Jesus said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” Obviously he didn’t mean to literally cut off your hand. But he was talking about pruning, of cutting off what is unfruitful or even harmful to us, parts of our life that is diseased, so that what is left of us is vital, effective, and healthy. We are never done being pruned. The pruning God does in our life is necessary for our own rejuvenation and for new growth. If we were not pruned we would lose our capacity to bear fruit. Pruning can be painful. There is loss. And at times we may not understand or appreciate the pruning that God is doing in our lives. But it is necessary. It is all part of the process of becoming all God desires us to become.

So, let’s remember these simple things. God is the vine grower. Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. God prunes us so that we, individually and as a congregation, can produce more fruit, so that we can be a greater blessing to others. And to the extent that we, as a congregation, abide in Christ and draw close to Christ, the better the fruit we will produce, the fruit of good works, of active love. And the better the fruit we produce, the more glory will God receive and the better the world will be.