On John 15:1-8

This morning, our gospel reading teaches us of the interrelationship among the Father, Jesus Christ, and us. The key word in this interlocking relationship is the word “abide.” To abide is a state of being. To abide with someone is to have your identity melded with that person. The mother-child relationship is abiding. Husband-wife is the same. You are living your life within the context of this relationship. It is always present. You are in a married relationship, whether your spouse is presently with you. You are always the child of your mother. Just so, when we say about ourselves that we abide in Christ, as this passage calls us to, we are saying that our relationship with Christ is ongoing and always on. We don’t leave Jesus at the door of the church. We live our whole life as Christians, in relationship with Christ, wherever we are and at all times.
The other key word in this passage, a word that, although not in the scripture, describes the relationships is that of “interrelationship.” What this passage tells us is that “we are all in this together.” The branch needs the vine to produce fruit. The vine needs branches also 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. Again, 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. That’s why the vine grower planted the vine, so that the vine grower could provide good fruit for the world He loves, and also so that He might be glorified as the greatest Vine Grower. So, you see, no one in this scenario acts on their own or is self-contained. 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, us, we are all wound up together in this life, interconnected, interrelated, all in this together.
Now this needs to be looked at more closely. Let’s start with ourselves. To produce fruit, that is, to live a life that fulfills God’s purpose 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 can not 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 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 with a vital relationship in Christ that we produce fruit.
But also, Christ needs us to produce 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 of himself. We are his hands. We are his feet. We are his witnesses. Jesus says that with the Holy Spirit we will be able to do works greater than what He himself did. Jesus wants us, needs us, to produce fruit. When we are connected to the vine, then we are doing what the vine wants us to do and will feed us so that we can produce the fruit the vine wants us to produce. 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, or our vain glory, or 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. And to the extent that we are fruitful, Christ is fruitful.
But also, the vine grower, the Father, needs both the vine and the branches to be working together in order to produce fruit. The vine grower planted the vine so that fruit would be produced. The vine grower had a purpose in mind when the vine was planted. The Father had a plan in mind when he sent His Son and planted Him in the earth. The purpose was not to destroy the world but to save it. The Father, the vine grower, wants the vine, His son, to produce fruit of righteousness, fruit of salvation, for the sake of the world that needs saved. Without the vine, the world cannot take from the fruit of salvation. Without the branches, us, there can be no fruit. So, the vine grower needs us to be connected to the vine so that we can produce fruit that brings the world to the vine, to Christ, 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, which defeats the purpose of the vine grower. People come to Christ, come to the Father, because of the attractiveness, the nourishment, and the blessing which is the fruit that we produce. Our fruit, our good works, our active love, is what draws people to the vine, to Christ. Without the fruit, or a vine that produces little 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 that’s 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 means being grafted into the vine and producing 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 yet another branch in this great vine which is the body of Christ.
It is the understanding of these intertwining and interdependent relationships that help us understand verse 7, a verse that, taken out of context, can be misused and can be a source of confusion. 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. To ask for what God does not want for us is a sign of a less than complete relationship with God. And that’s where all of us are in our relationship with the vine . . . incomplete, less than perfect, because of the disease of sin. The goal here is to wish for what God wishes, to want what God wants. To the degree that we wish for what God wishes, and want what God wants, we will receive what we ask. This is what we should desire, to have the mind of Christ, to be of one mind with each other and with God, to abide in Christ, to be on the same page, to want the same things, wish for the same things, to be united in mind and heart with God and one another. To the extent that we can do that, the fruit that can be produced through us will be awesome.
And that leads to a final key word, “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 more growth. The more fruit we produce, the more pruning we experience, so that we can be even more fruitful. Pruning means being cut. Remember when Jesus said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” This is pruning, having cut off what is unfruitful or even harmful to us, so that what is left of us is vital, effective, and healthy. We are never done being pruned. Being pruned by the Father, the Vine Grower, is necessary for rejuvenation. If we were not pruned we would turn to wood and become barren. We are in constant need of discipline, of repentance and amendment of our lives. God is never done tending to us.
So, let me pull all this together. The image of the vine and the branches relates to us as a congregation in this way. The more of us as a community of branches are abiding in Christ the vine, the more fruit we as a whole will produce. It is not sufficient for only a few of us to produce fruit. It is not sufficient because it runs against God’s purpose for us, it causes people to pass us by. It is incumbent on all of us to abide in Christ, to be in relationship with Christ through prayer, reflection, worship, repentance, to be nourished by the Holy Spirit that flows through Christ into our lives, so that each of us can bear fruit. Further, we as a congregation experience pruning. We are disciplined. We are in need of repentance as a body. We have to be pruned so that we as a congregation, as a whole, can be more fruitful. There are parts of our life together as a congregation that needs to be cut off, such as gossip, grudges, self-centeredness and vanity, insincerity, failure to mutually submit, and apathy, still looking back rather than looking forward. Yes, we as a congregation of branches, stand in need of repentance, of being pruned, so that we can produce even more fruit, not so we can keep this thing going, not so we can survive, but for the glory of God and for the sake of those who live around us who need the fruit of salvation, who need to be grafted into the vine. That’s why we do what we do, not for our own sake, but for the sake of others and to the glory of God who makes every good thing we do possible.
So, let us 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 closer to Christ, the greater the fruit we will produce, the greater the glory God, the Vine Planter and the Vine Grower, will receive.