"I am the true vine, 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 more 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 vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; 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."
(John 15:1-8)
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It’s funny how we have a tendency to look for the negative. I alluded to that a little bit last week when I was reflecting on the need for Christian love to be actively controlling us, part of which means that we have to try to be positive and encouraging rather than negative and condemning. And then I read our passage for today and found myself thinking about the negative. I discovered - somewhat uncomfortably - that the first thing I took from this passage was a renewed appreciation of where the traditional image of hell for non-believers came from. That’s what leaped out at me. Seriously. If we take this "literally" then at least in part we do see the fiery furnace of hell don’t we. Separate from Jesus and be burned. Of course the problem with that is that we can’t take the words literally because Jesus isn’t a vine and we aren’t the branches. It’s an image Jesus is using that’s trying to make a point.
This image Jesus used is addressed to those who call themselves believers. The point seems to be that if you’re a believer (if you’re a part of the Christian community) who isn’t really connected with Jesus then you really can’t be a productive member of the community. Some might argue that point, but I still see it as the point. It’s not a threat of burning in hell - it’s more of a warning that without Jesus you simply have no logical role in the Christian community that's founded on Jesus. It's a plea for those who want to be disciples of Jesus to stay close to Jesus. But then I realized that there’s an even more important image in these words of Jesus. There’s the image of bearing fruit.
For Jesus, the key to what he was saying in this exchange with his disciples revolves around two things. First, his disciples are to remain in him. He says that seven times in these eight verses (and once he speaks of the consequences of not remaining in him.) But then he goes on to explain why that's so important. Then he focusses on bearing fruit. That image appears seven times in the passage. So, we’re the branches attached to the vine that is Jesus and we’re supposed to bear fruit. The question is what kind of fruit? If you're an apple tree and you produce cherries there's a problem. There's nothing wrong with cherries but apple trees have to produce apples or they have no real purpose. So, what's the fruit of the Christian vine?
I think traditionally we’ve understood that in evangelistic terms. I’ve heard many preachers look at this image in that way - so that the "fruit" are the converts you create; the folks you bring into the Kingdom. If you’re not converting people, there’s something wrong with you. But is that really productive fruit? I know people who've interpreted the image that way and it seems to become prideful; it gets into the notches on the belt mentality - you keep track of how many you’ve "brought to the Lord," so to speak. Which, of course, seems to give a lot of credit to us rather than the Holy Spirit for people’s faith. "Look at me - I’ve led "X" number of people to Christ. Yay for me!" I don't think that's what Jesus meant by fruit.
It’s probably better to understand fruit from Paul’s perspective in Galatians. He was producing a lot of converts in the Gentile world - or at least his ministry was. But those converts weren’t "fruit" to him. They were the result of the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of those who heard the message and saw it being lived out and came to understand the difference it made. Now there's the key to understanding Jesus' words! You’ve heard Galatians 5:22: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." To Paul, the "fruit" was not the results of our labours, it was how we lived and the qualities we displayed. It seems to me that’s how we should read these words of Jesus. Not as a threat that if we don’t convert enough people we’re going to be punished for not doing it or they’re going to be punished for not listening to us but as a reminder that if we don’t allow ourselves to be transformed more into the likeness of Jesus - displaying these qualities Paul wrote about and that Jesus lived out - then we’re not being productive members of the church; something's gone wrong and we're not properly connected to the vine.
The fruit is the way we live and the qualities we show in our daily lives. Converting people says nothing about us. The biggest hypocrites around can put on a good show and result in people being "converted." The question is whether we’re showing fruit in our own life. Are we living our faith in such a way that we’re growing in holiness? Not by external measures - how many are we converting - but by internal measures - are we more able day by day to be a reflection of Jesus to those we encounter? Matthew Henry wrote that "from a vine we look for grapes, and from a Christian we look for a Christian temper, disposition, and life."
I’m interested in the idea that healthy branches will bear much fruit and we are branches growing from the vine that is Jesus. The great theologian Augustine said that "whatever is cut off cannot live apart from the vine." That’s a way of saying that we can’t live as Christians unless we’re truly open to Jesus, connected to Jesus and even clinging to Jesus. Jesus promises never to let us go; we need to make the same promise to him. It’s easy to get fixated on the negative ways of interpreting this passage - the burning imagery that brings hell to mind, or the idea that we have to be converting people day after day if we’re going to show the fruits of our faith. It’s easy to read this passage as one of judgment and threat, but it’s important to remember that Jesus didn’t say "abide in me or else." Jesus said "abide in me as I abide in you." That’s more than good advice and it’s more than an invitation. That’s a promise - that no matter what happens, Jesus will be with us; that no matter what happens, Jesus will hold onto us; that no matter what happens, God in Jesus will bring all things to a good end. With Jesus in us, our lives and our way of life changes so that we become more and more an image of him. That new life we lead is the fruit of a Christian vine.
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