[This year, I am blessed to welcome a group of friends to gather around my table once a month to study “WHO JESUS IS” (NavPress, 2022), an in-depth look at the “I AM” statements of the LORD JESUS recorded in John’s gospel.

I pray this series of monthly reflections from our discussions will be a blessing and encouragement that reaches far beyond our kitchen table.]

𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟺 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 (𝘯𝘰. 𝟽): ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
𝘞𝘏𝘖 𝘑𝘌𝘚𝘜𝘚 𝘐𝘚 – 𝘐 𝘈𝘔 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘪𝘯𝘦 (𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝟷𝟻:𝟷-𝟷𝟽)

As we have done each month through this study, it is good to consider what we know about a “vine” that might help us to fully appreciate what JESUS was saying about Himself when He declared “I AM the Vine” (John 15:1).  

vine: a climbing or trailing woody-stemmed plant of the grape family; symbolizes connection, friendship, strength of determination

Biblical references: fruit of the vine; fruit of the Spirit; abiding (without Him we can do nothing – John 15:5); special limitations to “fruit of the vine” during dedicated Nazarite service; Israel as a grape vine (Ezekiel 19), a vineyard (Isaiah 5), and harvested fruit (Jeremiah 6); JESUS’ first miracle, turning water to wine to bless a time of celebration (John 2)

other reflections:  vines are intertwining, clinging, planted, cultivated; vineyards can be established in families and communities for generations; caring for a vine includes cutting out the dead parts (vines won’t grow well when wild); trailing; following; far reaching; room to grow and bloom (care for apple trees includes pruning crisscrossing branches, ensuring room to grow freely); climbing; growing stronger, higher, taller, in search of light; connected for food, water nutrients, strength; tender branches are flexible, easily trained, redirected when needed to keep out of the dirt; vines are dressed by the vine dresser/gardener to keep from unhealthy or wild growth that can tangle or strangle out other plants

From the Navigators writing team: 

We know intuitively that vines loaded with grapes are healthy, producing and thriving in the ways they are meant to.  That’s why the vine is such a vivid metaphor in Scripture, used to help us understand the source and the fruit of abundant life.  In the Old Testament, Israel is described as a vine planted and cultivated by the LORD that did not bear fruit (Isaiah 5:1-7).  But in John 15, JESUS claims to be “the true vine,” and says branches that “remain in Him” … bear much fruit (John 15:1, 5).

.   .   .

How did these thoughts and images frame our study of JESUS as the Vine in John 15?  Our little discussion group shared several thought-provoking insights about this passage:

THE VINE, THE BRANCHES, and THE GARDENER

JESUS is the Vine, the main plant, the source of life, sustenance, and ability to bear fruit.  He says that we, His followers, are the branches.  Each branch is connected to the Vine, but also connected through the Vine to all other branches.  Our branches are intertwined.  Because of our connection to the Vine, we are united (in Christ!) and enjoy protection and stability – from Him and from each other.  

The Father is the Gardener.  His tending is intimate and attentive.  He cuts off every branch that doesn’t produce fruit and prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.  We cannot be fruitful unless we remain in Him, where we receive vital nutrients for life, growth, and stability, but also where we will be pruned – we can count on it!

The Gardener knows which branches to cut off (those He knows are “just a branch” with no sign of life and are therefore discarded) and which to leave (those He sees as an extension of Himself, of value, with potential for growth).  He also knows where pruning is necessary to ensure a greater harvest.

Other passages in Scripture talk about the Father’s pruning as loving correction, discipline, or testing for the purpose of growing/proving/nurturing our faith:

For the LORD corrects those He loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. (Provers 3:12)

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. (James 1:2-4)

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening – it’s painful!  But afterward there will be a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)

We can rejoice when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly GOD loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.  (Romans 5:3-5)

After you have suffered a little while, the GOD of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Peter 5:10)

Proper pruning is a seasonal process.  Growth will never be in a straight line.  Even areas that are healthy and productive will be subject to pruning, refining, redefining, having wings clipped, keeping our thoughts and agendas in check with His.  The pain of pruning might tempt us to drift from Him, but only that which is sourced in Him will survive and thrive and produce more fruit as a result of His gardening touch.  

The Father does not leave us alone to weather the pain of pruning.  He offers us comfort we can then extend to others who are struggling (2 Corinthians 1:4) – what a beautiful echo of the sense of community surrounding a life-giving vineyard!

Life is not easy as a follower of Christ, but joy grows full when we are rooted in Him.

Let your roots grow down into Him and let your lives be built on Him. (Colossians 2:7)

I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy.  Yes, your joy will overflow! (John 15:11)

.   .   .

THE LOVE THAT BINDS THE VINE and HIS BRANCHES

A critical factor in the Vine and Branches relationship, described by the LORD JESUS in John 15 is love: “I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me” (John 15:9).  From eternity past, the Son was always with the Father, delighting in the joy of His Presence (Proverbs 8:30).  The Father delighted in the Son, honored and exalted Him (Matthew 3:17, Philippians 2:9).  The Father and the Son dearly love their created ones:

For GOD so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life (John 3:16).  For the joy set before Him, [the LORD JESUS] endured the cross, disregarding its shame (Hebrews 12:2).  JESUS said: I go to prepare a place for you… I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am (John 14:3).

It was loving obedience to the Father that led JESUS to offer Himself willingly to fulfill the Father’s plan of redemption for lost sinners.  But part of the “joy set before Him” was also reconciling us to the Father, so we could be welcomed into His glory as redeemed children of GOD.  His deep love for us motivated Him to go to any length necessary to secure our place beside Him in the Father’s house.

It is so touching to add this critical component of love to JESUS’ picture of the Vine and His branches.  This arrangement is more meaningful than just a power supply line.  His love for us fuels His care and nurturing, motivating His efforts to help us grow and thrive.  His care for us compels a loving response from us to eagerly align with Him, not just a robotic response of completing a task or fulfilling a command.  The fact that His love for us is as great as the Father’s love for Him is staggering!  But this is who He is – nothing He ever offers us is less than the absolute best.

Later in John 15, the LORD JESUS expands the idea of loving relationship to friendship:

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are My friends if you do what I command … you are My friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.  You didn’t choose Me.  I chose You.” (John 15:13-16)

Friendship with GOD is mentioned in a few places through Scripture.  Abraham and Moses are both described as friends of GOD (James 2:23, Exodus 33:11).  Job also speaks of remembering a time when friendship with GOD was felt in [his] home (Job 29:4).

A believer’s restored nearness to GOD is also described as a friendship:

For since our friendship with GOD was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son.  So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with GOD because our LORD Jesus Christ has made us friends of GOD. (Romans 5:10-11)

Friendship seems to indicate a true two-way relationship.  It is mind-blowing to think that we have the ability to touch or minister to the heart of GOD!  That He would willingly love and pour into a relationship with us, knowing we can be flaky and fickle and get so easily distracted.  He still chooses to love us, to be committed and faithful!  Beyond that, He sees potential in us to offer something of value back to Him. 

.   .   .

THE FRUIT OF ABIDING AND OBEDIENCE

As branches in the Vine, positioned to thrive and grow, we will produce fruit.  As we abide in friendship with GOD, through Christ, the Vine, our desire to know and delight His heart will also grow.  Our love for Him will lead us to obedience.  

But what, exactly, does obeying His commands look like?  What kind of growth or fruit does JESUS want to see in our lives? Galatians 5:13-26 and Philippians 4:8 give us a good list of indicators that GOD’s own Spirit is working within us, prompting us to make choices that honor and reflect His heart:

·        freedom to serve one another in love

·        desires that reflect the Spirit (opposite of our sinful nature)

·        love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

·        what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise

“Remain in My love.  When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.  …  This is my commandment:  Love each other in the same way I have loved you.” (John 15:9-10, 12)

We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).  The psalmist compels us to “delight in the LORD” (Psalm 37:4).  Even more so than any earthly, treasured relationship, when we “delight” in our Savior, we stay in close communication with Him.  We hang on every word, we watch His every move, we soak it all in, wanting to learn from Him, to follow His lead.  We hunger for His wisdom and perspective, reaching for His guidance and instruction.  

As we learn His heart, our desires shift to align with His and we grow to reflect His character.  This is the beauty of branches reaching out from the Vine – as we thrive in His loving care, we expand our capacity to produce fruit that brings glory to the Father, just like He does!

We not only love Him because He first loved us, we also love each other!  The commands (plural) of JESUS all reflect His command (singular) that we operate from a place of genuine love – for GOD first, which is then manifest in loving others as He loves them (John 15:10, 12; Matthew 22:34-40).  Obedience to JESUS means loving like He does!

Genuine love is inconvenient.  It requires us to put our own agenda aside to meet the needs of someone else.  To go out of our way (regardless of the cost to ourselves) to notice others and respond to them with compassion and generosity.  To be present, to give or do something for them that they can’t easily do for themselves.  Genuine love goes to any length to listen, serve, offer time, exercise restraint (sometimes the best choice is to be still or silent), and extend grace, even when we honestly think our day was worse than theirs.  Love compels us to say “yes” more than we say “no” – to be willing, open, and unassuming, to be gracious even when interrupted.  

Sincere care for others leads us to pray for them, to testify of the reality of GOD in our lives and desire that they experience the same.  To meet others where they are without judgment or partiality, to lead them to the Savior who loves them more than we do.  

Loving like JESUS does is a tall order!  Our Savior chooses to love, even in the face of rejection, with no guarantee of a reciprocal response.  Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 13 give us wonderful descriptors of loving one another well.  This kind of love does not come naturally to us!  We need the Father’s love coursing through our veins, bountifully supplied through the Vine to our tender shoots.  Without JESUS, we can do nothing!  (John 15:5).  

How comforting that He never asks us to do any of this on our own.  Instead, JESUS patiently and faithfully reminds us to remain in Him.  He knows when we stay connected to Him, as branches that are the extension of His very being, we will be safe in the Father’s care.  In that place, He knows the Gardener will keep us on the right path, up out of the dirt, free from tangles that strangle us (or others) and stunt our growth.

There is no room for human pride.  We do nothing on our own.  We simply go forward in confidence in our core plant, the Vine, and watch Him work!

.   .   .

We wrapped up our conversation with encouraging thoughts from Jackie Hill Perry in “Upon Waking: A Sixty-Day Devotional” (B&H Publishing, 2023, p. 184-185). Her thoughts highlight a critical component in our Vine and branches relationship – PRAYER:

“But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private.”  (Matthew 6:6, NLT) 

“… there were endless opportunities for Christ to show up for people in ways they legitimately needed.  But He could not let the needs of the people have more influence over His time than intimacy with His Father.”

“The Christ who told us to abide in Him, abided in the Father.  The Christ who taught His disciples to pray, prayed to the Father.  The LORD of the Sabbath literally rested in the Father.  ‘One could make a strong case,’ one pastor writes, ‘that the fully human JESUS was able to live the life He did because of the constant time and energy put into being with the Father in prayer.’”

“GOD has called us to do much.  It is a grace to be a laborer in a plentiful harvest, but there must be time given and rhythms created where we withdraw from the crowd, find a desolate place, and do nothing but pray.”

Circling back to a verse mentioned earlier in our discussion, Psalm 37:4, when we delight in the LORD (which includes spending time with Him in prayer) He will give us the desires of our hearts.  In our passage in John 15:16, JESUS tells us the Father will give us whatever we ask in His Name. 

When we ask for things in JESUS’ Name, we are essentially asking what JESUS would ask.  It is the Father’s delight to answer His Son’s prayers and it is His delight to answer ours.  As beautifully stated recently by Tara Leigh Cobble on the Bible Recap, “He gives us what we would ask for if we knew what He knows.”

JESUS is the Vine.  We are the branches, an extension of Him, His heart, His purposes.  He calls us to abide in Him, to stay connected, to keep the flow of nourishment from His Spirit open to full force, to be yielded to the tending of our Father, the Gardener.  Prayer is our chance to spend time with Him and Him with us.  Prayer is abiding, choosing to linger, side by side, in moment-by-moment conversation, delighting in the One who is our only source of life and growth and ability to bear fruit for His glory. 

.   .   .

So far in our study of WHO JESUS IS, we have learned:

·        JESUS is the Bread of Life, the One who satisfies our souls’ deepest hunger.  

·        JESUS is the Light of the World, the One who illuminates our darkness.

·        JESUS is the Gate for the sheep, the One who calls us by name to welcome us into His fold.

·        JESUS is our Good Shepherd, the One who lays down His life to care for us, His sheep.

·        JESUS is the Resurrection and the Life, the One who triumphed over death, securing eternal life for all who trust in Him.

·        JESUS is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the One who has secured the only open door through which we can approach and know the Father, to be reconciled to Him, made inseparably and eternally one with Him as His redeemed children.

This month we learned that JESUS is the Vine, the One who lovingly provides everything we need to grow and thrive and produce fruit that brings glory to the Father, our faithful Gardener.

I pray that He may strengthen you in your inner being with power through His Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. … Now to Him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to Him be glory…”  (Ephesians 3:16-17, 20-21)