1. Relationship: the Vine and the Branches
As he begins this next section of his discussion with the disciples, Jesus makes a statement that is quite staggering. He tells his disciples, “I am the true vine.” Jesus deliberately takes on OT picture of Israel and applies it to himself.
Israel is called the vine in a number of places, for example Isaiah 5, and Jesus here says that the reality of what Israel was meant to be is found in him: he is the true vine. This is not the only time that Jesus makes such a claim. The very act of calling 12 disciples signalled the same thing; being sent by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days and being tempted by the devil mirrored the experiences of Israel.
The gospels are full of incidents and sayings that make this point very powerfully. And it is a point that the rest of the NT takes up also – remember how Paul can say that it is those who believe who are Abraham’s family, not those who are his physical descendents.
It makes for a fascinating study and once you’ve grasped that this is what’s happening, the gospels are seen in a new light and reveal so much more about Jesus.
But what is the significance of this claim for Jesus and for us? Jesus is saying that what God intended to be achieved through Israel actually comes to pass in and through him. They had been chosen and set apart for the sake of the world but had singularly failed to be a light to the nations; in Jesus, that calling is fulfilled in the most dramatic way. He will keep the law of God, he will offer himself for sin and he will form in himself one new, united people of God from all nations.
And what this does for us as the church is to clarify and draw into focus our relationship to Jesus. We are given our identity in him – he is the vine, we are the branches. We derive our whole life from him and are constituted in him. Jesus is then at the very centre of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a church. He is the vine; we are the branches.
A vine speaks of God’s gracious purposes for his garden, the world. To share in those purposes, you need to be related to Jesus. It isn’t a matter of pointing to ancestry as the Jews did or to law-keeping; all that counts is whether you are ‘in Christ’, joined to Jesus and considered a part of his family. That is the only way to share in God’s blessing on his creation.
2. Mission: Fruit for God’s Glory
But incorporation into Jesus is not simply for our own benefit. If Israel was called to be a light to the nations and that calling is truly fulfilled by Jesus, then those who are the branches in the vine are called to share in that reality (cf. Acts 13:47).
The way Jesus speaks of that mission here is as fruitfulness. Taking the picture of the vine, the whole purpose of the branches is to bear fruit and Jesus says that it is by doing that we will show ourselves to be his disciples – not that we will prove it to ourselves but simply that bearing fruit is what he calls disciples for.
But what does he mean by ‘fruit’? Does he mean that each of us needs to be able to point to various people that we have led to the Lord and that if there are none then our discipleship is false? I don’t think he is saying that for a moment.
Bearing fruit might helpfully be spoken of in these terms. It means personal holiness (cf. Gal 5:22f); it means corporate unity and love; it means the church’s winsome evangelism; and it means implementing God’s will in wider society as we have opportunity to.
We are to bear fruit in the whole of our lives – it isn’t restricted to our personal lives, as though we could privatise what Jesus says; nor is it restricted to the family life of the church – it is intended that the light of God’s grace should shine in all the nations.
Here is our mission, our commission from Jesus – he sends us out to bear fruit and that involves the whole of our lives.
And the great impetus behind this is that when we bear such fruit, our Father in heaven is glorified (v.8).
God is seen to be who he is – a God of grace and mercy, a God with power to save and transform, a God who makes good on his ancient promises to rescue his fallen and lost creation.
Fruitfulness is the original purpose of God for his creation and it is brought to pass only in and through Jesus and the work of his Spirit.
3. Call: Remaining in the Vine
But how will people as feeble as us manage to produce such fruit? The more widely we define fruit, the harder it seems to get! Well, the disciples were no different – they were often very slow on the uptake and their faithfulness to Jesus was hardly exemplary. How does Jesus expect them – or us – to produce fruit that will glorify God?
The answer lies implicitly in the imagery being used and is made explicit by Jesus in his teaching here. The branches are able to produce fruit inasmuch as they draw life and nourishment from the vine; it is the connection between the vine and the branches that is paramount. And so Jesus says here, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (v.4)
On our own, we would have no chance – “without me, you can do nothing.” Cut off from Jesus we would be like withered branches that are simply fuel for the fire and utterly lifeless. Yet connected to the vine, joined to Jesus and living in him, we can truly be fruitful.
But what does it mean to remain in the vine? For some, that might describe an emotional state of wellbeing, an inner sense of being at one with Jesus – but that is not what Jesus means. He clearly links remaining in him with his words to remaining in us (v.7). We remain in Jesus and abide in him as we go on believing the truth about him.
And that means grappling with the Bible, loving it and feeding on it, studying it and obeying it. The branches must draw their life from the vine and here is how we as branches draw nourishment from Jesus, through his Word, by his Spirit. We will not grow and be fruitful as a Christian if we don’t read the Bible and do what it says. The fruit of the Spirit is cultured through the Spirit-inspired Word of God.
For some in John’s gospel, faith in Jesus was transient – they believed for a time but no longer. They are like the branches Jesus speaks of here that are cut off because they bear no fruit. When he says that, it isn’t a threat to our security in him but rather it simply shows how that safety is experienced: we go on believing in Jesus, we go on living in him. That is what it means to abide.
We only bear fruit as we remain in Jesus. But Jesus also speaks here of the branches that bear fruit being caused to grow in their fruitfulness: “every branch that does bear fruit (the Father) prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (v.2).
Every gardener knows how important pruning is, none more so that God himself. But what is the pruning that Jesus speaks of? The word means ‘cleanses’ and is also found in v.3. Those who have truly believed in Jesus have been made clean by God’s Word, by his message of grace, and have been set apart for God to use. The way he makes us more fruitful then is through that same word.
Engaging with the Bible in this way can indeed by painful as it challenges our thinking and straightens it out, then shows us how to live right. That may seem rather unspectacular in our modern world yet it remains God’s way for fruitfulness.
Jesus is the vine; we are the branches. That gives great dignity to our sense of identity yet at the same time there could scarcely be a more challenging call than to bear fruit to the glory of God. But the means for that is plain and gracious: we are to remain in Jesus, drawing our life from him, believing his word, and allowing that word to go on forming us into his image and likeness.
