Easter 4
Jesus speaks the words of today’s Gospel on Maundy Thursday evening--after He had given His Church the Blessed Sacrament of His body and blood and before going to Gethsemane to pray before He was betrayed and arrested, setting off the events that would lead to His suffering and death on the cross for our sins.
What inspired Jesus to use the image of the vine? Was it an object lesson taken from “the fruit of the vine”--the wine that was used at the Passover meal, and the wine which He gave His disciples which was also His blood that was being poured out? Were there vines growing in the courtyard they were passing through on the way to Gethsemane that served as the inspiration of this image? Was it the vine that was on the temple gate. In any case, it is a very comforting image that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches--and it is also an image that is rich in doctrine that teaches us who Jesus is.
Jesus begins our text: I am the true vine. Here is a glimpse into the Old Testament. Very often the Lord in the OT used the image of a vine for His people Israel. But it was a vine that in spite of our Lord’s best work and efforts so often brought disappointment, disappointing yields--a stinking mess [Is 5.4]; or, as the Lord says through St. Jeremiah [2.21]: Yet I had planted you [Israel] a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine. The point? --The Lord had given Israel every spiritual advantage giving them His Law and the promise of the Savior; He gave them the prophets who pointed the people back to the Law and the promises; God was working to prepare a holy people for Himself who would be prepared and ready to welcome the Messiah when He came as one of them; they were to be a beacon of holiness to direct the nations around them to Him, the true God. But Israel was disobedient and unfruitful and failed miserably in her task. But now Jesus comes and says: I am the true vine. Jesus now comes and is that true Vine, the faithful and fruitful Vine who does what He is supposed to do--and does it perfectly! -- I am the true vine. Jesus came and took upon Himself the failures of Israel, in fact, He took on Himself the sinful condition of the whole world and became the Savior of the world dying for our sins on the cross and reconciling us sinners to the Holy God.
Far from being that disobedient, disappointing and degenerate vine that Israel had turned out to be, Jesus thrives and bears fruit! Jesus, the Vine, is full of branches--the new and fruitful people of God, the Church. Because for us Jesus perfectly carried out His work and lived a holy and sinless life as God’s righteousness demands of us; and because He took our sins to the cross and paid the price for our sins, pouring out His blood as that perfect once for all sacrifice for sin--we now have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. That’s what Easter shows us! Because Jesus has done all this for us, He now sends the Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts to believe this, to put our trust and confidence in Him alone and to receive these gifts and blessings He won for us. As we come to faith in Jesus, by the work of the Holy Spirit in word and sacrament, we become the branches Jesus, the true and the fruitful Vine produces. I am the Vine; you are the branches.
What an amazing and glorious image the Vine and the branches is! What it so clearly shows us is that we have a true, real union with Jesus. As our attention begins to now turn toward Jesus’ ascension, the temptation is to think of Jesus’ ascension in spatial terms; like Jesus is like a rocket ship blasting off and going higher and higher until He cannot be seen. And if Jesus cannot be seen, if He is in some far distant place called heaven then He is far away from us, looking down on us--and even possibly unconcerned or unable to do anything about us.
But what does the image of I am the Vine; you are the branches mean? It means that the Christian has a real and close and intimate union with Jesus. Jesus is not far off distant and unconcerned. Instead we are as close to Him as branches are to the vine--we are most intimately and absolutely connected with Him. He is nearer than near to us! As a branch is attached to the vine--growing from it--so too are we as Christians united with Jesus and growing from Him; He has brought us forth into that new heavenly spiritual life in Him. And what is it that unites us with Jesus? Faith! Faith that He has created in us by the work of the Holy Spirit in word and Sacrament. Notice, then, how the Vine--Jesus-- produces the branches--the Christian--He gives us His Holy Spirit who creates faith in Him in our hearts--faith that clings/ holds fast to Jesus that unites with Him!
That we have this new spiritual life, that we are united to Jesus in a real and intimate way is all Jesus’ work. The branch does not produce the vine; but the vine produces the branch. Our text: A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. The very fact that we are Christians is because Jesus has given us life; the Vine has produced us branches: I am the Vine; you are the branches. And because He is the Vine and made us His branches that means that we are living in Him, have our life in and from Him! And remember--a branch is only living and bearing fruit if it is connected fully to the vine. Since we are Christians, living in faith in Jesus, that means that we are united with Him! We are in Him and He is in us. He doesn’t leave us, neglect us. We need never worry that He doesn’t know our hurts and needs and the best way to help us. We need never worry that He cannot hear our prayers. We are united with Him most intimately by faith!
Yes, it may seem at times that our dear Lord has forgotten us and that we are separated from Him--like in times of great trial, sickness, despair, temptation. But that can never be the case for us, our Lord’s dear Christian because Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Hear again the opening words of our text: I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener...And He prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will bear more fruit. Precisely because we are in Christ, the Vine, united most intimately to Him through faith, there will be these times of cross and trial. It’s not because we are separated from Him but because we remain in Jesus through faith, we are pruned so that our faith will be cleansed and refined all the more and that our lives may be filled all the more with the fruits of faith and good works. We go through these times of “pruning” by God the gardener/ vinedresser so that our old sinful nature is all the more “cut off,” so that it does not get the upper hand and ultimately destroy faith. Precisely in these times of trial/ pruning, we are all the more forced back to our Lord and to rely on Him and His promises. St. Paul tells us [1 Co 12.10: when we are weak, then we are strong. We are strong when we do not rely on self but on the Lord, when we branches hold on more tightly to the vine.
Also the Father prunes us when by His holy word of the Law we are crushed as we recognize our sin and that our sin earns us His wrath and punishment. When we then recognize our sin, we, by our love of the Lord and His will and by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, fight against that sin and strive to rid ourselves of it!
Do you see what is happening here? Our union with Jesus through faith is real and close and because we are living members of Jesus the true Vine He is always working on us to strengthen and purify our faith--faith that unites us with Him.
Because I am the Vine; you are the branches and we are so closely united with Jesus, life flows from the Vine--Jesus--to the branches--us. Being united with Jesus through faith--abiding in Him-- is dynamic and vitalizing! Just like sap flows from from the vine to the branch and nourishes it, so too does the “sap” of our Lord and His Holy Spirit flow from Him to us leading us and empowering us to a life of faith and good works/ holiness. Being united with Jesus through faith, how can we not be full of new spiritual life in which we then love Him and His will and love others as He has loved us? And won’t that show itself in a life--to be sure with ups and downs--but one in which there is more and more holiness and greater and stronger faith? Certainly! That’s why Jesus says in our text: I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him is the one who bears much fruit, because without Me you can do nothing. And the opposite is also true: If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. What has happened? The person who does not remain in Jesus but instead cuts himself off from Christ, the Vine--how can he receive the gifts and blessings of Christ? How can he be filled with the Holy Spirit to lead and empower him into a life of faith and good works? Dear Christian, just simply acknowledging that there is a God or even that Jesus is God--that is not remaining in Jesus. Remaining in Jesus means faith; it means trust, reliance on Him for forgiveness of sin, peace with God and eternal life; it means looking for everything good from Him.
And this remaining in Jesus--so that we do not turn away from Him or cut ourselves off from Him, the Source of our spiritual life--then means to immerse ourselves in church and to be frequent and regular here in church that He may serve us with His holy word and sacrament; it means to immerse ourselves in the holy sacraments, especially as we daily remember and return to our baptism by daily recognizing and confessing our sins and taking once again with the hand of faith the forgiveness of sin and eternal life God gave us at our baptism; and it means regular and frequent reception of the Blessed Sacrament where Jesus the true Vine comes to us with the spiritual sap/ nourishment of His very body and blood and unites with us; remaining in Jesus means that not only in church but also at home we are regularly and frequently reading and studying Scripture and pondering that word throughout the day; it means living a life of good works--not that we hope to be saved by them but by the good works and life of holiness we live, we are putting to death the will and desires of our old sinful nature and following the leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit.
As we immerse ourselves in these things and so remain in Jesus we are continuing to receive Him, His graces and blessings. And as we remain in Jesus He will work in us great fruit. As we branches are fed and nourished by the spiritual sap of Jesus, the true Vine, as we remain in Christ through faith, as we are in fellowship with our Savior, we are made skillful and active in every good work. Faithfulness is worked in us by our union with Jesus and so our lives are marked by a godly life of love and virtue. Yes, even in spite of our union with Jesus we will still sin--even grievously at times--but through faith we are still in Christ receiving His forgiveness and the strength to fight against that sin.
And our blessed union with Jesus as the branch to the Vine shows itself one other way: If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. United with Christ, we can pray knowing He will hear and answer our prayer. Prayer shows that intimacy between us and Jesus. And what is so glorious is that united with Jesus, we move away from selfish prayers to prayers asking for blessing and help to carry out our calling in Christ; that He lead and empower us in a life of faithfulness and righteousness. What a glorious union we have with Jesus--it is close, life-giving, dynamic and leads us into holiness: My Father is glorified by this: that you continue to bear much fruit and prove to be My disciples. INJ