“I am the true vine…”

The night air was cool, and getting chilly.  Most of the celebrations in the city had died down by now.  But you could still hear an occasional shout or some laughter behind closed doors.  The small group of men made their way down the dark narrow streets toward the Eastern Gate.  Jesus and eleven of his disciples were on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.

Their Passover celebration was over, and it had already been an unusual night, to say the least.  First, Jesus had performed the role of the lowest house slave and washed his disciples’ feet.  Then he announced that one of them would betray him.  That jolted everyone!  A little later, after a short interchange with Jesus, Judas got up and left.  He was still nowhere to be seen.  Where was he?  Finally, Jesus said that the bread and the cup had a new meaning, something about his body… and blood…  Strange.

However strange it was for his disciples, Jesus knew this was his last night before he died.  In fact, he would be dead in about 15 hours, and what lay ahead for him was simply unthinkable.  That is why they were on their way to pray in the garden, a quiet place Jesus regularly visited when he was in Jerusalem.  On their way, Jesus appeared to be very focused, and found an illustration that would be of more help to his disciples later rather than sooner.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser,” he told them.  “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit… Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing… If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be My disciples” (John 15:1-2, 4-5, 7-8).

The disciples probably had a clue as to what Jesus was talking about.  Like virtually every other Jew living in Palestine, they had vines growing on their properties back home in Galilee.  They knew that the vine provided the sap that allowed the branches to produce fruit, and that the closest branches to the vine grew the best grapes.  They also knew that the sap was so nutritious to the branches that when they were chopped off, they could still produce growth, but no fruit.  For a branch to be fruitful, it had to abide in the vine. They knew these things.

But as always, Jesus was building a bridge from the earthly to the heavenly.  He said He was the vine; and they—the disciples (like us)—were the branches.  If we are to be fruitful, we have to abide in Him.  How do we do that?  Verse 7 gives us the clue.  First, His words must abide in us.  Peter, who probably stood the closest to Jesus as he gave this illustration, picked up on this picture when he wrote, “…His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature…” (2 Peter 1:3-4).  God’s promises, God’s power, God’s words have “given to us all things that pertain to life,” just like the sap of the vine does for the branches.  He withholds no good thing from us (Psalm 84:11, Ephesians 1:3).  Our part is to “abide,” which means to draw our spiritually nourishment from God’s provision.  The result of abiding is that we should obey and bear fruit, thus glorifying the Lord (v. 8).  He provides, we produce.

Have you remembered how much our Vine provides for us – our bodies, minds, families, health, the air we breath, the clothes we wear, the food we eat?  To say nothing of the spiritual benefits we enjoy as His branches? Do you draw your spiritual nourishment from Him regularly?  Are you close the Vine today?