December 2, 2002
LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Dec. 15
The Vine is the secret to fruitful branches
___John 12
___By Robert Creech
___University Baptist Church-Clearlake, Houston
___John 14 ended with Jesus' directive: "Come now; let us leave" (v. 31). However, the narrator does not report their departure until 18:1. Instead, the discourse continues. Some suggest an earlier edition of John's gospel went directly from 14:31 to 18:1. One of John's disciples perhaps added chapters 15-17 in a final edition, following John's death. This also would account for the apparent "double ending" of the gospel (20:30-31 and 21:25).
___The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised would bring all things to the memory of his followers (14:26), may have prompted John's disciples to include these other teachings of Jesus, which their master had passed on to them.
___As the discourse continues, Jesus develops an extended metaphor revealing the nature of the disciples' relationship to the Father and to the Son--the image of the vine, the gardener and the branches (15:1-17).
___With another emphatic "I am" saying, Jesus identifies himself as the true vine (15:1). The claim is a bold one. Isaiah offered a similar metaphor (Isaiah 5:1-8), in which he identified the vine as Israel (5:7). Here, Jesus claims that role for himself. He is the True Israel, the True People of God. His disciples participate in the life of True Israel as branches drawing their very life from him (John 15:4-5; Romans 11:17-21). As in the Isaiah passage, the gardener destroys the unproductive branches (John 15:2, 6; Isaiah 5:5).
___Jesus includes this image among the essential instructions for those left to carry out his mission in the world, because it underscores the necessary relationship between him and his disciples. The goal of a branch is to produce abundant fruit. Fruitful branches delight the gardener.
___In the same way, productive disciples bring glory to the Father (15:1, 8). Like branches, disciples are powerless to produce fruit on their own. A branch, disconnected from the life flowing through the vine, is dead (15:4).
___Jesus offers this brief allegory to teach his disciples how to fulfill the Father's purposes for them. They must remain connected to Jesus, the Vine, in order to be fruitful. The Father will tend these fruitful branches, pruning away what is unnecessary, so that they might be even more productive (15:2).
___How does the disciple "remain" (or "abide") in Jesus, the Vine? The image implies a connection that is so intimate that life actually flows from one to the other. Jesus describes the relationship as including several elements.
___Abiding in Jesus requires abiding in his words, his actual teaching (15:7). Knowing what Jesus teaches and intentionally living toward those teachings is part of what it means to abide in him (8:31).
___Abiding in Jesus also means to abide in his love (15:9). This is an experiential dimension of discipleship. His disciples learn to live with a deep sense of his love for them (14:21-24). This awareness of his love keeps disciples connected to him when circumstances become difficult.
___For his disciples, love for Jesus does not exist without obedience (15:10, 14; 14:21, 23). Obedience to him is at one time the means of expressing love for him and the opportunity to experience his love. As disciples obey, he promises to make himself and his love real to them (14:23). He does not love them because they obey. Obedience is an expression of his followers' love. He makes himself known to them as a way of saying, "I love you, too." Disciples need to know this.
___The fruit the Gardener ultimately hopes to find on these branches is love for each other, sacrificial love like that Jesus demonstrates by laying down his own life (15:12-14).
___Later, when John writes to the communities established in Asia Minor, this love will be a central theme: "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers" (1 John 3:16).
___What is God's redemptive purpose? He is seeking to create a community of people from every tribe, language, people and nation who love him wholeheartedly and who love each other unselfishly. God hopes to find this fruit on the branches of True Israel, Jesus' disciples.
___Disciples bear this fruit as they depend on Jesus, experience his love and obey his instructions. Fruitfulness also requires a life of prayer in which the disciple learns to ask for whatever is necessary to fulfill God's redemptive purpose (15:16).
___The promise of answered prayer is not simply a blank check for the disciples' selfish desires. Rather, the promise is that they may freely ask whatever they need in order to be fruitful, demonstrating the love of God through their lives and service (14:13; 16:24).
___Jesus reaffirms the divine purpose. These disciples did not choose him any more than branches choose the vine. On the contrary, the vine gave birth to the branches (15:16). Jesus chose these "branches" for the specific purpose of bearing the eternal fruit of God's redemptive love. "This is my command," he tells them, "Love each other" (15:17).
___Questions for discussion
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