"Abide In Me."

 I’m between Jesus’ washing the disciple’ feet, and his resurrection appearance on the beach.  When he offered them an analogy reflect on.  It comes in chapter fifteen  of John’s Gospel.

⁵I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

Now not to many of us have the experience of growing  vineyard. The closest we come to grape is from the grocery store or in a glass of wine.

So we need a little help understanding what Jesus is talking about here.

The people listening to Jesus were not only familiar with how to grow grape; but how to grow most anything.  

They were people of the land.  Most of them made their living growing some kind of produce.

Those who specialized in grape production would have been very aware of what Jesus was getting at when he tells them:

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. ²He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.

The best nutrients are concentrated — released — closest to the vine.  So branches are “pruned” to grow close to the vine to produce the best grapes.

Point: when we stay close to the vine we do our best living.   The analogy of being pruned, to keep us close to the nutrients in the vine, is about how critical it is for us to stay close to Jesus.

Plants grow healthier and produce the best “fruit” or flowers when pruned. Any ordinary gardener knows this. 

The “fruit” Jesus is talking about is our acts of love we offer freely to others.

“The chief difficultly to thinking theologically — and thus practically, ethically, about this passage lies in the necessity of going beyond the surface of the basics truths of faith….”   (Stephen A Cooper)

“Bearing fruit when it counts grows from union with Jesus.  Finding home in him and letting his word find a home in us through faithful devotion brings about great joy.  As in nature, the pruning and the abiding are held together. When we remain that close to Jesus, we attuned to him and he to us, the remarkable result is that what we want will be what God wants, and it will surely come to pass.  (Nancy R. Blakely)

⁷If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

With all that being said, there is another point Jesus is trying to make.   This pruning and producing is not an individual thing.  

It is a relational thing.

We stay connect — close — to the vine in order to give of ourselves, as Jesus did, to others.

            We can give his love and grace to others.

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. ²He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. ³You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ⁵I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. ⁹As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.(John 15)