“God’s Garden”
John 15:1-8
I’ve been told that a rose bush, left to itself, will get all straggly and tangled, and grow in on itself.
And if left in this condition, it will produce a bunch of not-so-good roses.
It will, quite literally, get in the way of its own light.
Therefore, it needs help in order for it to grow in the right directions.
So you prune it so it will stop wasting its energy and so it will be productive.
A gardener, then, cuts out, particularly, the parts of the plant that are growing inwards and getting tangled up.
This encourages the shoots that are growing—to grow outwards—toward the light.
As I understand it, more or less the same thing works with vines.
Left alone, vines attach themselves to other things, will grow uncontrollably and will become just one big tangled mess!!!
Therefore, a vineyard keeper is needed to keep the vines in order.
The paradox is that the vineyard keeper must cut away lifeless, unproductive branches as well as pruning branches that are productive and alive!!!
At some point, all the branches need to be cut!
For instance, young branches are not allowed to produce fruit for the first few years.
This means a major pruning is needed every season so the plant can develop to its fullest.
With flowers, there is something called “deadheading.”
Pinching off the first flowers produced by pansies, for instance, will make the plants fuller and bring more blossoms down the road.
Yet how hard it is to do that!!!
Those first flowers are so pretty that the temptation is to resist the advice to clip them off.
The laws of nature seem to contradict what we desire.
Still, there it is.
Pruning now results in more beautiful plants later.
At any rate, vineyards and gardens are long-term investments and labor intensive.
With that in mind, in our Scripture passage for this evening, Jesus likens God as a Gardener or “vineyard keeper”, Jesus is the Vine, and we are the branches.
Within Jewish tradition, the vine was a symbol of Israel.
According to Psalm 80, God brought a vine out of Egypt, and planted it in the promised land.
Now Jesus is saying that He is the “true vine.”
Which can only mean that Jesus is the True Israel!!!
Jesus is the One on Whom God’s purposes rest.
Jesus is the Way to God.
And those who follow Christ are members of God’s true people.
So, all this talk about the “vine” isn’t just a clever illustration from gardening.
Rather, it’s about Who Jesus is and who we are, and what is going to happen to us as a result.
In a vineyard, the best grapes are the ones that grow the closest to the vine.
The reason is that the vine is where the nutrients are most concentrated.
Therefore, the branches aren’t allowed to grow all over the place.
They are pruned and kept short.
God, the Father “removes any…branches that don’t produce fruit, and he trims any branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit.”
It may be hard for us to hear that the branches that do produce fruit do not escape being pruned.
In this passage Jesus has gathered His disciples around Him to prepare them for His trial and Crucifixion.
He knows the trials they will have to face in the days ahead, not to mention the years ahead and the thousands of years ahead.
And so Jesus is urging His disciples to “remain” in Him.
Jesus knows that this is the only way they will survive.
This is the only way they will have peace.
This is the only way the message of salvation will be able to go out to the world!!!
Rather than this being a note of despair, Jesus is speaking words of hope and trust for their souls.
Our faith, our message, and our fruit always increases when we remain close to Christ and thus are able to weather the storms that come.
Jesus says, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.”
In his translation of the Bible called The Message, Eugene Peterson uses these words, “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you.”
Jesus makes His home in the hearts of those who accept and invite Him in.
And in so doing, we are able to make our home in Christ as well.
And in doing so, a peace settles into our lives, the peace of God which transcends all understanding and all situations!!!
And the more we abide in Christ during difficult times, the more beautiful we grow in Christ, the more we can relate to others who face difficulties, the more empathy we have for other human beings, the more we are able to love other people, and the more and better quality fruit we are able to produce for the love of God and neighbor!!!
“I am the vine,” says Jesus, “you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me you can do nothing.”
Obviously there are branches that do not produce fruit.
These branches fail to live in love and are only concerned with themselves.
They may profess faith, but don’t engage in acts of love.
What is going on in this church community that Jesus is calling you to become involved in?
What acts of love is this church sharing with our neighbors?
How can you help?
What isn’t being done that needs to be done?
Where do we need leaders to step up where there are none, or volunteers, behind the scenes folks?
Are you abiding in Christ?
Are you bearing fruit for God’s Kingdom?
At Wednesday night Bible study we are studying Paul’s letter to the Philippians.
And Paul wrote Philippians while he was under “house arrest” in Rome.
And in this letter Paul is able to write, “Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the things that have happened to me have actually advanced the gospel.
The whole [Imperial] Guard and everyone else knows that I’m in prison for Christ.”
In other words, Paul is able to see his difficulties in a good light because of the fact that he has been able to witness to those who are keeping him in prison during this difficult time.
Therefore, Paul is able to produce even more fruit!
Can we have something of the same robust confidence in God’s overruling power, as Paul does, even when everything seems to be going wrong?
We can if we remain in Christ!!!
It is possible to rejoice, even during suffering, even during pruning, if we remain in Christ!!!
Our Scripture makes it clear that whether we are in Christ or out of Christ we will be pruned.
Everyone faces that knife!!!
Difficulties come to everyone.
Life deals blows to us all.
Jesus says that the Father, “removes any of my branches that don’t produce fruit, and he trims any branch that produces fruit…
…If you don’t remain in me, you will be like a branch that is thrown out and dries up.
Those branches are gathered up, thrown in a fire and burned.”
We can’t go it alone, trusting only in our own strength.
On our own we are cut off from our Life-Source.
It’s easy to think that it is all up to us and we are all alone, left with only our own very meager resources as we try and deal with problems and challenges that will undoubtedly come.
When someone is having a tough time, many of us may give them the advice to “hang in there.”
The intentions of those words are good, but they aren’t very helpful for those people who do not know Christ.
Jesus offers much, much more than just mere “hanging in there.”
Jesus speaks to us, “I came so that [you] [can] have life—indeed, so that [you] [can] live life to the fullest.”
Living, abiding, and finding our home in Jesus the Vine and God the Grower is what life is all about!!!
In verse 7 of our passage for this evening Jesus promises, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.”
This isn’t some kind of magic trick.
Jesus isn’t a lucky rabbit foot or a vending machine.
It is just a fact.
When we remain in Christ, we stay attuned to Christ and are transformed day by day.
And the miracle of all miracles…
…the remarkable result of this is that what we want will be what God wants, and what God wants will surely come to pass!!!
May this be so as it pertains to us, may we “produce much fruit” for God and “in this way prove that [we] are” disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!!!
Amen.
