"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ... I am the vine, you are the branches."
John 15:1, 5 NKJV
Many people question who they are and what the purpose of their lives is, and talking about God they do the same to Him. The text of John's gospel gives us a lapidary answer to ponder: we are the branches and Jesus is the vine on which we should depend. "Without me you can do nothing," the Master judges (v. 5). These are the closing words of the biblical text of this meditation. The conscious believer knows that without the Lord he must do nothing. There is no spiritual life without the vine of Christ. He is the One who is able to bear the fruit expected by God, unlike the people of Israel, a vineyard that yielded wild grapes. We likewise will not be able to produce what God pleases if we rely on ourselves. And that is why we must be and remain attached to the vine, just as suggested, "Abide in me and I will abide in you..." (v. 4). The verb (Greek mènein) used here expresses in context many nuances that help us understand what is required of us: "Abide / remain / live/ exist / dwell / endure / continue / be established / remain stable / persevere in me."
Behind the vine is a vinedresser, a simple and familiar figure whom Jesus chooses to introduce us to God the Father, and whom he describes with calloused and experienced hands. What a sweet and familiar figure for each of us to be cared for by. A farmer caring for the branches with hands that have known the earth since creation. It moves one to think of such a God, pruning me so that I produce juicy fruit and not wild grapes. Wild grapes are not suitable for making wine, but that does not mean they are to be thrown away. God's desire is for me to be able to give grapes that will produce wine. At the Last Supper, the wine symbolizes the blood of Jesus. The grapes from which wine can be produced are the very grapes that are ready to give their lives to others, to die for the Lord's vineyard. Those, who have been planted and cared for by the Lord, have His life, and will not keep it for themselves, but will be ready to give it for God. None of us, not even the church will be the perfect vineyard. Only Jesus manages to be the "true vine," and at the same time He sees us as part of Himself: "you are the branches. You and I are branches of the same plant, one root and one lifeblood. It is not possible to think that we are independent vines; we remain branches. "We are extensions of that stock, we are composed of the same matter, like sparks from a brazier, like drops from the ocean, like the breath in the air" (Ermes Ronchi). Without Him we can do nothing, for we dry up like the branch detached from the vine.
When we decide to live independently, detaching ourselves from the vine and no longer dwelling in Him, the most we could do is to become wild. Isaiah's song (5:1-7) describes how the vineyard is reduced to wilderness. God is able, however, to draw a way through the desert and turn it into a garden. Perhaps the hardest thing is to wait as the farmer does, when after sowing, he stands in confident expectation for the harvest. To us the humility of not detaching ourselves from the vine and allowing ourselves to be pruned in due time. Our God is like the vinedresser who wants every branch filled with fruit, and for this we cannot fear Him, who wields not the scepter but the hoe, who sits not on an aloof throne but on the little wall of our vineyard. With His wise hands He comes to stimulate our growth, for "every branch that bears fruit He prunes it that it may bear more fruit." His pruning, though painful or misunderstood at the moment, has no mortifying intent. Far from it. He only wants to remove the superfluous and strengthen, to eliminate the old and bring forth the new. My "farmer" God heals and prunes me with only one goal: my flourishing.
Weekly Bible Reading Plan # 35
August 26 Psalms 120-122; 1 Corinthians 9
August 27 Psalms 123-125; 1 Corinthians 10:1-18
August 28 Psalms 126-128; 1 Corinthians 10:19-33
August 29 Psalms 129-131; 1 Corinthians 11:1-16
August 30 Psalms 132-134; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
August 31 Psalms 135-136; 1 Corinthians 12
September 01 Psalms 137-139; 1 Corinthians 13
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