Easter 5 “The True Vine”
May 2nd, 2021 – John 15:4
Metaphors. What are metaphors? Let’s review. Metaphor is often described as a direct comparison. With a comparison there are different parts being compared. Even though the comparison is not entirely literally true there IS still truth in metaphors. For example, if I say “I’m drowning in a sea of paperwork” it is not true that I am literally ‘drowning’ in the factual sense of water filling the lungs and suffocating to death. I am speaking in a metaphor saying this. There also does not exist a ‘sea’ of paperwork with which to ‘drown’ in. A sea is made up of water and not paper. This is a metaphor.
Yet, if someone says to you, “I’m drowning in a sea of paperwork” you do not dismiss what they are saying as nonsense. You understand that they are communicating to you truth about their situation by way of a comparison metaphor.
They feel as if they are drowning in the amount of paperwork they have to do.
Using this metaphorical language, which we enlist (enlist like a volunteer?) all the time in our day-to-day language, we can communicate something deeper (physically going down?) which cannot be communicated using regular words.
Some ideas and concepts cannot be explained without using metaphors. Even though metaphors are not perfectly true they still communicate a lot of truth by the point of comparison.
Take for example our Gospel teaching today.
Jesus says He is the true vine. When we hear this, we should not be thinking that Jesus is literally a plant. We do not worship a vine plant. We worship a God who is Spirit and human.
What is this true vine thing all about? In the past, God had spoken about His people Israel using a metaphor. God said that all His people Israel were like a vineyard that He planted and cared for. When it was time to produce fruit, the vines produced wild grapes, bad fruit, not what it should have produced after being so domesticated and cared for (Isaiah 5:1-7). This vine was a false vine. Not what it should have been. Because of this, God said He will destroy it. His people Israel did not produce the fruit they should have.
Enter Jesus.
Jesus is the new Israel fulfilling for all of Israel what they could never do themselves. He passes the temptation in the wilderness, He keeps the Law of the Torah perfectly, Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s Word spoken through the Law and the Prophets. Unlike the old Israel, Jesus is the True Vine which produces real proper fruit just as the vinedresser (The Father) planned for. He even speaks this metaphor with an I AM statement “I am the true vine.” There are many I AM statements in John and they point to Jesus claiming to be the same God who came to Moses in the burning bush – whose name is Yahweh or “I Am Who I Am.”
Even though Jesus does not start off saying “I am like the true vine…” we still gather he is speaking in metaphorical comparisons. Yet, we still cannot dismiss the fact that He is telling us something very real – He is God and He is the fulfillment of Israel.
Jesus is telling us truth about His relationship with the Father and our relationship with Him. He uses this metaphor so that we may grasp what He is saying with our human minds.
Jesus is the true vine and we are the branches off the true vine. We are not literally connected like a branch is to a vine, but the truth Jesus is telling us is that we are connected to Him. As branches, we can only survive by being connected to Him. We come from Him. He is the source of our life. He is also the source of the good things we do. We cannot “bear good fruit” unless we are connected to Him. In fact, we cannot do anything apart from Him (John 15:5).
Jesus takes this metaphor a step further by explaining “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).
Amazing stuff!
Back to some more metaphor. Ever try making a phone call on a cell phone with reception? Doesn’t work very good, does it? Same with us. Without connection to God we cannot do anything good. We cannot “bear fruit.” Even if something we do looks identical to a non-Christian who is a good person it is very different before God. What we do is empowered by the Holy Spirit and is pleasing and acceptable to God. What a mere “good person” does who rejects Jesus, cannot do anything good.
By faith, by your baptism into His name, you have been (to switch back to the vine metaphor) grafted onto Jesus the true vine. You abide in Him and He in you because the Vine Dresser, the Father, has fastened you together.
Anyone that does not abide in Jesus is gathered up like a withered branch and thrown into the fire and burned. (John 15:6).
I do not know what to shout first.
If you are fastened to Jesus, the true vine, “Bear fruit!” Though, I feel just as silly shouting to a Christian to bear fruit as I do to my plants at home “grow!” Of course, it will! It cannot do anything but grow or bear fruit when cared for by its gardener.
If you are not fastened to Jesus, if the vinedresser has not grafted you onto the true vine, I invite you to come and be grafted on by the Father to the Son in the blessed waters of Holy Baptism.
Receive the pruning the Father does to us in the Holy Spirit through the forgiveness of our sin. The Greek word in this parable “pruned” is kathairei. This word means “to be cleaned.” In the context of “cleaning” a vine, pruned is a fitting word. For us Christians, forgiven is even better. That is what our God does to us through His Word and Sacraments. He turns our hearts toward His Law and leads us to abide in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Our Saviour.
As a wise man from many year ago, St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote: “I wish to follow with all my strength the lowly Jesus; I wish Him, who loved me and gave Himself for me, to embrace me with the arms of His love, which suffered in my stead; but I must also feed on the Paschal Lamb, for unless I eat His Flesh and drink His Blood I have no life in me. It is one thing to follow Jesus, another to hold Him, another to feed on Him. To follow Him is a life-giving purpose; to hold and embrace Him a solemn joy; to feed on Him a blissful life” (SLSB, pp 292–93).
To speak mixing in this metaphor from God one last time, as a branch feeds off the vine, so we feed off of Christ Himself, His very body and blood for the pruning of our souls.