Our Living Branch

As he walked through the vineyard with his master gardener, he couldn’t help but feel a mixture of pride and satisfaction as he inspected row after row of beautiful grape vines full of fruit, but then Joseph’s face dropped as he saw the sickly fig tree which they planted three years ago. It had been planted with such high hopes. Joseph wanted to see how fig trees would fare on his land in order to expand his business. With such rich and abundant soil, he had every reason for hope. Yet things had not turned out the way he had planned. The tree looked half dead—in fact—more than half dead! In disgust, he turned to his gardener saying, “Cut it down!”

Joseph was puzzled by the gardener’s response, he normally was such a practical man, “Sir,” he said, “give me one more year. I will put manure around its roots. Next year I am sure we will have a harvest of figs.”

“You are starting to sound like crazy old Anna who speaks of nothing else but the coming of the Messiah. That is a fool’s hope, the line of David is as good as dead and so is this fig tree!”

“Master don’t speak so. Anna is a prophetess! Besides, Simeon the priest speaks of the same hope.” added the gardener.

“Simeon, he is just as bad as Anna! I sure hope he is not on duty tomorrow when I bring my sacrifice! You are all a bunch of dreamers!” With that Joseph marched off.

The next day Joseph’s fears were realized when he discovered that not only was Simeon on duty, but he was the priest assisting him with his sacrifice! All the old priest could talk about was the baby boy he dedicated to the Lord. Simeon claimed this child was the Messiah, but when Joseph ask about the child and his parents, he learned that he was the son of a poor carpenter.

“The Messiah is to be of royal linage,” Joseph said to the priest, “of the line of David.”

When the priest explained that both the mother and the father were from the line of David, Joseph countered, “This just proves how far the line of David has fallen, he is just a poor carpenter! Give up your dream, the line of David is dead!”

Despite his skepticism, Joseph couldn’t help but wonder if what Simeon said was true. On his walk home, his conversation with the old priest was all he could think about. Perhaps he had grown too skeptical he thought to himself. As he rounded the corner, he caught sight of his sickly fig tree, but it was no longer sickly! Joseph quickened his pace and as he drew closer, he saw branch after branch of beautifully green, fruit laden branches! It was like a miracle had happened—a sign from God, that He had the power to bring life out of death!

“Could it be that the Messiah has really come?” Joseph whispered to himself. With that he fell to his knees in tears and worshiped God.

Life from a Dead Stump

This morning’s introductory story is a creative twist on Jesus’ parable of the unfruitful fig tree found in Luke 13:6-9. I tell this story because I think it helps us to understand the hopelessness of many in Israel at the time of Jesus’ first Advent. It had been over 400 years since a prophet had spoken and the line of David was all but dead. It was as Isaiah prophesied—a dead stump, but from this stump would come a branch!

We normally associate life from death with Easter, but when you think of it Christmas too is about life from death. Everything about Jesus’ birth speaks to the life-giving power of God. Mary was a virgin, yet life sprang from her womb! The line of David had been so diluted that that Joseph and Mary were but poor peasants. When the Wisemen finally arrived at Mary and Joseph’s humble home, they must have first thought they had the wrong house!

Irrepressible Life

In our reading form Colossians today, Paul speaks of an irrepressible life being unleashed upon the world by the coming of Jesus. He says the gospel is “bearing fruit and growing” in the “whole world!”

All across the globe people are celebrating the birth of Jesus. No event in history has had such a profound effect as the birth of Jesus. People may not like or believe in Jesus, but no one can ignore Jesus.

The power of Jesus to bring life from death is not limited to the past, it is a living reality.

The True Vine

In our Gospel reading, Jesus says he is the true vine and that all who are united to Him will bear fruit. Not just a little fruit, but much fruit!

John 15 is abused by many preachers. I have heard it preached something like this, “If you don’t bear fruit, Jesus is going to cut you off and you will no longer abide in Him.”

A sermon like that is the exact opposite of what Jesus taught!

There is indeed a command and promise in this text, but the command is to “abide in me,” not “bear fruit,” and the promise is you will “bear much fruit,” not you will “abide in me!”

When a person is united to Jesus by faith, the irrepressible life-giving power of God is flowing through them! What this means for you and I is that if we “abide” in Christ we WILL be fruitful!

This truth should give us a holy boldness to serve the Lord. If we look to ourselves all we will see is our limitations—we are all like sickly fig trees, but when we look to Jesus, we see spiritual Miracle Grow! In the Parable of the Unfruitful Fig Tree, the gardener asks the landowner for permission to place manure around the roots of the tree. Paul goes on to write:

Colossians 2:6–7 ESV

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

When we sink our roots deep into Jesus, we tap into the same power that brought forth a living branch from the dead stump of David and that raised Jesus from the garden tomb! No wonder that when Paul prayed for his fellow Christians, he prayed that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened to see “the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us who believe”! (Eph 1:17-20)

We are going to close our service today by singing the hymn “Because He Lives.” This hymn is normally associated with Easter, but I hope that now you understand that it is an Advent hymn as well, because Jesus is Our Living Branch!