Gardening 101

On Tuesday, I had the privilege of attending the Classis Quinte meeting at Zion. Rick Van Manen, who preached here, last September, had his examination for a classical license to exhort. As part of the examination, Rick had to exhort on Psalm 1. I really enjoyed his short message. Some of the points he made fit very well with the themes we have been hearing at Rehoboth. Rick had only 10 minutes for his message on Tuesday. I however, have the luxury of having a great deal more time than he had.

The Israelites used Psalms in worship, much as we use hymns and other songs. The Psalms enabled the people to express their feelings to God. It involved more than just prayer or meditation; it used the voice, body language, instruments, and passion. They used the Psalms in many ways, and on many different occasions. Some of the Psalms are praise, some are lament, where the people, or the author cries out to God to rescue them from their struggles.

Psalm 1 is an introductory psalm, or poem for the entire compilation of Psalms. It is instruction for the proper use of the Psalms. The Psalmist is telling the readers that they are to behave a certain way. They are to read the psalms in a certain way. That way is righteousness. That way is in accordance with the law of God.

Did you notice how the psalmist structured his poem? There is a contrast between the righteous man (singular) and the wicked (plural). Why would the Psalmist do that? Why would he use the singular and the plural as well when marking the difference between the righteous and the wicked? How can we understand this mix in the context of worship?

One reason is that it brings out the difference between the righteous and the wicked even more! The righteous, singular, the wicked plural. There is a difference not only in object, but also in number! Another reason is to stress the separation of the righteous from the wicked. The wicked outnumber by the righteous, just as her enemies outnumbered Israel. It is a concept that the people of Israel would have understood. It is a concept that is continued in Robert Frost’s poem, when he says, “but I, I took the road less travelled.” The picture the Psalmist is painting is a solitary righteous being, surrounded by all manner of wickedness, like a beautiful rosebush surrounded by weeds.

John Calvin, in his commentary on Psalm 1 shows how the Psalmist used different words to show how the wicked try to work against the righteous. The wicked try to lead the righteous astray first by hiding their wicked agenda through hidden counsel. The righteous man will not even think about going down that route. But a less than righteous person might be tempted, to wander a few steps in that direction. Then, the wicked arrests the person in sinful activities. The walking has turned to a standstill. The righteous person is now two thirds wicked. They are standing, stuck in their sinning. Finally, the wicked overpower the righteous man, until he sinks into the seat of hopeless resignation, and becomes wicked himself.

But, the Psalmist says, it doesn’t have to be that way. The righteous person is a person who desires to serve God. That person delights in the Law of the Lord. Law here could refer to the Ten Commandments, or the first five books of the Bible. The righteous person meditates, concentrates, and looks for ways to fulfill the law. The righteous person is a well rooted, well nourished, strong upright solid tree, planted by a stream of life-giving water, his life is fruitful in season, his leaves never fall, and he prospers in everything.

This is in contrast to the wicked. On television, we quite often see shows where the criminals get off without punishment. Lives lived outside of the Law are applauded. It seems like the good people do okay, but the wicked prosper. The Psalmist is telling us that that really is not the case. What the wicked have is nothing. It will be here today, but gone tomorrow. There is nothing permanent. There is nothing lasting.

The righteous man, however, is rooted, built upon a firm foundation. Steady. Secure. Firm. There is a sense of permanence. It is the difference between living paycheque to paycheque, and having a well-balanced budget. You know where you have come from and where you are going. You have the added benefit of the blessing of the Lord.

But what is that blessing? How would the people of Israel understand it? Our society is very individualistic. Society bombards us into thinking of ourselves first. It is a dog eat dog world, you’d better look out for #1. We have lost the sense of identity as a people. It is harder for us to identify ourselves non-individually. It wasn’t always that way, though. Take the last name Peterson, literally, it means son of Peter. People used to identify themselves with their family. Now some people make up new last names for themselves. Some ask others to call them by their first name. The People of Israel thought differently. They understood their individual identity in relation to the nation, Israel. They would have understood the righteous man, not as implying to each of them as individuals, but to them as a nation.

Indeed, that is what God intended when he chose them as His people. He meant for them to be righteous. God wanted to make them an example of righteousness for all nations. However, they failed. When they heard those Psalmist’s words, they would have felt personal, national disappointment. Because they knew, they had failed. God punished them by exiling them to Babylon. God gave them over to their wickedness. The wicked surrounded them. The wicked flaunted their wealth. They tempted the Israelites with evil. God punished them for their wickedness. They wept. However, the Psalmist didn’t write the words to make them feel bad. He wrote them to give them hope. To show them that one day they would be a righteous people. To show them, that one day a righteous man would come, and his righteousness would be for all.

The righteous man the Psalmist is referring to is none other than Jesus Christ. Of all the humans who have ever lived, Jesus was the only righteous one. He is the one. He lived the life none of us can live. He is the tree planted by streams of water. We are his branches. We, upon proclaiming our faith in Jesus Christ, as our Lord and Saviour, are branches grafted into the tree of righteousness.

And that brings us to our Gardening 101 lesson. From the University of Missouri Website, I learned the following things. Grafting is the act of joining two plants together. It is also a method of using a root system better adapted to soil or climate than that produced naturally by an ungrafted plant. Not all plants are graft able. Generally, only plants closely related botanically form a good graft union. Grafting is not a means of developing new varieties. The stock and scion must be compatible. Incompatible grafts may not form a union, or the union may be weak. Poor union results in plants that grow poorly break off or eventually die. Plants of different families will not graft successfully.

Christ grafts us into himself. It is the joining of two plants together. Jesus Christ is our root system; he is the trunk that supports us, the branches. Jesus, being the Righteous Man we read about in the Psalm is perfectly adapted to living on the earth. He, being our trunk, enables us to survive in a hostile world. Moreover, he enables us to thrive and flourish, to produce good fruit, even when our enemy Satan, tries to poison us. However, Satan cannot poison branches grafted into the true vine.

Now, just as the Psalmist made a distinction between the righteous and the wicked, so it goes in grafting plants. Not all plants are graft able. Only those that are related are graft able. A person, who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, is not graft able into the vine. The wicked cannot become a part of the vine. The wicked scions or branches are not compatible with Christ, the vine and so eventually, they break off and die.

Do not get me wrong though, every human being on the face of the earth is graft able into the vine. All of us, as image bearers of God, are relatable to God. But the wicked have turned away from God, and they have allowed the Poison of Satan to keep them from grafting, from becoming a good union. They have become the family of wickedness, not righteousness.

But those of us who believe, who confess that Jesus is Lord, who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour; we have been grafted into the true vine. We are no longer individual plants, capable of doing whatever we want. Christ grafted us. We have given our lives to Christ, and have received true life from Him. But it has come at a cost.

Two things happen in grafting plants. You first have to cut off the branch you want to graft into the trunk. In the life of a Christian, Christ cuts us off our poor trunk. He cuts us off that tree of death. It hurts. It forces us to give something up. It forces us to realize what we were before Christ. It means that we will never be able to go back to the way we were.

The second thing that happens is that you have to cut a hole in the receiving trunk. Lee Valley Tools sells a special drill bit for this purpose. The tool that pierced Jesus Christ was a hammer and a nail. Jesus Christ, we read in Isaiah 53, was pierced for our transgressions. He allowed himself to be pierced so we could be grafted into the true vine.

I mentioned just a bit ago, that sometimes when incompatible plants are grafted, a poor union results. We have a tendency sometimes to look back at our old life, and we mistakenly see freedom in it. We are mistaken in thinking that we were able to do more back then. We look at our new life in Christ as being rooted, stuck, not on our own, but tied, united to Christ.

But the truth is that we have true freedom. We have freedom in Christ. Think about Jesus’ ministry on this earth. Think of all the people he taught, all the people he healed. Wouldn’t you love to do something like that? Wouldn’t you love to do what Jesus did? Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to give your life totally over to Christ, knowing that you can serve him without a care in the world, knowing that he is taking care of you, and looking after you and your loved ones? Don’t you see that that is true?

Because Christ has grafted us into the vine, we are completely free. Consider a branch of a cherry tree. If it remains attached to the trunk, it grows new leaves in the spring. Beautiful blossoms appear, and eventually it produces delicious cherries. The same goes for us. As long as we are grafted into the tree, which is always, because Jesus promises, he will never leave us, nor forsake us—that is, cut us off, we will have life, and produce much fruit. That is the fact of the matter.

But how do we know we are grafted into the true vine? Well, we know because Jesus tells us, and we know because the Holy Spirit confirms it with our spirit. How do we live to produce good fruit? We have to accept the true nourishment that Christ gives us. Connected to the vine, we get all that we need. Christ produces it in us. We bear the fruit of the Spirit. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness. Grafted into the vine, we live as Christ lived. We take on the nature of Christ, we take on the Character of Christ and in so doing, and the fruit is evident in our lives.

Jesus promised to his disciples that he would send His Holy Spirit, so that they, and us, are into his Body, and so that we would do greater things that he did. We do them, because we have Him living in us, coursing through our veins. Christ has taken us in, and we reflect Him outward. The Apostle Paul put it this way: it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ living in me. We cannot be righteous and wicked at the same time. The good vine, Christ, produces good fruit.

So as we go about our duties this week, let us ask ourselves this question repeatedly. Are my actions, thoughts, deeds produced in me out of the new life I have in Christ, or are they my actions, thoughts and deeds left over from my old life? Will my actions, thoughts and deeds display the fruit of the spirit, or the fruit of my own selfishness? Will I put others or myself first? Will I seek my kingdom first, or Christ’s kingdom?

As we come up to the season of Lent, lets take time to read about the ministry of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Let’s challenge one another to read one of the four Gospels. Let’s pray, asking the Spirit to fertilize our minds, so that we may produce fruit. Let’s live, because Christ has grafted us into the vine. Let’s rejoice because He has blessed us with His Spirit. Let’s obey because He wants us to minister to His world. Let’s love because He loves us so very much. Amen.