The Vine and the Branches

John 15:1-8

5th Sunday of Easter - Confirmation

John’s Gospel contains many of the metaphors that Jesus used to explain eternal truths about Himself. Metaphors like “living water,” “bread of life” and in this passage “the true vine.” Through these metaphors we get an explanation of who Jesus is and what He provides for us. Today’s metaphor draws us into images of life and living things. It calls to mind earthy subjects and images of nature and organic things. Jesus is saying to His disciples and to you and me, that He is the very source of life for all humanity.

Well, I can’t talk about this text without making some reference to the snowstorm we got last week that brought down many branches. Most of you probably spent this last week cleaning up the broken branches. Here is one of the thousands of branches that came down last Saturday. This branch, as well as the others is going to die. They have been disconnected from the tree, the very source of their life. Without the tree they will not get the nutrients needed to live. Without the tree they will not get the water they need. Without the tree they will die. And that is the very point this metaphor from Jesus is trying to tell us – without Jesus we will die!

Metaphors make us think and ponder. They are images we can relate to and images that stay with us. This image is to remind us where we find true life in this world and the next – in Jesus the true vine. If you want to find true purpose in your life it can be found in being connected to the vine, to Jesus.

Our confirmands will stand before the church today and confess with their lips the faith they were baptized into. They will show with their actions that Jesus is a part of their lives, actually not part but their whole life. And we to today can confess with them our faith in Jesus who gives us life. In our baptism we are connected to the vine of Jesus and become the branches of His church. This is what Paul says in Romans “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:4-5, ESV) [1]

The New International Version that we read our lesson from uses the word “remain” which is a good translation of the Greek. But I like the more traditional translation that you can find in the King James of “abide.” The word that is used in the Greek has the meaning of dwelling or living with which “abides” brings up that thought in our minds. What Jesus is saying is that we are to make our dwelling our home with Him. Too often I believe we have a tourist mentality when it comes to church and God. We go for a visit to get recharged or refreshed. We come once a week to visit the church and hear about Jesus. Or we get the fortunate chance to visit Jesus during the week through a Bible Study or other “church” event. But Jesus is asking us to live with Him, not just visit.

We are to make our home in Jesus. If we think of ourselves as a tourist then we never really get fully connected. In our houses we do many things to try to make them a “home.” We want a place that we feel comfortable in and a place where we can let our guard down and be ourselves. That is

what Jesus wants us to do with Him. Not just visit but take up residence with Him. He wants us to be honest with Him and feel at home in His presence.

If we view church as a place we visit we can also settle for the here and now as our home, but it is not! Heaven is our home. Don’t settle for this place but long for our “room prepared by Jesus.” Don’t visit Jesus, but visit earth. Make your home with God. Connect to the true vine. Find you life in Him.

And a vital part of connecting with Jesus is to connect to the church. Jesus said that the church is His bride, His body. To disconnect from the church is to disconnect from the body of Christ and it is as good as the broken branches we see in our yards. They die. The church is the place that we connect with Jesus. It is not just a good place to visit but it is the very body of Christ, it is the connection to the true vine.

Jesus said to His disciples just a chapter earlier in John, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35, ESV) [2]

Love is a part of being connected to the vine, being a branch in the church. I know I am mixing metaphors but the Body and the Vine go together so well. They both deal with living organisms. We learn from nature that everything is interdependent in each other. You take out an organ from our bodies and the organ dies and they body may die as well. You take a branch off the vine and it dies as well and hurts the vine. We need each other because we are connected, created, redeemed in Christ to be his Body, to be a part of His vine.

Did you notice what Jesus said would happen if we love each other in the church? He said the world would know we are His disciples. Our love for each other in the church, our connection to each other, will be a witness to the world. The church, our Godly family, is the place that we can “practice” our love for each other, or devotion to the Body, or connection to the vine. If we can’t show love it in the church, then how can we show love in the world.

To stay connected to the vine we are to 1) connect to Jesus the true source of life and abide with Him, and 2) connect to the church, the very body of Christ in the world. And excellent book on this subject is The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. In this book he outlines that to find true purpose in life we have to look to God and not ourselves. It is not within us to find true meaning and fulfillment. It is outside of us in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that we find true purpose and contentment in life. Why? Because it is God the Father who created us to be connected to Him. It is Jesus Christ who reconnected us to God after sin “broke our branch.” And it is Holy Spirit who instills in us true faith and sustains us in this life. Did you see the trinity in this text? It is there. The two obvious are Jesus as the vine and the Father as the gardener. But the Spirit is there too. "Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you." (John 15:3, ESV)[3] Elsewhere in Scripture the Spirit is associated with the Word of God. The Spirit inspired the authors to write the Scriptures for us and the same Spirit works in our hearts and minds to accept and understand God’s Word. Staying connected to the vine means staying connected to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Today our confirmands reconfirm the faith they were baptized into. We too can reconfirm our faith daily and see that we are to be connected to the true vine in Jesus. All else brings death, only Jesus brings life. Daily we are to be reminded of our baptism and that we have been grafted in to the vine. Daily we are to stay connect to the church, the body of Christ and to show love to one another that keeps us connected. In Christ we are a part of the vine. In Christ we are connected to God. In Christ we find true life.

Amen

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[1] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (electronic ed.). Wheaton: Good News Publishers.

[2] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (electronic ed.). Wheaton: Good News Publishers.

[3] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (electronic ed.). Wheaton: Good News Publishers.