The True Vine and the Vinedresser

What does it mean to “abide” in Christ when we struggle to remain faithful from one day to the next? Drawing on Jesus’ words in John 15, this sermon shows how the Christian life is sustained not by our strength but by Christ the True Vine and the loving care of the Father, who shapes his people to bear lasting fruit and share in Christ’s joy. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you now to ask you to shape and mold our thoughts, to train our ears to hear your word and to listen with faith. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. May be seated. I'm going to take a risk with my opening question today. Which of the original twelve apostles do you think was the most like Mr. Bean? For those of you who don't know who Mr. Bean is, a short description might be necessary. Mr. Bean is a man of remarkable self-confidence. He cannot tell that he's the world's biggest idiot. Whether he's trying to take an exam, locking his car, attempting to escape a parking garage, or attending a church service, Mr. Bean is capable of disaster. With that little snapshot in your mind of his character, do any of the apostles remind you a little bit of Mr. Bean? And while you think about that, I heard some answers already, while you think about that, let's think back to the words of John 15. I don't know if it strikes you the same way as it does me, but the words abide in me aren't very comforting. In fact, I don't think the words abide in me are super comforting unless, like Mr. Bean, you lack self-awareness. If you know yourself at all, you know that you fall short all the time. Indeed, we all fall short. And if we're honest, we don't seem capable of sticking to Jesus at all. By the time we muster up our strength to do our best and stick to Jesus, our hearts are distracted. And it would take yet another self-determined effort to wrench our focus away from ourselves and back on Jesus. So I don't know about you, but when I hear the words, abide in me, I feel a pang of fear. What's going to happen to me? Are my part-time efforts to abide or stay fast in Jesus going to gain a measure of credit with God? And Jesus' words in John 15 seem to say there's no guarantee of partial credit. He simply says that if you do not abide in me, you will be cut off like a fruitless branch and cast into a fire, which is not exactly a reassuring thought. However, Jesus seems to say, or he does say in so many words at the end of the passage we read, that his words are meant to bring his disciples joy. That even in the upper room, while Jesus is sitting right in front of the disciples, they were confused, frustrated, and scared. And Jesus, ending his words in John 14, the last verse of John 14, he tells the disciples, rise and let us go from there. And like a good preacher, he gives a few more points to make and he speaks to them for a few more chapters. But that rise signals something about death and resurrection, if you have the ears to hear it. But the disciples did not have those ears. Jesus has been and will be throwing a lot at the disciples in John 13 through 17. And the word rise, right in the middle of all of that, that Jesus uses, is a word that he has used many times. To the man who was lowered through the roof, his friends lowered him through the roof, rise, take up your mat and go home. To the widow's son, as he was being carried out in Nain, rise, to the little girl laying on Jairus' daughter laying on her deathbed, rise, right? He says that word rise over and over again to call the dead back to life. And this time, this rise is a call for Jesus to go and suffer and to die. He told his disciples, Abide in me, and that he would abide in them with the cross in mind. And he tells them, Abide in me, and I in you. And he stands up to go to the cross, and what do the disciples do? They scatter. All the gumption in the world and bold words about being willing to die for and with Jesus are not enough to keep us to the task when the time comes. Remember Mr. Bean? Which disciple reminds you of Mr. Bean the most? I think Peter. I think Peter reminds me of Mr. Bean. He couldn't help himself. He was constantly rushing ahead and making a mess of things. And he went so far one time as to correct Jesus when Jesus said, I'm going to the cross to die. And what did Peter do? He grabbed Jesus by the elbow and pulled him a little bit away from everyone else, said, Jesus, don't say that. You don't know what you're saying. And in the upper room, Peter's amending his boldness. He's no longer saying, Jesus, you're not going to die. Peter instead says to Jesus, I'll go and die with you. And all of that came to nothing when he saw how Jesus was being treated. He denied Jesus three times out of fear. But as we've heard so often, that was not the end of Peter's story. At the end of his life, he did die for Jesus. So what changed for him? In John 15, verses 1 through 11, Jesus, I've tried to coin a word here, so stick with me for just a minute. I've tried to invent a new word. It's actually not my word, it's been around for centuries, but no one's ever, no one uses this word. I don't even know if I can pronounce it right now. I'm going to try. Jesus parabolized his relationship to the disciples in John 15. He pictured himself as the life that animates our lives and as the Father as a vine dresser that trains our lives so that we can flourish. The comfort of John 15 is not found in abide in me and I in you, and you will bear much fruit. The comfort of John 15 is in I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. The life of Christ and the sovereign life directing toward good of the Father solve both our powerlessness that we live with and the slowness of what seems like our growth toward holiness and righteousness. Our wills simply will not rise to the occasion. We can't muster the strength to carry on and to abide and to stick to Jesus. It's the power of Christ working in us that produces all of that fruit. And our best-laid plans and all our wisdom cannot navigate our lives and ourselves and the people around us through a world full of sin and the hazards that sin puts in our path. But the Father, who knows the beginning from the end, he can direct our paths. And to mix a metaphor here, Jesus is the vine in the same way that he's the rock upon which we build our lives. The body of Christ gives us the solid ground to stand on, and the hands of the Father mold us into the image of his Son. And so it's not our efforts to abide in Christ that matter, it's the life of connection to the true vine that invigorates our lives. We are not bound sinners compelled to a life of rebellion against God. We are liberated and Holy Spirit-empowered members of the body of Christ. And the Father is working to prune and shape us into the image of his Son, which, if you know anything about pruning, is not likely to be a comfortable process. Because, in the end, the end of the pruning, by the way, if you think about pruning and bearing much fruit from the verses, the end of the pruning is that you're more like Jesus. And what did they do to Jesus? He was so good that the world killed him. Jesus spoke these words, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dressers, the vine dresser, on a night to a group of disciples that were increasingly fearful, increasingly afraid. This night was laden with meaning. They had just finished their celebration of the Passover meal. And this the Passover meal is this foundational, this foundational meal for the identity of religious Jews. On that first Passover in Moses in the Old Testament, that first Passover, the Israelites were passed over when God's judgment fell on the firstborn of Egypt. The blood of the Passover lamb, painted over the door, covered those inside the house. To celebrate the Passover was a recognition that God is faithful to his promises. However, to say that the Passover is a religious celebration is inadequate. It's not enough to say that it's just a religious celebration. To be honest, it was a struggle when I was trying to write these sentences to make it religious only. It was really hard to come up with sentences that made it only religious. You blur the lines between the religious identity of ancient Israelites and their political identity as a nation. Because the Passover was the founding event of that nation. Of course, the Passover is a testimony to the Israelites that God is faithful to his promises to save his people from slavery, but he saves them in order to make them a great nation. That will bring the blessing of Abraham to the world. The entire Jewish world is shaped by this Passover. And whatever means the ancient peoples of the world used to mark time, it was replaced for the Jews. Now the Passover is the start of their new year, but it's also year one in their calendar. The zero year, if you will, of the Jewish people is that first Passover meal when God led them out of slavery and into freedom. Now fast forward to Jesus eating this meal with his disciples, the land of David and Solomon and the prophets under Roman occupation. There were predictions from religious leaders and insurrectionists alike that the time was right. Ripe, let's throw off Roman oppression. And Jesus had proven himself an authoritative teacher and a worker of mighty deeds. Eating a Passover meal with Jesus must have been palpable with apocalyptic weight. Finally, they would think. All these disciples who are looking for that day when Israel would be liberated, finally, another Moses, another Elijah had come to lead the people out of oppression again. Unfortunately, Jesus spent the entire meal talking about dying. It must have been disorienting for his disciples. But in his typical way, Jesus was reshaping what was really important for the disciples. Their concern for the nation of Israel was just too small. They were looking at Israel as a place and a little ethnic group. Their focus was too tight. In the kingdom that Jesus was bringing, there would not only be a new political reality, but there would also be a new set of values that governed that kingdom. Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, if anyone deserves honor, it's Jesus, and yet he was the one who ties a towel around his waist and washes his disciples' feet. He doesn't send others into battle to die for him. He goes and does battle in his own body and all by himself and dies for them. His death, which was a terror for his disciples, was in reality the source of life that they needed. That is why Jesus tells the disciples to abide in me. He's pointing them to the source of life. In John 14, Jesus told the disciples that he was leaving them to go and prepare a place for them, and that he would come back for them and bring them to the place that he had prepared. But their confusion is evident in Thomas's question, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus simply substitutes himself as the answer to this place, this direction, this destination that they're going. He says, I am the way and the truth and the life. In other words, they do know the way, how to get to wherever Jesus is going because they know Jesus. When Jesus completes his explanation, when he finishes talking to them about the way, the truth, and the life, he tells them about the promised Holy Spirit, and he tells them, he says that the Holy Spirit's going to come back, is going to come to you after I'm gone, and is going to remind you of all these words that I've taught you. And then Jesus kind of puts his hands, you see him put his hands on the table, and he says, Rise, let us go from here. And then his next words are, I am the vine, the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Jesus is this vine. The Father is the vine dresser who tends the vine, and we are the branches. Several commentaries that I read this week referred to John 15 as a lived parable. In other words, this is not some esoteric story with a religious meaning to serve serving to point us to some deeper truth. These words are our reality. This is our reality. The relationship of vine and branches is critical to understanding what Jesus is saying. The branches of a vine look a lot like the vine itself. In fact, I, as someone who's not very good at horticulture and not very good at wine growing or vine growing, excuse me, grape growing for making wine, and never having done that myself, though I have eaten a good many of muscadines, I don't know which is the vine and which is a branch. If I looked at it, I couldn't tell you. But that tells you something about the nature of our lives in Christ as well, because if he's the vine and we're the branches, we end up looking a lot like him. Jesus is the animating life that produces fruit in our lives. The disciples in the upper room, what would they do? They would flee at the arrest and mock trial and crucifixion of Jesus. But after the resurrection, the ascension, and Pentecost, the disciples would boldly proclaim the gospel even to their deaths. The change in the disciples is startling. So startling, in fact, that the only way to understand it is to attribute the change to the power of Christ at work in them. The eternal Son of God came down, took our flesh, took our nature. He shares our humanity. And after the resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, we are brought into Christ. We are made into his body. He is our head. We share in his sufferings, and he in our suffering. This reality reshapes us because, as is often repeated and is here in John 15, apart from Christ, we can do nothing. The language of vine and branches is confusing on one level. Let's just admit, as we were reading earlier, I don't know if it struck you at all. How can someone who is a branch and connected to the vine ever be fruitless if that vine is Jesus? That's a kind of a sort of a frustrating kind of analogy when Jesus is saying that he is the vine and we're the branches, how could there ever be a branch that doesn't bear fruit if it's connected to Jesus, if he's the vine? You see the question, right? You see the problem. But the answer to this question, the answer to this problem lies in the fact that we are bound not to Christ, but bound to our sin. Human beings bound in sin and death are not all in Christ. This is part of the point of John chapter 3. It's the vital difference. The vital difference is being connected with Christ or not being connected with Christ. And as we've gone through John's gospel, we haven't flagged them up every time as an I am statement of Jesus, but there are seven I am statements in the Gospel of John, and all of them sharpen the focus on being in Christ, being connected to Jesus. Jesus has said, Jesus tells them that he is the light of the world, and those who do not know him, what? All walk in darkness. Jesus is the bread of life and the resurrection and the life, and apart from him you hunger and thirst and what? Die. Jesus is the door of the sheep and the good shepherd, and all others are thieves and robbers who prey on the sheep. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, which means every other way leads away from the Father. Jesus is the true vine. You could connect yourself to another vine. Like you can follow another way. Like you could climb in the sheepfold another path. But it would not lead you where you want to go. If you're connected to any other vine, you will wither and produce no fruit. So the contrast is stark for a reason. This sort of, if you're in Christ, you have bare all this fruit, and if you're not in Christ, you wither and fade away. It's just so stark for a reason, and that reason is that only the only real life to be found in the world is found in Jesus Christ. I cannot remember, and all the times I've heard sermons or people refer to abide in me, and there was a really traumatic experience I had last year meeting with a group of people at Taco Tuesday, and somebody like put me on the put me on the spot, like, what does abide in me mean? And I was like, I'm not ready for this. So all the time that I've had thinking about John 15, I don't know if I've ever heard anyone talk about my father as the vine dresser. I think people just sort of they get to the Jesus is the vine, and we're supposed to abide in Jesus, and that means something, and let's try to figure out what that means. This passage focuses on abiding in Christ, and we lose sight of the Father's role. But just as a little thought experiment, very quickly, imagine being a branch in a vine, and some vine dresser walks up to you. What would you feel? How would you feel if the as the vine dresser walks up toward you, right? The hands of the vine dresser, what's he going to do? How is he going to use his hands to alter the way you grow? Maybe he's just got his hands and he trains you and ties you to the trellis so that you don't grow along the ground and become fruitless. But as Jesus points out, those hands often carry shears to prune. Even the fruit-bearing branches will be pruned back. And the process of cutting and training the vine and the branches is essential to its long-term growth. But from the perspective of the vine and the branches, it must be pretty hard until you see the increased fruit. Jesus is the life animating, the animating life of the branches. And the Father is the guiding hand that leads to the good fruit, even if that means pruning. The ups and downs, the ins and outs of life are not easy. And perhaps you find yourself in a difficult season, but take comfort in the fact that the hidden hand of the vine dresser is shaping your life toward a higher good and one that will produce much fruit. On the night that Jesus spoke the words of John 15, he was about to experience the worst suffering imaginable. The other side of his suffering must have been on his mind, though, because Jesus kept returning to the theme of joy and comfort. It really is startling as you see Jesus preparing himself for the cross, and he keeps talking to his disciples about joy and comfort. Over and over again, he returns to this. He's worried about their joy and their comfort. And he saw the other side of the cross and knew the joy and the comfort that awaited him, I think, even there. But the disciples were distressed at all of this talk. Jesus had to comfort them again and again. However, the reason he told the disciples he was going to the cross and all that was going to happen, the reason why he prepared them was to show them very clearly, I'm in control, guys. This is not something that's about to happen to me at the hands and the will of someone else. This is my thing that I'm doing. And I'm doing it in such a way that it would bring life to you. They didn't need to be filled with fear, these disciples. Because the disciples were Jesus' delight, his joy. He tells them that at the end, verse 11. Later on in chapter 15, he calls them friends, and after the resurrection, he calls them brothers. He said that he loved them and called them to love one another as I have loved you. Jesus cherishes us and strengthens us. His desire for us is to have his, to for us to have his joy, to be filled with joy. I'm not sure what the word joy means for you, but I have a hard time with the whole joy-happiness division. I don't know, it's like I got corrected the other day about that a little bit. Like when I said the joy and that substitute the word happiness in, everyone's like, well, happiness is not joy and so forth. And I would really love to claim and reclaim happiness and joy is kind of having the same meaning here, simply because I think we use the word happiness all wrong. Carl Truman and others have said that modern the modern Western culture is obsessed with personal happiness. And if you're if you're thinking, yeah, everybody always says that it's all about what they want, how they feel, and what they're what would really make them a fulfilled person, you get tired of hearing that. And so you want something in its place, and what you want to put in its place is contentment, solid, rock hard, steady contentment. And that's what joy is. Contentment is sticking through whatever it is and putting a really sour face on it the whole way through. I don't really understand the difference between joy and happiness when it comes to the way the scripture talks about it, but the way that the world talks about happiness is very far from the way that we understand happiness. Functionally, happiness in the modern world is an indistinct way of judging the usefulness of an idea or a person or a thing. The question, does this make me happy, is used to justify all sorts of decisions. Practically, does this make me happy squashes any notion of enduring suffering for a greater joy or a greater good. Well, obviously, it's not making me happy right now. Let's get rid of it. It flattens all relationships into transactions of mutual pleasure. If this does not make me happy, I'm out. If you don't make me happy, I'm out. If it doesn't make me happy, it needs to be done away with. The problem with this kind of happiness and finding fulfillment through pleasure is twofold, I think. First, it makes each individual the only person that matters. Imagine trying to live in a world where your happiness is the only thing that matters, which means if you squish mine, you're okay. It totally undermines any notion of sharing the world with the people around us. And secondly, it destroys truth and any notion of a higher good. The world we live in assumes that truth is disposable for the sake of a moment of personal happiness. But you see, we buy into these ideas too. As we've hinted at through this sermon, we've been talking about bearing fruit and fulfillment. Bearing fruit and being filled with joy. And the tendency about bearing fruit, like producing something in our lives, and about being filled with joy, we connect those ideas. Because we're modern people who live in a modern world, we're connecting these ideas to personal happiness and our personal fulfillment. But Jesus' words here are not directing us into ourselves for a search for meaning, it's connecting us to Him, the true vine, outside of ourselves to look to Jesus Christ for our meaning and for our life. Our joy is not going to be found in finding our true, authentic self. It is found in the all-encompassing truth that Jesus is the true vine and that the Father is the vine dresser. The gospel message for us this morning is that Jesus is the source of life and animating power of our life, and that the Father is loving us and molding us into the image of his beloved Son. These are indicatives, things that are just stated as truth, and they're not imperatives. The gospel message comes to you with this indicative, this truth, that Jesus Christ is our life, and that the Father is shaping us into the image of his Son Jesus Christ. The fact that we cannot perfectly abide in him serves to prove the point here. The fact that abide in me is kind of scary proves the point that apart from Christ, we can do nothing. Instead of trying to abide even harder, rest in the confident assurance that Jesus is the vine and that you are one of his branches. Trust in the gentle hands of the Father who is shaping your life. Commend yourself and your life into the hands of a faithful Savior who not only went to the cross for you, walked out of the grave for you, ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for you, and who empowers you with His Holy Spirit so that you can know and love and bear much fruit. And in the ups and downs and ins and outs, ins and outs of life, and as the pruning comes, trust that there is a hidden hand for your good who loves you through it all. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we want to trust you and we want to see your hand and we want to feel a deep connection to and with you, and yet, Lord, we know that so often we get distracted and our eyes are pulled away. Let that, even that distraction and that pulling away remind us that we need you. That it's not for us to turn ourselves, it's not for us to grab our bootstraps and pull really, really hard until we can find ourselves standing and walking before you. But Lord, teach us to walk in love and in faith with you. As we abide in Christ, and as we wait for the pruning, loving, pruning hands of you, Holy Father, we ask that you strengthen us and give us faith and eyes to see your hand in Jesus' name. Amen. You'll stand with us and confess our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.