February 21, 2016         John 15:1 – 19

Download discussion questions:  John 15_1-19 The Vine

Download discussion questions:  John 15_1-19 The Vine – highlighted

Seeing past familiar parts of Scripture can be challenging.  Reminders of what we have learned and what we know about our faith are important.  Equally important is pressing further up and further in (to borrow a phrase from Narnia) to continue growing deeper in our spiritual formation.  This passage is familiar to many believers with the metaphor Jesus used of the Vine and the branches.  Rather than review the important truth He taught (our absolute dependence on Him), we looked to see what else He said in this passage.

To make the Observation phase of our study more efficient, I highlighted several words that are used repeatedly in the text.  (Noticing repetition by a speaker or writer is a good clue to what is uppermost on his mind.)  Numerical totals of word usage are not absolute indicators of importance, but they can be interesting.  For example, “vine” and “branch” (the words most associated with this passage) are used only three and five times, respectively.  “Love” and “abide” occur ten times each, with “fruit” showing up eight times.  Clearly Jesus had a lot more to say about His vine and branch image.

Our discussion started with suggestions for the definitions of “fruit” and “abide.”  We often use “Bible words” with a general idea of what they mean.  Putting that general idea into specific words stimulates our thinking about what the text is saying.  Abide is to remain, to be in residence, a long-term condition.  As one person offered, we pass through a door, but we abide in a home.  The summary of “abide” would be a continuous state.  Suggestions for fruit were a product, something that is nourishing, an indicator of a healthy plant.  Fruit contains a seed, the potential for reproducing itself.  Fruit reveals the source it comes from.  I may not be able to tell an apple tree from a peach tree, but when the fruit ripens the nature of the source is obvious.

Just based on those expanded ideas of the two words, Jesus’ picture of a vine and branches takes on added meaning.  We are to be continually and intimately connected to Him (“he who abides in Me and I in him,” v. 5a) that our lives yield nourishing and reproducing results (“much fruit,” v. 5b).  The fruit resulting from our remaining in Him is unmistakable evidence of His character revealed in us and through us.

Another repeated word in the passage is “command” (five times).  Keeping the Father’s commands was the evidence that Jesus continually remained in the loving relationship with His Father (v. 10b).  Likewise, our obedience to Jesus is the visible verification that we continually remain in that intimate relationship with Him (v. 10a).  The conditional statement (“If you abide…”) is not a threat.  Jesus is not saying that we will lose our abiding position in Him if we step out of line.  Rather, the statement is a blessing, a confirmation that our continuous communion with Him is producing in us the fruit of following His desires.

Looking at the highlighted words in the passage suggests there is a flow to Jesus’ teaching.  How are the different ideas and themes in the passage connected?  How do they fit together?  Using a whiteboard we tried to connect the various threads, to see cause and effect relationships that Jesus was teaching about.  Here are some of the comments and conclusions we discussed.

• Jesus only presents two options for branches (us, the believers, “you are the branches” in v. 5). Either they are unproductive and thrown away (v. 2a) and burned (v. 6), OR they are pruned (v. 2b) to increase productivity.  He says nothing about being comfortable or having all the blessings we want.  More on this later.
• Pruning is essentially cleaning (v. 3) which is accomplished by the words of Jesus. Abiding in Him means (at least in part) that His words abide in us (v. 7).  Reading, studying, memorizing, meditating on all Jesus said (as well as the rest of God’s self-revelation in the Bible) shows us who He is.  The clearer and more accurate our image of Him, the more we will be drawn to Him, and the more other, non-fruitful parts of life will be pruned away.  The pruning results in greater productivity, more fruit.
• More fruit (v. 2) becomes much fruit (v. 8) that results in the Father’s glory being seen. Repeatedly in the Gospel according to John we see the passion Jesus has for the Father’s glory.  Here again, Jesus continues that emphasis.  The Father is the Vinedresser, the one who directs the growth of the Vine, and we branches produce fruit that reflects back on the wisdom and perfection of the Vinedresser.  That Father-glorifying fruit is the proof of our abiding in Christ the Vine (v. 8b).
• Jesus is quite clear about the purpose of His teaching in this section. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (v. 11).  How happy is Jesus?  How much joy has He experienced in perfect loving communion with the Father and the Spirit for all eternity?  That is what He has in mind for us.  All this discussion of abiding and producing fruit and obedience must not become a burden for us, focused on dutiful obedience and keeping rules.  If it does, we have missed His explicit goal.  Everything He says in this passage is intended for our joy, now and into eternity.  As Aslan tells the children as they are entering his country, “You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.”[1]
• The pruning is necessary for that full joy that Jesus intends. We pursue many things with the hope of finding joy.  In The Great Divorce, “tourists” from hell visit heaven.  Most of them take the bus back.  In a heartbreaking irony they want something else more than they want joy itself.[2]  They refuse to release their self-determined definitions of happiness.  Pruning is often the removal of something we are depending on for joy other than our relationship with God Himself.  That may be why, as mentioned above, Jesus only offered two options for branches:  removal or pruning.  The joy He intends for us to experience now and forever is only possible through the pruning process.

Jesus’ purpose statement about joy shows us how we are to read this passage.  All He says about abiding and fruit and obedience grows out of His desire for our joy and ultimately for the Father’s glory that is displayed in our joy.  The statement about joy (v. 11) is preceded and followed by multiple mentions of love:  the Father’s love for Jesus, Jesus’ love for His disciples, the disciples love for each other.  The relational reality of the eternal love within the Holy Trinity is the model Jesus uses.  The joy the three Persons have experienced in their perfect love for each other forever is what Jesus intends for us.  Our fruitful abiding in Him now is just the beginning of that joy that is eternal and eternally increasing.

[1] C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (New York:  Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc, 1976), 183.

[2] C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (New York:  The MacMillan Company, 1946), 65.