Jesus: The Vine

Hey everyone.

I think I am just about recovered from a week as a camp counselor at our Teen Camp.  It was a great camp this year.  One of our best ever. 

Any way, I wanted to talk a little bit more about Jesus and his "I am" statements.  Today I want look at John 15:1-8 where Jesus says, "I am the vine." (v. 5)  In verse 1 He also says, "I am the true vine," setting Jesus apart from any false vine.  He goes on to say that his Father is the gardener who prunes the various branches of the vine so that they will be more fruitful.  We, his followers are the branches, who get pruned, or cut back, by God, so that we can be made more fruitful.  Imagine yourself as a plant.  God gets out his pruning shears and cuts part of you off.  Seems painful, but we understand that God runes (disciplines) us in order to make better.   

When Jesus talks about being the Vine, he is really talking about remaining connected to him. Jesus presents two kinds of branches here, those that are connected to him and those that are not.  Let's look at these two types of branches and do a little compare/contrast.  The disconnected vine: can't bear fruit (v. 4),  can do nothing (v. 5), gets thrown away, withers, gets thrown into the fire and burned (v.6).  In other words, not remaining connected to Jesus leads for fruitlessness and spiritual death.

On the other hand, what do we gain by remaining connected to the Vine.  The connected branch: bears fruit (v. 4, 5), God answers our prayers (v. 7), bears much fruit (v. 8), we show ourselves to be his disciples (v. 8).  In other words, remaining connected to the Vine leads to fruitfulness, answered prayer and life.  Also, I see that remaining connected to the Vine, keeps me connected to all the other branches.  The connection that we have to each other is through Jesus Christ.  

So then, it would seem that maintaining that connection to the vine should be a great priority in our lives.  We accept God's pruning.  We study our Bibles and pray to maintain that connection.  We enjoy the benefits of the fellowship.  It would seem that these these would be very important to us for two reasons.  The benefits of this connection are great, and the outcomes of disconnection from the Vine are rather grim.  So let us stay connected to Jesus the True Vine.

Tom