He planted his most prized vine in a messy and grown up garden bed. Good gardeners are very intentional about what they plant and where they plant it in efforts to bring about the most healthy and beautiful results. This diligent gardener was a master, who stooped down to plant his treasured vine into something that didn’t seem worthy. His name is Father, and He planted His vine into Humanity.
Once the Vine was planted, new branches were multiplying. It grew large and became breath-taking in beauty. The leaves were so many and so large that it seemed as if they had been waiting for a very long time to be set free. Some of these branches grew with such heavy fruit that the branches were weighed down. Some of these branches began to overshadow the others. Some began to wither.
The Father Gardener is diligent to use His pruning shears. He is diligent to cut off every single branch that does not produce fruit. These fruitless branches may have had leaves that made them look like healthy branches, but the lack of fruit signifies an underlying problem. These branches must be cut off because the purpose of this Vine is to produce much fruit.
His pruning shears are sharp enough to carefully cut away the dead or diseased tissue from otherwise healthy fruit-bearing branches. Sometimes, He seems to cut away parts of the branch that seems perfectly healthy. He doesn’t want just whatever that branch can produce, He wants to produce the BEST out of that branch. Though a branch has some fruit, He knows that with a little clip here and there, that branch can fulfill it’s greatest potential.
Now, I am NOT a gardener. I have many members of my family who are, but I just don’t have what it takes. I blame the kids. Maybe when I am an empty nester, I will pour my time into garden flowers. I may not know completely what it’s like to grow a vine of any kind, but this imagery teaches me much about the Father heart of God and the Gospel message. I asked God to reveal the Gospel to me in bite size chunks, and on this journey, he has me chewing on a portion of Scripture in John 15:1-17 commonly entitled, “The Vine and the Branches”.
1 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.
John 15:1-3
Jesus painted this metaphor before His disciples after being resurrected from the dead and before ascending back into Heaven. If Jesus is going to teach on this as part of His farewell speech, it must be important, right? Beyond that, He repeats Himself often in these verses, which indicate that what He is saying is incredibly important for our walk as Christians.
What is He trying to tell us?
Jesus is the Vine. A branch can’t be a branch unless it is connected to it’s vine. Through the vine, the branch gets the nutrients that it needs to survive and to be fruitful. Those of us who are devoted and surrendered to the Lord are the branches. We aren’t branches trying to be vines. We are branches surrendered to a vine. Our life comes from Jesus.
As Christians, we MUST be fruitful. We should be able to look back from the moment that we gave our lives to Christ till now and see progress in the development of our character. Examples of some of the fruit that should be developing in our lives is found later on in Scripture.
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”
Galatians 5:22-25
This inward fruit should be developing inside of us through the work of the Holy Spirit, which is available to us once we are surrendered to Christ. What is the purpose of this fruit? Is it for the good of the branch? Is it so we can look good, and be the talk of the branches? No. Fruit is always picked by the gardener and used for his purposes. We should allow God to use what He is doing in us to impact the world around us at HIS discretion.
The Father will cut off branches that are fruitless. For these branches to be cut off means that they were at one point connected and growing at one point. To be Christians, we must be surrendered to Jesus. When we stop surrendering and allow pride to infect our souls, we must be cut off. What are we doing if we are just lolly-gagging around as fruitless branches? We can walk away from God as we choose to live our lives our own way, and lose our hope of eternity with Him in His presence.
He prunes those who are being fruitful. Those who are living for God, growing, and ministering to others can still be disciplined. The Father disciplines those that He loves, and He does it with gentleness and care. He could be pruning away sin from your life that you didn’t know was there, or He could be asking you to give up things in your life that aren’t necessarily bad. Why? He doesn’t want you to be a mediocre Christian. He wants to prune away even what is average to produce the BEST that He has created you to be. Imagine those sharp pruning scissors. It can feel daunting seeing those things approach you, and it may even sting when He starts to use them. He does it out of love and intention. Even in those times, stay surrendered, trusting His hand.
The pruning shears? That is the Bible. His Word is living and actively purifies us. Don’t neglect the Word in your life. Doing so may cause you to wither away. Fill your life with His Words. Pray over what you read. Journal over what you read. If you have questions, research and ask someone who has knowledge like a pastor. We are branches together, and can encourage one another along in our growing.
Over the next few weeks, I plan to continue on in breaking down the meaning of The Vine and Branches. If you want to continue on this journey with me, please, subscribe, like, comment, and share!
Photo credit: Photo by Neslihan Gunaydin on Unsplash
