I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
John 15:1-7
Jesus often used images of the farm and the sea as many people in His day were farmers, shepherds and fishermen. They would have understood these images. Most of us have had the experience of cutting a branch from a tree. The instant a branch is cut off, the color of the leaves does not change. That is because there is still moisture in the branch that is connected to the leaves. As the branch begins to dry out, it is then that the leaves lose color and wither.
In John 15, Jesus uses the analogy that He is the vine, and God the Father is the vinedresser, or gardener. For those who take care of trees and vines, we know that they must be trimmed and occasionally pruned. Branches that are not doing well are removed from the tree, because they take away water and nutrients from the branches that are doing well. Occasionally, a tree is pruned or severely cut back. And while this appears to make the tree weak (right after a severe pruning it may look like the tree has been killed), it comes back even stronger. There is, of course, at this juncture of Christ’s ministry (John 15 is part of the “farewell discourses” of Christ, said only a few hours before His Passion) the meaning that God will allow Christ, the true vine, to be pruned (killed) and then He will come back even greater through the Resurrection.
Going back to the earlier example of cutting a branch from a tree, Jesus reminds us that a branch not connected to the main vine cannot bear fruit. Cut off from Jesus, we cannot do much of anything. Sure, we can function well in life, but what about at the end of life, when we’ve born no spiritual fruit, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven, we cannot go on because we are not abiding in Christ. Continuing with the analogy, Christ is the vine through which we are nourished. We can, hypothetically, turn our back on Christ, and there will still be some nourishment in us. But eventually we will wither spiritually without connection to the vine.
There is some great news in Orthodoxy, which is that we can come back to Christ at any time. If we have cut off ourselves from Christ, it is like we can regraft ourselves to the vine. This is done with repentance and is aided in large part through the sacrament of confession. This is actually a great way to look at confession, that one comes in having been severed from the vine through sin, and through this sacrament, the priest helps in grafting one back onto the vine.
In John 15:5, Jesus says emphatically “I AM the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Indeed, if we do not abide in Jesus, as the vine to whom we are grafted/connected, we cannot bear spiritual fruit, and if we are not bearing spiritual fruit, whatever “fruit” we are attempting to bear will ultimately amount to nothing.
Jesus continues in John 15:6, “If a man does not abide in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.” Over the years, I have trimmed and pruned my trees dozens of times. The branches that I cut off are gathered, collected by the yard waste collectors and disposed of in a landfill. They are quickly forgotten. Our yard waste pick-up day is Monday. There have been occasions when I have trimmed trees on Tuesday, gathered the trimmed branches and have watched them deteriorate over the course of six days. On Wednesday or Thursday, they may still look vibrant, but by the time Sunday comes, they are withered and without color or life. Monday they are taken away and forgotten. What once had vibrancy and color and life, is disposed of and gone. Jesus warns us that this is not how we want to be. We don’t want to be separated from the vine, withered and discarded and destroyed. Rather He wants us to abide with Him, and in Him, and be connected with Him, so that we can bear spiritual fruit and grow in Him. It is common in Orthodox art (paintings, vestments, altar coverings, etc.) to see the image of a grapevine. This reminds us that Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. It also points us to the image of the grapes, from which we get the wine that becomes the Eucharist that sustains our lives and unites us to Christ.
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people, from this time forth and forevermore. For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land allotted to the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands to do wrong. Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts! But those who turn aside upon their crooked ways the Lord will lead away with evildoers! Peace be in Israel! Psalm 125
Christ is the main branch that is connected to the ground. He is what grounds us. The branch on a tree takes its strength from the vine. The main branch of the vine has the burden of providing the nutrients. Christ is our strength. We only need to focus on abiding in the strength that comes from Him.
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