28th April 2011

John 15:1-17 – The Vine and the Branches

• “Culture not Control”
• Verse 2 completely took me by surprise!
• I realized that I have completely misread it for years. Jesus is referring to himself.
• I always saw this pruning as something Jesus was telling us the Father will do to us but no, He was saying that the Father prunes Him!
• Which poses the question;
• What did the Father have to prune/cut off/cut back/break off from Jesus???
• Sin?
• [Whenever I think of pruning I think of it in terms of purity]
• No because Jesus was sinless. So if not sin then what was it referring to?
• Again context helps us.
• Jesus describes himself as the ‘true’ living vine. Why? Because he was contrasting Himself with the artificial golden vine that covered the four columns at the entrance of the temple. This vine was famous for its expense. Wealthy people would sometimes offer a sacrifice by purchasing a golden cluster of grapes of leaf and adding it to the vine, sometimes even having it inscribed with their name. [Reminds me of one of those ‘buy a brick’ building campaigns.]
• The context is that He produces something a golden vine cannot . . . fruit.
• What did the Father have to prune Jesus for?
• Effectiveness.
• He cut off anything that did not bear fruit in Jesus’ life – things like where He went and what He did etc and other choices. In doing so Jesus went about the Father’s business not His own.
• He then prunes His disciples. He does this not by creating control but culture.
• They will love Him – something a controlling leader can never create.
• When they love Him they will do what He wants them to do and therefore produce fruit.
• How does He get the to love Him? By giving them understanding.
• Jesus does not want us to simply fall in love which Him because of what we get out of it. That would be both very shallow and controlling.
• He wants us to love Him and the love the things He loves.
• That only happens through culture, a culture of connection.
• Jesus was pruned, He came to understand His Father’s business.
• He does not want servants He controls but friends who share the same culture of understanding.
• Leaders; do we want the same?
• If so we will indeed be those “appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last”
• A good challenge for me to think and pray about today.