The Vine

Over the last few weeks of Easter, we have been walking through the "I AM" statements of Jesus during his last night with his disciples in the upper room. We have looked at Jesus saying:

• I am the Good Shepherd.

• I am the door.

• I am the way, the truth, and the life.

• And today: I am the vine.

Jesus is answering the question Moses asked of God when he was sent to deliver Israel out of Egypt: Who shall I say has sent me? I AM has sent you. Jesus, himself the I AM, comes not to delegate the deliverance of his people but is determined to do it himself and accomplish it once for all.

The Literal Sense

Last week, our gospel lesson revealed that Jesus is the remedy for the separation between God and his creatures. We discovered that our full potential is found when we are back in union with God through Jesus Christ. As Jesus returns to his Father, he prepares a place for us to come and join them. While he prepares for our arrival, we are to follow the path he has shown us. This is why he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.

But if Jesus has granted us access to dwell in the presence of the Father, how do we continue to live in his presence? That is what we learn from him in today's gospel lesson.

The Allegorical Sense

Jesus reveals that he is the vine, and we are the branches. Any branch grafted into the vine will produce fruit. What Jesus is adding to his teaching is this: life with the Father is maintained as long as you remain connected to the Son. The vine is the source of life given to the branches, which then produce the fruit that the Father delights in and is glorified by. What connects our lives to the life of Jesus — and what allows us to experience the love of God — is keeping Christ's commandments. Or, as I would put it: listening to the word of Christ.

The Moral Sense

Let me be clear about what this means, because it is easy to get wrong.

How do we abide in the love of Christ? By keeping his commandments. On the surface, that sounds straightforward — if we behave and follow the rules Jesus has set out, we abide in his love. And many believe exactly that: that being good and doing the right thing is what makes God love us, and what keeps that love from being taken away.

But that is not quite true.

Jesus explains what keeping his commandments means by pointing to how he abides in his Father's love. And here we should remember that the Father's love for the Son was professed before Jesus' public ministry — before he had accomplished anything the Father sent him to do. Several times, in fact, before Jesus goes to the cross, the Father declares his favor and love for his Son. The love between the Father and the Son is not conditional. It is not because Jesus obeys that the Father loves him; it is because the Father loves him that Jesus obeys. Obedience is the fruit of that love, not its cause.

So when Jesus says, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love (v. 9), the love he is speaking of is not conditional but locational. Keeping his commandments is the result of being loved by Christ — of being connected to the vine that fuels your life and produces the fruit that brings God glory.

Think of it this way: the love of God is a place, not a performance. The commands of God are not a list of decrees but a description of the fruit that God's love produces in the life of the believer.

If you abide in Christ's love, you will keep his commandments. Keeping his commandments is the fruit produced in your life by the love you have received from him. If you are not producing fruit, then somewhere along the way you have been removed from the vine that pumps God's love into your life and moves you toward good works. It is your relationship with Christ — your connection to him — that enables the good works that, in turn, keep you positioned in the place where love is poured out.

The Hope Sense

Where does all this lead? Abiding in the vine, abiding in the love of Christ, abiding in the word of Christ — where does it carry us? What do we come to receive? Joy.

A mutual delight, where God's love for you is reciprocated back to him. Where God delights in you because you delight in him. A joy that is complete and full (v. 11).

How many of us would love to experience the joy that God has? His joy, his delight, must be more amazing than we could ever imagine. But we can come to know it. If we abide in the love of Christ, if we keep his commandments, we will experience his joy and our joy will be made complete.

This is our trust and our hope: that no greater joy can be felt than the one the Lord gives us. And he has told us how to receive it — by being a branch upon his vine.

So I leave you with two questions:

Are you a branch upon the vine of Christ? The evidence is in the fruit you bear.

Are you trying to earn the love of Christ through your performance? If so, reorient your life. Stop performing. Position yourself in the flowing fountain of Christ's love. You will find that what looked like performance is actually the natural product of his love pouring out through you.

May our lives be fueled by the vine of Christ, so that the fruit we produce is pleasing to — and glorifying of — the God who loves us.

Peace be with you,

Pastor Bruce