So last week I told you that on every fourth Sunday of Easter the gospel reading comes from the Good Shepherd Discourse from John’s gospel. And every fifth and six Sunday of Easter we continue with John’s gospel with readings from what’s come to be known as the Farewell Discourse, so called because Jesus is preparing his disciples for the time when he will no longer be with them. Imagine how they might have felt, after all they’d gone through, all he’d shown them and taught them. Just a few verses before we started reading today, Jesus says: 25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 28 Remember what I told you: I am going away... (John 14: 25,28 NLT)
Now, in the context of John’s overall narrative, the farewell discourse is written prior to his crucifixion, but the lectionary gives these scriptures to us after Easter and before Ascension Sunday, when Jesus of course leaves again, not to return to earth until his second coming.
So, back to the gospel reading. The disciples are trying to get their heads wrapped around Jesus’ telling them he’s leaving. This is not what they expected from the one they’ve come to know as the Messiah. He was supposed to be sticking around! I wonder if maybe they might have felt like he was abandoning them. Because the farewell discourse goes on for quite some time, and is full of Jesus reassuring them multiple times. They are so bereft that Jesus tells them not to let their hearts be troubled, they won’t be alone because his Father will send them the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. (14.25,27) And then to further illustrate the point he tells them “I am the vine you are the branches.”; a beautiful visual image of connection.
Now, to get the full impact of this sentence, we really need to begin with those first two little words, ‘I AM’. These are significant! Where do we hear ‘I am’ in the bible for the first time? Way back in the book of Exodus, in the time of Moses. The Lord God Almighty has told Moses that he was to lead the Israelite people out of slavery. God would be with them on the journey, but still, you may recall, Moses is not too keen on the idea, and searches for excuses. So13 Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Ex 3. 13-15) Many, many bible scholars, much more brilliant than I have spent countless hours and sentences waxing theological on those 2 tiny, simple, yet powerful words: I am.
God is who God is. Think for a moment of the implications of that. God --- just --- is. It’s so simple and yet so huge! God is, always was, always will be. And who we are, or think we are, or what we do will not change who God is, because God is there, and God is, well, God is God. I AM. God. Is.
Now, in the beginning of John’s Gospel John introduces Jesus to his readers as the Word of God who was with God since the beginning of time, through whom all things came into being. (John 1: 1-3)
The first time John has Jesus saying “I am” is in Chapter 4, the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. She at first reckons Jesus to be a prophet, and while in conversation with him, she tells Jesus she knows that the Messiah is coming. And Jesus’ response is “I am”. In the translation of most English bibles Jesus says “I am he”. But in the Greek it’s simply “I am”. A very clear message here! Jesus is, as God is.
John’s gospel is littered with Jesus’ I am statements. To name a few more: Jesus says “I am:
- The bread of life (6.35)
- Living bread (6.51)
- Light of the world (8.2)
- The son of man (8.38)
- Before Abraham was, I am (8.58)
- The light of the world (9.5)
- The good shepherd (10.11)
- God’s son (10.36)
- The resurrection and the life (11.25)
- The way the truth and the life (14.6)
- in my Father and you are in me and I in you (14.20)
For John, God unquestionably ‘is’ and Jesus ‘is’ as well. They are one and the same, and it has ever been thus. John’s entire gospel is the narrative of God in Christ and how Jesus embodies God; in other words, Jesus is God in the flesh. And the many ‘I am’ statements John provides his readers throughout his gospel—about twenty by my count, give many different visual images to appeal to all kinds of people to help them understand the breadth of who Jesus is, and to definitively describe how Jesus is also God.
And the last ‘I am’ statement is: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.” (15.1) This clearly describes Jesus’ connectedness to God. God is the grower, the vine’s source. Then Jesus says: “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” (15.4)
Now, abide is kind of an old fashioned word, a word we don’t use much in everyday speech anymore. But incredibly important for this scripture passage—and for John’s gospel for that matter! In the entire gospel of John the word ‘abide’ is used about 45 times.[1] Now, that’s a lot of abiding! And in this vine story alone we hear it eight times. You think maybe John’s trying to get us to pay attention to the word? So, let’s make sense of it.
One dictionary definition is ‘to remain’[2]. The Common English Version of the Bible uses ‘stay joined to me’ in place of the word abide. So, Jesus calls us to abide, to remain in him, to stay joined to him, as Jesus is joined and remains in God. When we abide in Jesus and Jesus in us we are connected through him to the source of life. Jesus did not abandon his disciples when he left the earth, while he physically left, the spiritual connection remains. And that is still accessible and available to us today.
The branches need the vine from which their life force comes, so they can produce fruit. I’m sure many of us have seen the pruning that grape vines receive each spring, or maybe close to home, the pruning of apple trees. The plant requires the care of the vine grower to keep it healthy and at its most productive. And this led me to somewhat of a mind-blowing thought—yes we need God, and we need Jesus to fully thrive, but God needs us too! Let that sink in for a second; not only do we need God, but God needs us too! God needs us? Yes! And why? Because the branches produce the fruit, we produce the fruit for God! God needs us to bring Christ to others. God needs us—that’s a thought that might need some time to sink in. There’s a connectedness that needs to remain between all points, or the vine cannot fully thrive nor can the branches produce optimally. This is true mutuality[3], an interdependence between God, the gardener, Jesus, the vine and we who are the branches, the fruit bearers.
The vine and branch analogy is also a good reminder that Christ feeds us, and as we are fed, we will continually grow in stronger in Christ. Now, it’s also good to remember that the branches closest to the vine are strongest, because those closer to the stalk, receive the most nutrients, and so bear the most fruit for the gardener. So the vine grower is also the pruner, removing fruitless, useless branches. Branches growing the wrong way are pruned back or tied back to retrain them, or cut right off by the gardener. Sounds harsh, doesn’t it, the thought of God actually cutting the branches off and burning them. For anyone who has ever pruned a vine or a tree, you know that pruning is a sign of hopefulness for future growth, redirecting and changing for better growth and more fruit to come. When we start growing too far away from God, God can bring us back, trim us a bit, secure us and get us growing in the right direction again. And I’m thinking it’s just as well that the Great Gardener does prunes back or redirects the branches from time to time, because if not, the plants and the garden can get pretty unruly – and not very productive. In times when we wonder where God is, when evil seems to be taking over, the knowledge that God really is in charge of the pruning in the garden, brings us hope! It’s good to be reminded from time to time that God really is in control of the pruning shears! And remember, it’s the gardener, the vine grower’s job to determine when the pruning will take place!
By abiding in Jesus, by staying connected to Jesus, by letting Jesus nourish us, by yes, allowing him to feed us, support us, bring us strength, we remain close to Him. “Because” as Jesus said to his disciples “apart from me you can do nothing.” (v. 5) With the life force of Christ abiding in us, we remain supple and strong enough to withstand the many storms that life inevitably brings, that challenge the strength of the branches on the vine. And we can still produce the fruit for God.
How do we abide in Jesus? By keeping the connection; by being spiritually nourished. Attending church and worshiping with others. Reading the bible, studying the bible either on your own, and using resources from recognized scholars helps to keep us on the right track. Consider a group study—group studies bring a synergy that individual study just can’t; reading or watching other religious materials also works. But most of all—it takes prayer; daily prayer, connecting to the Divine Source—the vine grower! We know that a healthy relationship requires commitment, that includes your relationship with God, with Jesus . Take time each day to sit and let the life force of Christ into your soul. Let it nourish your soul, allow it to flow through your spiritual veins!
So, stay connected, abide; remain joined to Jesus. Abide in his love, because it is that love that heals us and nourishes our souls. Amen
[1] My Notes from a workshop I attended Feb. 17/18 with guest speaker was Karoline Lewis, renowned New Testament scholar/professor and Johannine scholar
[2] Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary (Lippincott & Crowell Publishers, 1988)
[3] Karoline M. Lewis: John Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014 page 197