Who do you say that I am?
Jesus, the True Vine
Theme Verse: "Who do you say that I am?" Matthew 16:15
Readings: John 15:1-17; Isaiah 5:1-7; Mark 12:1-12; Mark 11:12-14, 20
Optional: Isaiah 11:1; Psalm 107
Memory Verse: "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5) (Pre-K to grade 3)
NOTE that this is another "I AM" statement. "I AM" is the personal Name that God gave to Moses at the Burning Bush when Moses asked what shall I tell the people when they ask who sent you. (This is an indirect but clear way of saying Jesus is one with the Father.)
Jesus is the TRUE Vine. To see what this means look at the word picture, metaphor, analogy in Isaiah 5:1-7 where God, speaking through Isaiah, compares Israel, God's people, to a grapevine. The nation is God's vineyard. God is the owner and the gardener. (Israel was also often compared to a fig tree, see Hosea 9:10. God said, "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig tree.") The owner and gardener expected it to yield grapes- FRUIT- good fruit, but it yielded wild grapes (not good for eating.)
The first thing to see is that Jesus, in his incarnation, is what Israel was intended to be- a perfect vine. Jesus and his disciples would have had this and other passages in mind when Jesus talks about being the True Vine and we, the Church, his disciples being the branches.
Now look at what the Lord has to say to us about Isaiah 5. "Now let me sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard: my well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill." (Isaiah 5:1) A word received: You are my vineyard: I planted you and I have nourished you.
"He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it;" (Isaiah 5:2a) A word received: I have done all that I can to make your lives fruitful and I set my son as that strong tower for you to flee to and cling to.
"so he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes." (Isaiah 5:2b) A word received: Examine the fruit of your lives and return to me.
"'And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.'" (Isaiah 5:3) A word received: Examine my vineyard, the church. Return to me, my vineyard, and produce the crop I ordained for you.
Stop and pray silently and see if the Lord shows you something.
In John 16:8 Jesus says, "By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." Verse 16 says "I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide." The purpose of a grapevine, and a vineyard, is to bear fruit, good fruit. What kind of fruit did Jesus' disciples bear? What kind of fruit are we bearing?
Remember that the context of John 15 is Jesus' disciples bearing fruit for the Father. Jesus' disciples are the audience. Jesus is not talking to people who were not following him but to those who had committed themselves to following him.
The next thing Jesus tells them is that every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Myra Andresen has a very fruitful grapevine and every year she drastically prunes it, and the next summer gets a good crop of grapes. What are some of the ways that God the Father, the Gardener, prunes our lives? Are we willing for him to do that? What are some examples?
The branches that don't bear fruit are taken away, discarded. Jesus wants his disciples to live and bear fruit by staying attached to him--the source of life. "Abide in me (live/remain) and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." "Apart from me you can do nothing." "If anyone does not abide in me he is cast out as a branch and is withered", (the result of not being attached to the life of the vine.)
Look at the incident of the withered fig tree in Mark 11:20. Notice that this is after the Triumphal Entry in Holy Week and immediately afterwards Jesus went into the temple and cleansed it. The fig tree had nothing but leaves on it. (See note about fig trees at the end.) The fig trees had little fruits you could eat before the regular figs grew. There was NO fruit when the Creator came looking for fruit and found only leaves. Jeremiah 8:13 refers to God "when I would gather them, says the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered." The next day the tree Jesus had rebuked was withered. More is going on here than an example of the power of prayer. It is an acted parable about the condition of God's people, HIS fig tree--and the religious leaders know it.
Remember how these leaders knew Jesus had told the parable of the tenants (Mark 12:1-12) who refused to give the owner of the vineyard fruit when he sent for it and mistreated the messengers and killed the son. These caretakers of the vineyard were like the hireling shepherds Jesus told about in John 10 who didn't take care of what the owner had given. In this story these tenants wanted to be in control of the vineyard and use it for themselves. (This reminds me of the Bishop of Pennsylvania who said, "The church wrote the Bible, the church can change it.") The owner of the vineyard will punish the tenants and give it to others.
Now look at some other verses and Words on Isaiah 5. "'What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?'" (Isaiah 5:4) A word received: Answer me, my people, why have you not produced fruit in keeping with righteousness? Examine yourselves and answer me. Revival and renewal in the church always begins with repentance and self-examination.
In Isaiah 5 the rest of the passage talks about what God allowed and even sent to get his people to turn back to him and away from disaster. "'And now, please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.'" (Isaiah 5:5) A word received: All this I AM doing, and still my people, my vineyard, does not return to me.
"'I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.'" (Isaiah 5:6) A word received: Read Psalm 107 and gain wisdom from it. Look to my word and measure yourselves by it. Repent, return to me. (What is the pattern here?)
"For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help." (Isaiah 5:7) A word received: All this is happening, and still my people do not return to me.
Now look again at John 15 and what Jesus is teaching his disciples and us. A branch doesn't get attached to the vine on an on and off basis--it has to stay attached. Not abiding in the vine may not be a specific sin, it may be going off on our own, doing our own thing. When we fall away and sin we need to immediately turn back to Jesus, repent, ask for forgiveness and go back to living in Jesus. Notice that verse 7 is conditional. "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what you will and it will be done for you." Only as we live in God's will and ask according to his will, will he answer our requests. Another question to ask is, "How do you want me to pray in this situation?"
How do we do this "abiding"/remaining, in Jesus' love? He loves us. We remain in Jesus' love and the Father's love by obeying him and choosing to stay in close contact with him.
Jesus wants us to have his JOY. We can have his joy if we remain attached to Jesus and obey him. Part of that obedience is to love one another. That love is not sentimental or fragile. It is agape love, the kind of love Jesus has for us--love that does what is best for us, not just giving us whatever we might want. Jesus wants us to be his friends, "You are my friends if you do what I command you." Part of that obedience is to remain close to him.
Jesus has chosen us to bear fruit but we have to keep on choosing to live in Jesus day by day so we can bear fruit for him.
Have you fallen away from the vine in any way? Is there some way in which you need to repent from going your own way in order for your prayers to be answered?
NOTE on Fig Trees: The Fig tree is native to the Near East and does very well in Palestine and Syria. In the wild, it is just a shrub but cultivated ones can go to 30-40 ft. It loses its leaves before the winter rainy season and sends out new sprouts in March/April. (The petals of the long flower become fleshy and form an oblong fruit.) In March or April the branches put forth new leaf buds. Most of the early green figs grow on the stock of the previous year's yield and drop when no more than 2" long and are called "winter fruit" and "untimely" or "late" figs. (Revelation 6:13). They do not contain juice but are gathered and eaten for lack of other fruit that time of year. (Note that this would be around Passover time.) The rest of this crop ripens in June for the first real harvest called "first-ripe" or "early" figs. A second crop ripens in August as "late" figs and are the most desirable.
"In prophecies of divine retribution for Israel's sins the blighted fig tree symbolized national peril" Jeremiah 5:17 and Hosea 2:11, etc. "The difficult account of Jesus cursing the barren fig tree may portray God's judgment."
(The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, p.381.)
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