As many of you probably know by now, I am a fan of the grape. Well, I am a fan of the product of grapes once they are fermented and bottled. But a bit like the internal combustion engine, I have little concept of the process involved, I simply appreciate what it does. Yet even with my extremely limited knowledge of viticulture, I know that the grapes only grow if the branches are connected to the vine so they can draw nourishment and moisture from the soil to make the grapes. I also imagine that if a branch isn’t producing grapes, then someone has to do something to remedy this situation. I also imagine that the value of the vine is the quality of the grapes that they produce, rather than how they look.
Our reading this week comes from John’s gospel where Jesus refers to Himself as the true vine. Like last week, the true vine has its roots (sorry) in Hebrew Scripture. Isaiah speaks of Israel being like a vineyard planted by God who wanted to see it produce good fruit, love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness however they only produced bad fruit like injustice and bloodshed. For Jesus to claim He is the true vine is to claim that the fruit He produces is the good fruit God wants to see in the world. Jesus can produce this fruit thanks to His connection to God and He calls those who follow Him to be like branches connected to Him, the true vine. The warning is that if we are not connected to Jesus, we will be unable to produce this good fruit and we will wither and die.
It’s a valuable lesson for the church these days. While all the branches may look alike, we are warned that unless we are connected to Jesus, we will not produce this good fruit. As followers of Jesus, we have to make sure that Jesus is therefore the centre of our lives. It shows us that our relationship to Jesus is a living and growing one. It is not enough to say we follow Jesus then leave it like that, we need to work at deepening this relationship. It makes clear that it is up to God to do the pruning of branches that do not produce good fruit, not the other branches. We therefore have to concentrate on ensuring that we produce good fruit ourselves and worry less about others. It shows us that our value to God is not based on the size of our bank balances, investment portfolios, social standing or numbers who follow us on social media, our value comes from the size of our hearts and the fruit we produce. Whether or not a vine produces fruit becomes obvious throughout the growing period, so it is with our lives. Saying we love is not enough, we have to produce this love in how we live.