WHEN THE FATHER
PLANTS A VINEYARD…
My brother has carpentry skills. He loves to build with
wood and he is happy to build me something when I ask (i.e. our deck). On his
own deck he built an arbor that acts as a grand entrance to one of his favorite
spots: his fire pit.
Adorning
this arbor is a vine. When summer is in full swing the vine makes for a fine
decoration. My brother indicated to me on one visit that it was a
grape-producing vine. I was surprised. Usually one imagines clusters of grapes
hanging from the vine. But I didn’t see any grapes. He then proved me wrong by
pulling a tiny grape out of a covering of leaves. It was as small as a juniper
berry and likely as tasty.
My
brother is not a viticulturist, a vinedresser – in plain language – a grape
grower. Neither am I. Coaxing a vine or a garden to grow is not my forte. I
admire those of you who take pleasure in growing things.
Our
heavenly Father is a builder, a farmer, a shepherd and so much more. He is also
an expert viticulturist – He knows how to grow a grape. We are not grapes; we
are branches on the vine. Grapes are the fruit of being in Christ. What our
text teaches us today is what the role of the Father is in the analogy of the
vineyard.
At the
conclusion of chapter fourteen, Jesus tells his disciples, “Come now, let us leave.”
They leave the upper room where they shared a meal, where Jesus surprised them
all by washing their feet, and where he taught them what it meant to be “in”
him.
As Jesus
and the disciples walk out of the city and towards their campsite, they likely
passed through a vineyard. Jesus took the vine in his hand and revealed to his
disciples what the Father does in the life of the disciple through Jesus.
In John
15 we have the story of the vine and how it was God’s purpose that our earth
should be its fruitful soil and how humankind became intimately connected with
its growth.
1. Branches on the Vine
Jesus held the vine in his hand and pondered its meaning.
For centuries, the symbol of the vineyard and the vine had represented Israel.
Psalm 80:8 speaks of God taking a vine out of Egypt, drove away the nations,
cleared the ground and planted it. But the walls around the vineyard were
broken down and everyone stole its fruit. What happened? Why did God’s vineyard
not flourish as it was meant?
We find a
further explanation of this horticultural failure in Isaiah 5:1-7 (read).
Again, God did everything necessary for establishing a vineyard. But the fruit
of this venture was bad; the grapes were sour. What happened was that, despite
God’s provision, the people of Israel did not obey God. Isaiah says that God
looked for justice but found bloodshed, for righteousness but heard cries of
distress. The people were being cruel to one another. Israel was not being Israel.
Jesus
says, “I am the true vine…” (1). When
he said, "I am the true vine," he did not mean, "true in
contrast with something false, fake, counterfeit," but rather "real,
genuine, as opposed to the mere copy or symbol." As he held this vine and
its branches in his hand, he indicated that this was the copy. He was the true
vine. He was the vine from which true life is received.[i]
We can
read a little more into the imagery of the vine. A vine is not a like a tree
with a sturdy trunk; it is limp and lies on the ground if not cared for. The
vinedresser takes the vine and winds it into the trellis or arbor so that it
has support and direction. In the hands of the Father, Jesus was directed and
guided in his ministry. He said often that it was his Father’s will that he
suffer (go to the cross), and Jesus submitted to that direction. He is the vine
in the Father’s hands. Jesus never followed his own way but was always bound to
the Father’s will.
We are
the branches. There is a oneness in this plant. The vine and the branches are one plant. One stream of sap, one
stream of life flows to each branch from the vine. We cannot stand alone, but
like Christ we yield to the Father’s will, allowing His skillful hand to work
on us. He may twist us into place, fix us with a nail, or let our clusters
droop over the wall and into the hands of strangers. If it is the Father’s will
we must let Him have His way to accomplish His purpose.
In any
case, to continue to receive that life-giving stream, we must remain in Christ.
How many times does Jesus say this in this passage? Remain in me; if you remain
in me, I will remain in you; the only way to bear fruit is to remain in me; if
you remain in me you can ask the Father for anything; obey my commands and
remain in my love. To remain is to rest, to lean on, as if after a long tiring
day, you throw yourself on the couch and let it hold you. Jesus wants us to
rest in him and let him hold us, as the Father holds him.
2. Going under the knife
To remain in Christ is no static thing. To be in Christ
is to submit to the Father’s hand in making us something more. So to be in
Christ is not static but dynamic. Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every
branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he
prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (1-2).
a) Cutting off the
fruitless branch – The imagery of cutting off branches concerned me. I
wondered if this meant cutting off unbelievers, but then why would unbelievers
even be on the vine in the first place? I had to read up on this.
It seems
that in the spring, the green vine sprouts all manner of shoots. As a branch,
you may have several shoots with large green leaves giving the impression of
health and vitality. But this is when the vinedresser comes with a knife and
strips it bare of all this innocent pride. Those shoots would take the sap and
continue to leaf while producing nothing. To cut them back makes room for true
growth. It is a cleansing process since the shoots trap all manner of debris
and dirt.
This is
a powerful analogy for the Christian life. What are these unfruitful shoots the
Father trims away? These are the shoots which arise out of our sinful nature
and which produce those characteristics that are contrary to the fruit of the
Spirit. Paul says, “The acts of the
sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry
and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like…” (Gal.
5:19-21).
Warren
Wiersbe reminds us that, “Your Heavenly Father is never nearer to you than when
He is pruning you. Sometimes He cuts away the dead wood that might cause
trouble; but often He cuts off living tissue that is preventing you from
generating a bumper crop. Pruning does not only refer to removing what is bad.
It can also mean cutting away the good and the better so that we might enjoy
the best. Yes, pruning hurts, but it also helps. We may not enjoy it, but we
need it.”
b) Pruning the
fruitful branch – Did you catch that? I don’t know how many times I have
read this passage and I did not see this before. The Father takes the branch
that does bear fruit and prunes it. Here is a large cluster of grapes, perhaps
at the beginning of the growing season, and He cuts it. The plant people here
get that; I don’t so much.
Pruning
is a painful process. Sometimes the Father cuts deeper than we would have
chosen. This is remarkable imagery: the Father takes the situations we are in,
the challenges we are faced with, the trials that are killing us, and applies
the Word to those situations, challenges and trials, to make us hear the Word
afresh. We might find that something we had been doing all our life, which we
thought was right, turns out to be wrong thinking. That hurts.
Charles
Spurgeon preached on this saying: “Well, if I may say so, affliction is the
handle of the knife; affliction is the grindstone that sharpens up the word;
affliction is the dresser which removes our soft garments, and lays bare the
diseased flesh, so that the surgeon’s lancet may get at it; affliction makes us
ready to feel the word, but the true pruner is the word in the hand of the
Great Husbandman.”
If you
have ever gone for surgery you know how surreal the moment is when they put you
under. You should be scared that someone is going to cut you, but there is
peace that the cuts made are going to make you better – you will be able to eat
again, walk again, breathe better, etc. You trust the surgeon. How much more
can we trust the Father who holds the knife to our spirits?
Spurgeon
also said, dear friends, your prayer should be, “Lord, let Your word cut deep
into me. Do not let the preacher mince matters with me. Deliver him from sewing
pillows under my armholes, and lulling me to sleep. Lord, I would be faithfully
dealt with! I put the proud flesh before You— cut it out, that the wound heals
not so as to be worse when healed than it was when a running sore.”
The
writer of Hebrews encourages this surgery saying, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what
son is not disciplined by his father?” (Heb. 12:7).
c) Burning the
dead wood – There is still the matter of the dead branches (6). Ezekiel
proclaimed that vine branches that don’t produce fruit are dead wood and not
even useful for making furniture (Ezek 15:1-8). It’s only good for burning.
Many
commentators say that this refers to Judas. If so, then Judas was a branch
connected to Jesus that followed Jesus, preached the gospel, even healed the
sick, but was not in Christ. His
discipleship was pretence. I suppose then that it is easy to have the
appearance of being a Christ follower but not actually living off the vine.
If the
Holy Spirit is not living in them, there will be no fruit. The Father will cut
them off and they will be burned in the fire of judgment. Harsh stuff. But
Jesus makes it clear that his disciples will be obvious by the fruit of their
lives.
3. Bearing Fruit for the Father
There is one purpose for the vine: fruit-bearing. And not
just fruit, but “much fruit.” Jesus said, “This
is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my
disciples” (8). God is glorified when we produce fruit because it shows Him
to be a great vinedresser, the best in fact.
What is
this fruit? In a word – Christlikeness. Paul reveals a nine-fold description of
this one quality, “But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23).
What do
you have to do to produce this fruit? Here’s the strange thing – nothing. You
do not have to do anything. You could be sick in a hospital bed and still
express this quality of being Christlike. It is not activity which glorifies
God; it is character, it is what you are, and the way you react to a situation.
Do you want to be known as a disciple of Jesus? Do you want to be recognized as
one who follows Jesus? Well then, manifest fruit in your life by abiding in
him, and he in you.
A few
years ago, the Associated Press released a study done by an agricultural school
in Iowa. It reported that production of 100 bushels of corn from one acre of
land, in addition to the many hours of the farmer’s labor, required 4,000,000
pounds of water, 6,800 pounds of oxygen, 5,200 pounds of carbon, 160 pounds of
nitrogen, 125 pounds of potassium, 75 pounds of yellow sulphur, and other
elements too numerous to list. In addition to these things, which no man can
produce, rain and sunshine at the right time are critical. It was estimated
that only 5 percent of the produce of a farm can be attributed to the efforts
of man.[ii]
If we
were honest, we’d have to admit that the same is true in producing spiritual
fruit. Whatever the percentages, the Father does most of the work. Our
percentage is to remain in Christ, and without realizing it -- manifesting the
characteristics of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the quality of life
which is like Jesus. When that happens, there will come these additional
benefits: answered prayer, a glorifying of the Father through the demonstration
of discipleship, a deepening of the experience of love, and joy made full.
As the Father prunes us He demonstrates His care for us.
To leave us as we are would result in a messy, unmanageable life with
inconsistent fruitfulness. So in order to bear fruit for the Lord, the Father
needs to prune you.
Pruning
is not a pleasant experience. It may come in the form of a rebuke from another
believer; it may come from the Word of God; we may experience the pruning
season in an illness (though we must be careful not to assign blame to God for
sickness; He uses the experience – He doesn’t give it). But the fact is, as we
begin walking the Christian walk with Jesus, we bring a lot of the flesh and
the world with us. God is so gracious that He doesn’t hack it all away at once,
or we would bleed to death. However, if we want to be like Christ, it has to
go. And as it goes we find a new freedom and joy – our joy is actually made
fuller as we say goodbye to those things that suck the life of Christ out of
us. So we need to be pruned.
This is a key role of the
Father in your life. Look for it. Thank God for it. Consider the measure of
your fruit because of it. Remain in Christ and allow the Father to cut where he
needs to cut. This is for the Father’s glory
AMEN
Father
God, we have been walking with Jesus to the cross this morning, and we heard
him talk about the vine. We see that we are branches clinging to the Vine that
is Jesus. He is our life, the very source of faith and fruitfulness. We have
seen your faithful and caring hand at work in cutting and pruning. And we are a
little fearful to ask for more because it is painful. Yet we know that you do
not do it to hurt us, as if you enjoyed our pain, but you do it see us become
more like your Son, Jesus. As you work on us to make us fruitful, I pray that
all of us here would produce more fruit, that we would be so blessed with
fruit, that the community around us would drool with desire to learn the secret
of this fruit. We thank you, O God, for the potential you see in us through
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen
