It was the sure sign that fall had come. As the temperature dropped and that first touch of frost came to the mountains of Western Pennsylvania, I knew what and I the rest of my family would be doing on an upcoming Sunday. We would pile into the car and go over to a friend’s house whose property line was lined with grape vines. I can still remember the smell of the ripe Concord grapes that were about to be picked. Even to this day, anytime I smell a Concord grape, I am transported to those Sundays. Each member of my family, my mom, my grandmother, my brother and I would each take a section of the grapevine and systematically would pluck the grapes from their vines.
I don’t know how it happened but somehow there would always be small piles of grape skins on the ground after I finished going through my assigned section of the vine. And invariably before the day was over, I would have a terrific stomach ache from all the grapes that instead of making their way into the bucket, made their way into my stomach. It didn’t take me very long to figure out which grapes were the ones to eat and which ones were to be left behind. I knew the larger ones were always the sweeter ones. It was the small ones that always brought a sour taste to my mouth. At the conclusion of our adventure, we would take our stash home and then the real magic would start. All the jars were laid out ahead of time, the big pots were ready to be put on the stove and the counters were cleared. Late into the night, my grandmother and my mother would work, making that wonderful grape jelly that would last us and our friends all through the winter.
I take this trip down memory lane with you because we are all familiar with grapevines. We have all seen those purple clusters among those beautiful leaves and vines and it is this plant that Jesus uses as a powerful object lesson.
Jesus is the in the Upper Room that Thursday night. Jesus had just concluded telling the disciples about His soon coming departure and giving them instructions on how they should love one another as He has loved them.
He then got up from where He was seated and invited them to follow Him to the Mount of Olives. They journeyed in silence through the winding streets of Jerusalem, passed through the Eastern Gate and crossed the Kidron Valley. As they reached the base of the Mount, Jesus abruptly stopped. He stood next to a vine, He leaned over and very gently picked up a small cluster of new grapes and said.
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. John 15:1-6 (NIV)
This was not a spur of the moment illustration. Grapes were one of the main staples in first-century life especially in the hills of Judea and Galilee. These vines which demanded constant care provided not only food but also drink, thus they were very prized. These vines which started not from a seed but from a cutting from another vine grew quickly. These grape vines were so important that the owners would construct a wall around the vines to make sure that they could grow without being bothered by wild animals. Once the grapes were ready for picking, the whole family would participate in the harvest many times living in temporary shelters near the vineyard until the job was done.
Jesus points out that His Father is the gardener or the husbandman. It was the gardener’s responsibility to make sure that the vine was well taken care of because of how much He invested in it. It was the gardener who made sure that the soil was free from weeds that would choke the vine by siphoning off the nutrients. However, the most important thing that a gardener would do was pruning or cleaning the vine.
He would examine each branch of the vine to determine whether or not it was bearing fruit. If it was a fruit-bearing vine, then the gardener would then prune or cut back the vine so that that it would bear even more fruit by concentrating more of the vine’s energy into the cluster of grapes. If the gardener discovered a non-fruit bearing branch, he immediately cut it off because it was draining much-needed energy from the branches that were bearing fruit. These non-fruit-bearing branches are then discarded
So we see that Jesus calls Himself the true vine. He calls His Father the gardener, and then in verse 5, He tells the disciples that they are branches of the vine and thus by extension we too as Jesus’ 21st-century disciples are also the branches. But what are the lessons from the vine that Jesus tried to teach His disciples just hours before He went to the cross? I would like to explore three.