By Pastor Rob
“I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (ESV)
When Kay and I moved back to the States, Pastor Nathan exhorted us to do some things that established roots in Lynchburg. So I planted fruit trees. I believe he meant something a little less literal, something more to help us be connected to Lynchburg and thus better able to step into the new roles Heritage was inviting us into after so many years serving as Sent Global Workers. But cultivating fruit trees has allowed us to better appreciate each passing season and also introduced me to so many tangible realities of Jesus’ discourse in John 15.
I have learned about grafting. Did you know you can grow an ornamental fruit tree that produces fruit no one wants, but if it has hardy root stock that endures harsh conditions, you can graft in a delicious edible fruit branch? The resulting produce will be something wonderful, sweet, and nutritious from a soil and environment that would normally be a very poor support for that type of fruit tree.
I have learned how crucial pruning is not only to the health of the tree, but also to gaining legitimate fruit yields. Not pruning the tree causes it to literally waste its energy growing in ways that limits fruit production, and it also puts it into a death spiral of disease and shortened life.
And, I have learned that every branch that is removed from the tree not only produces no fruit, but it dies. Kinda obvious isn’t it? But the reality strikes me each time I gather up the pruned branches the day after pruning. Those branches will never leaf again. There will be no more buds or flowers, no fruit to enjoy, no seeds for reproduction. Separated from the trunk, life has stopped. It is over.
We need to hear Jesus’ words, the truth He declares in such plain language: “I am the Vine; you are the branches…for apart from me you can do nothing.” The Puritan Thomas Brooks declared, “He that is out of Christ is worse than nothing.” That sounds really harsh…because it is. A disconnected branch is literally dead wood.
And yet another Puritan, Samuel Rutherford, captures the flipside with such wonder: “I find Christ’s love to be like a great sea, and my sense and capacity to be like a little dish, that can but take in a little of it.” There is such an abundance of life in Jesus that in being connected to Him our branches cannot help but push forth lush green leaves, with buds bursting forth into stunning flowers, blossoming into delicious fruit, wrapped around seeds of His Good News that yield a reproducing community of blessing to His world.
The Father, as Vinedresser, prunes each branch connected to Jesus, the Vine, so that it may bear more fruit. It is an amazing testimony to God’s economy. “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples” (15:8). He has purposed His fruit, lots of fruit, to be on the branches of Jesus’ followers. This glorifies the Father, making visible His infinite worth and life found only in God.