Jesus’ final “I am” statement is in John 15, after He explained to His disciples that He must leave them but would prepare a place for them to be with him again. He also told them He would send the Holy Spirit to live in them, to give them the power to follow the way, truth and life. We need to stay connected to this power like fruit stays connected to the vine, which represents our connection to the Father and to one another through the Holy Spirit.
Gardener, Vine, and Branches
Through His “I am” statements, Jesus tells us how He meets our spritual needs. In His final statement, He tells us what our role is and what we need to do as His followers.
The story Jesus tells is of a vineyard and the gardener. Spiritually, the gardener is the Father, and we are branches growing from the vine, Jesus. The gardener’s job is to prune the branches so that they will bear fruit. The vine’s work is to connect and nourish all of the branches. What is the role of the branches?
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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also 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. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
John 15:1-8 NIV
Vine, Branches and Fruit
The role of the branches is simply to bear fruit for the gardener. However, branches need both nourishment and pruning. To bear the fruit, branches need to remain connected to the nourishment of the vine but also have unfruitful parts cut back so that they can bear more fruit.
Spiritually, as the branches we need to focus on bearing fruit for God. This is how we’ll show we’re God’s disciples, by bearing God’s fruit. Branches on grape vines grow grapes, but only if the branches and fruit are trimmed so that the branch doesn’t get disconnected from the vine. We, as God’s branches, need to submit to the pruning when God, the Gardener, trims out the unfruitful things in our lives. We may not recognize it when it happens, and may consider it unfair, or feel the pain of suffering from the loss in our lives. However, the Gardener knows that we need to endure that pain to be even more fruitful and faithful. Pruning makes us even more dependent on the vine.
All that we need do as branches is remain in the vine. We do this by remaining in Jesus and in His words (John 15:7). It’s through His Word that we recognize our spiritual needs, and we also see how he meets those needs. In the “I am” statements we’ve considered in this series of posts, we see that He:
- Sustains our faith as the Bread of Life,
- Guides us as the Light of the World,
- Protects us as the Gate to the Sheep Pen,
- Cares for us as the Good Shepherd,
- Gives us hope in our salvation as the Resurrection and the Life, and
- Assures us of faith as the Way, the Truth and the Life.
The True Vine
Finally as the True Vine, he accomplishes all this by living in us. all we must do is remain in Him and in His words. As we remain in Him, He is faithful and provides us with the strength we need, to face pandemics, injustice, division, sin and ultimately death. His Word nourishes us so that we can bear much fruit, as branches that remain in the true vine.
Jesus says “I AM the true vine”, and we need him for the strength to live a life of faith.
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