This is part 8 of an 8-part series. View the entire series here.
“‘I am the true Grapevine, and my Father is the Gardener. He cuts off every branch of Mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more...Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.’” – John 15:1-2, 5 NLT
Leading up to this passage in John 15, Jesus makes many references to His departure in order to prepare His disciples for the reality that, soon, He would no longer bodily live with them (see John 12:25; John 13:33; John 14:18; John 14:28).
Then in the last of His I AM statements, Jesus gives another agricultural metaphor that would’ve been very familiar to the disciples: the relationship between a grapevine and its branches.
Even though Jesus was going away, He wanted His followers to remain rooted in Him. They didn’t know it yet, but they were soon to embark on a mission to spread the Gospel, baptizing, teaching, and making more disciples (Matthew 28:19). But in order to do that, they would need to stay firmly grafted to the Vine—Jesus—and fully surrendered to His will.
Notice, though, that Jesus doesn’t command them to bear fruit. He commands them to remain in Him. That’s what would empower them to do the work He had prepared for them to do.
It was true for the disciples, and it’s still true for us in the 21st century. When we remain—abiding in Jesus’s love and loving Him with everything we are in response—fruit will come as a result. It’s only when we start focusing more on the fruit we’re producing than we are on the Vine that we begin to get off course.
And this is when we must be willing to let the Gardener cut away every branch that isn’t producing fruit and to prune every branch that is so it can keep producing fruit.
Pruning is a painful process. It takes humility and a supernatural trust that God’s plan is better than anything we could come up with on our own. It takes surrender, which is often the hardest part.
But Jesus, ever the steadying vine, is our constant safeguard against wandering too far: “...and I in them…”
Relationship with Jesus is never one-sided. It’s never fully dependent on our ability to stay faithful, and thank God it’s not, because we can’t. When our strength fails, we lean on the Vine.
What beautiful reassurance—that as we abide in Him, He abides in us. He promises to be the source of every good thing we bring into the world.
