John 15:1-8 is a powerful portion of
Scripture. I find something both appealing and comforting in the picture that
Jesus painted in this passage. His Father is the husbandman/vinedresser, Jesus is
the vine, we are the branches, and the vineyard is the Kingdom of God.
I must admit, however, that a couple of
things Jesus had to say in the first three verses were a mystery to me. One
statement seemed to be contradictory and harsh and the other did not seem to
fit in the flow of the passage. So, like any good Spirit-filled believer, I
just ignored those statements and pretended they were not there!
The first statement that bothered me was
in verse two: “Every branch in Me that
does not bear fruit He takes away.” I cannot begin to count the number of
times I have heard preachers say that this is God’s purging of unfruitful
branches—that if you do not bear fruit, He will cut you off! I find this
thinking to be contradictory to verse five: “He
who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit.” How can one verse say that a branch in Him that does not bear fruit will get cut off and another say,
categorically, if you are in Him you
will bear fruit? To take both of those statements at face value could cause
me to be more schizophrenic than I already am!
The second thing that troubled me was
verse three, which to me seemed like it was a parenthetical statement. The
verse says, “You are already clean
because of the word which I have spoken to you.” This is a powerful
statement but what does it have to do with an unfruitful branch of the previous
verse? It seemed to me that this very clear and strong word just somehow did
not belong in this passage.
Let’s see if we can unravel this
mystery!
Bruce Wilkinson, founder of Walk Thru the
Bible Ministries, is probably best known for his very popular book The Prayer of Jabez. In one of his other
writings, Wilkinson tells the story of being at a pastors’ conference on the West
Coast. After one of the sessions, he was approached by a man who had a question
for him: “Do you understand John 15?” Bruce responded, “Not completely.” The
man then told him, “I own a large vineyard in Northern California and I think I
may have some insights that would be helpful.” The two men arranged a time to
meet and talk.
Sitting at a table in a nearby
restaurant, Wilkinson and the man began to converse about the life of a grower
and the work involved. The vineyard owner explained, “New branches have a
tendency to trail downward and grow along the ground but they do not bear fruit
down there. Instead, they get covered in dust and dirt, and if it rains they
get muddy and often become mildewed. Also, these ‘on the ground’ branches
become sickly and useless.”
“What do you do then?” Wilkinson asked.
“Do you prune them, cut them off and throw them away?”
“Oh, no, these branches are much too
valuable for that,” the owner explained. “We are constantly in the vineyard looking
for branches that have grown down and are trailing along the ground. When we
find one, we lift it up, take clean water and wash it off and then secure it
back up on the trellis. Before long the branch is growing and bearing fruit
again.”
As I read this account, I had a
“revelatory moment.” Suddenly I understood verses two and three of John 15 in a
brand-new way. Isn’t that just like the Father and the Son to say to us, “You
have been growing along the ground and gotten dusty, dirty and covered with mildew.
I will pick you up, clean you off, and put you back where you belong! It won’t
be long before you are fruitful because Life will be flowing through you!”
The old English phrase, “He takes away,”
does not carry well into the 21st century. The original language for this
phrase means “to lift up, to elevate, to move from where it was” and does not
refer to pruning or purging. Jesus does go on in verse two to say that He will
prune branches that are not bearing fruit. He will cut off old growth that is now
dead, so that the branches can again bear fruit. We must never be afraid of
letting Him remove “old, dead growth” so that we can be more fruitful.
In verse three Jesus says, “You are already clean because of the word
which I have spoken to you.” The word clean
used here is the root word for cleansed as it is used in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Cleanse
means to be free from the defilement of sin, faults and wickedness.
God is the Lord of the vineyard. Not
only is He the owner, but He is an active owner, the husbandman/caretaker. He
is personally extending care to us; He lifts us up when we have fallen; and He
restores us so that we can again be fruitful!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
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