There are many metaphors in biblical literature. A metaphor is a way of making a comparison without using words such as “like” or “as.” How else could mere human language speak of God, except through metaphors or analogies? God is infinite and our ability to comprehend and speak of God is limited, so we use metaphors.
John’s Gospel is particularly rich in metaphors. He tells us that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, etc. Today’s gospel passage begins with more metaphors, “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I am the true vine and my Father is the line grower.'”
The metaphor of the vine had been used before in the Old Testament. Israel is likened to God’s beloved vine (Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21; Psalm 80:8-18). Isaiah, for example, describes the relationship between God and God’s people in terms of the vineyard. But Israel failed to fulfill its responsibility as God’s faithful vine. Now Jesus is describing himself as the new Israel when he calls himself the “true vine.” While humans failed in their covenant to be God’s faithful and just people, Jesus will fulfill that role. Because of his fidelity to God and his offering of his life on our behalf, we too can be fruitful branches.
Christ is the true vine and we are part of him. If we stay attached to him, by abiding in his word, sacraments and love, we will bear much fruit. Our second reading suggests the fruit Jesus’ disciples will yield. “Little children, let us love in deed and in truth and not merely talk about it. This is our way of knowing that we are committed to the truth and are at peace before him” (1 John 3:18).
Be careful with this second reading, for it can sound like we earn the indwelling with Christ by keeping the commandments. First, we abide in the risen Christ, our vine and so we share in the life that flows from him. Then, trusting in that life we have from him, we witness to our Christian discipleship by loving one another. Hence, we “…keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”
I think we non-gardeners can get what Jesus is saying today: he certainly repeats himself a lot! He uses “remain(s)” eight times. Jesus is speaking at table with his disciples the night before he died. In his farewell he tells them that he is going away and, for now, they cannot follow him. They will have to carry on without his physical presence — and so must we. They are not yet fully formed, yet he trusts that they can be fruitful disciples. How can they accomplish this, especially since, like him, they will not escape the world’s resistance and hostility (15:18)?
John was addressing his gospel to a community practiced in the Christian faith and also suffering the consequences of discipleship. Many, like the blind man (9:1-41), who had received his sight from Jesus, were thrown out of their synagogues and cut off from family, friends and community because of their new sight. John isn’t just addressing individual situations, but the experience of his community. The church is not supposed to get along with the world around it. Instead, like Jesus and the prophets before him, we must speak out for the rights of the unborn, poor, outsiders, prisoners and the created world.
How could John’s community and our own possibly be able to live up to the vocation Jesus is calling us to be — fruitful branches? It has to do with “remaining” in him. What could that possibly mean and, if it is as important as it seems, why didn’t he spell it out for us so we could know exactly what we must do to “remain” in him and be fruitful?
I think each of us might draw up a list of what “remaining” (other translations have “abiding”) in Jesus, the true vine, might mean. It certainly would include faithful participation in the liturgical and ministerial life of our parish community. While there would be much similarity, the unique cultural, geographical and economic context of our parish will shape the ways we “remain” in Christ.
Individually we “remain” in Jesus through prayer, reading Scriptures, good works, stillness, and meditation. Each of us can add to this general list of ways we “remain” in Christ and “bear much fruit.” We don’t have to limit the specific ways we live out our discipleship for, as Jesus said earlier in John about the Spirit, “the wind blows where it will” (3:8).
One thing is for sure. It doesn’t sound like Jesus expects us to claim our discipleship and then settle into a routine Christian life. There is no routine Christian life, not if the source of our life is the blowing wind of the Spirit. Ours is a Spirit that stirs the church to innumerable forms of service, each distinct, but all the fruits of our remaining in Christ and he in us. The image of the vine and the branches isn’t a stagnant one, but a description of how the life of Christ gives and supports the life of each of us — the branches.
Recently, in a parish where I was preaching, I sat in on a class for children that focused on today’s gospel. It was part of the program called, “The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.” The catechist read the gospel story and illustrated it with a potted vine. She broke off one of the tiny branches from the central vine. She and her students, five-year-olds, shared about what “remaining” on the vine, “pruning” the vine and bearing “much fruit” would look like in their lives. I was moved by the insights these youngsters came to and how profound their responses were. Full disclosure: I have used that example when I have preached in parishes and been invited to speak to children. The first thing I do is look around the rectory for a plant!
This passage is not a stern lecture on how we must remain on the vine — in Christ. Initially that’s how it sounds when it speaks of throwing out and burning withered branches that have not remained in Christ. But we shouldn’t miss what’s at the heart of the story — who is at the heart of it. This, like all these gospel stories, is a story of grace. Jesus tells those sitting around a table at the Last Supper that they are “already pruned,” so that they will bear much fruit. Isn’t that a freeing message? Doesn’t that encourage vitality and spontaneity and even risk: go out and bear much fruit and don’t be timid, for we are in Christ and Christ is in us.
We hear this gospel at Eucharist today and this setting helps us apply the Scriptures to what we are doing together. Here we listen to the Word of God and eat and drink the flesh and blood of the Lord. We remember that in the Bread of Life discourse (6:56), Jesus promised his followers “those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.” He also told us that we can remain in him if we remain in his word, “If you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples” (8:31). His word lives in us and we live in his word.
Just like the disciples Jesus is addressing, we are also sitting around the table. We too are in close relationship with the Lord, not because of our own merits or achievements, but because we have received and are receiving the gift of grace at this assembly. It is no wonder that at the core the Eucharist is a prayer of gratitude and an expression of joy.
REMAIN WITH ME
The narrative is quite simple and very expressive. Jesus is the
“true vine, ” full of life; his disciples are the branches that get the sap or juice from Jesus; the Father is the “vine dresser” who takes good care of the vine so that it yields abundant fruit. The most important thing is that His project for a better and happier world for all should become a reality.
The story makes it very clear where the problem lies. There are some dried-up branches through which the sap of Jesus does not flow. There are disciples that bear no fruit because the Spirit of the Risen Christ does not flow through their veins. Some Christian communities are cut off from Jesus.
Hence Jesus makes a strong statement: “a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself;” the life of the disciples will be sterile “if they do not abide” in Jesus. His words are unqualified: “apart from me you can do nothing.”
Isn’t this, too, the root cause of the failure of our modern Christianity, and the inner reason why our foundations are crumbling down?
The life style of so many Christians today, without a vital connection with Jesus, cannot sustain us much longer: Christianity could become an outdated “folklore” which will not carry the Good News of the Gospel to anyone. The Church would no longer be able to carry on its mission in the modern world, if those of us called “Christians” do not really become disciples of Jesus, animated by his “sap” and Spirit, and his passion for a better world.
Being a Christian today requires a vital experience of Jesus, a deep knowledge of his person and a passion for his project. These requirements might not have been necessary before, within a practicing Christian society. If we don’t learn to live with a more immediate and passionate contact with Jesus, the present decadence of our Christian spirit might become a terminal sickness.
Christians today live preoccupied and distracted by many issues. It cannot be otherwise. But we should not forget the essential. We are all “branches”. Only Jesus is the true “vine ”. It is crucial to “remain in him:” we must focus all our attention on the Gospel; we must encourage and foster a living contact between our groups, communities, networks and parishes and the Good News; and never stray away from His project.
“STAY WITH ME”
According to the Gospel narratives by John, on the eve of his death, Jesus made this personal appeal to his disciples: “Remain with me.” He knew their cowardice and mediocrity. Often he had told them about their little faith. If they did not remain united to Him they would not be able to survive in their faith.
The words of Jesus could not be more clear or emphatic: “As the branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.” If they do not remain firm in what they have learned and lived with Him, their lives will become sterile. If they do not live by his Spirit, what He had started with them will be extinguished.
Jesus’ language becomes unequivocal: “I am the vine and you are the branches.” His disciples must feel the sap that flows from Jesus. They should never forget that. “Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; and cut off from me you can do nothing.” Separated from Jesus, his disciples cannot do anything.
Jesus does not only ask them to remain with Him. He also adds, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you.” They should never forget what He had told them. They would have to practice His Good News. That would become the fountain from which they will have to drink. He had already said it on other occasions: “My words are spirit and life.”
The Spirit of the Risen Jesus remains alive and working in the Church today in various forms, but his invisible and silent presence becomes visible and is heard thanks to the memories and reminders of those who knew Him personally and followed Him till the end. Thanks to the Gospels, we are able to get in touch with his message, his lifestyle and his projects for the kingdom of God.
Hence, it is in the Gospels that the Christian communities must look for the vital strength that will give them new life and energy. Such new energy is what is needed to be true followers of Jesus. The Gospel of Jesus is the unique pastoral instrument required to give life to the Christian Church today.
Most good Christians in our communities today know only the Gospels second hand. Everything they know about Jesus comes from what they have heard from preachers and catechists. Hence they live their Christian life without experiencing the vital and personal “contact” with Jesus himself.
It is very difficult to imagine a “new evangelization” without making available to the faithful a more personal, direct and immediate contact with the Gospels. Nothing can have more evangelizing impact than the experience of listening together to the words that Jesus spoke in answer to some of our present problems, sufferings and expectations.
YOU ARE THE BRANCHES
On any given Sunday, members of various Christian congregations gather for service and to share in the Living Bread and Living Word that is Christ. Some of us are single, others married; some are widowed, others divorced; old, young and in-between. Some are lonely, while others live within the loving embrace of their families; some have a steady job and a comfortable life, while others are unemployed.
The vine was considered in Israel as a “Messianic Tree” and it has given rise to a lot of theology and spirituality. The fruits of the vine must be “justice and right.” The message of Easter, therefore, is expressed in terms of “bearing fruits.” Biblical tradition, in the context of election and covenant, the Vine refers to Israel, to the people, to the spouse. It was the vine that had been uprooted from Egypt and re-planted by God’s hand. Hence, it comes as a bit of a surprise that Christ declares himself to be the Vine!
Having established his role as a vine, Jesus declares that his Father, God, is the vinedresser or the vine grower who ensures the continued fruitfulness of the vine by pruning away the barren branches and trimming clean the fruitful ones to prompt even further fruitfulness. How long can a branch live away from the vine? It is amazing how often Christ urges us to remain united to the vine.
Were the disciples different from us today? What about our disputes over Communion standing or kneeling, in hand or mouth; our bickering over music loud or soft, modern or classical, the use of musical instruments; bickering over Bible translations, the relative value of our schools; the place of women and the role of the laity in the church.
Egyptians wondered about the eternal Nile, and so mummified royalty and immortalized their pharaohs; Buddhists worried about suffering and then believed in a a compassionate Buddha; Hindus were impressed with life cycles and then thought that reincarnation was a good explanation for it. All of these religions were the creation of an already existing community.
But there was no Christian community – members came from all countries and cultures and classes. The center of this religion was a crucified/risen God/man.
Paul called the Church the body of Christ; the Church called itself the people of God. Both of those are apt descriptions that we ought to accept and celebrate. But the most radical description comes from the Founder. He called us branches on a vine.