Wednesday, 4/7/2021
Easter Week

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 97; Psalm 99; Micah 7:7–15; Acts 3:1–10; John 15:1–11

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum(“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Third Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 60:1–3,11a,14c,18–19, BCP, p. 87); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (“The Song of Zechariah,” Luke 1:68–79, BCP, p. 92)

John 15:1–11 may be the most important words Jesus ever utters about the dynamic of the Christian life.

The Father is an expert vinedresser. God intends Israel to be the means by which he re-Edenizes the world. That’s why, going back to the prophets and the psalms, God uses the metaphor of Israel as a vine (Isaiah 5; Jeremiah 2; Psalm 80). The Heavenly Vinedresser wants to produce grapes that will make great wine with which he can bless the world. Thus, he is absolutely committed to providing the best care for his vine. 

Jesus is the True Vine, Israel’s true Son and Seed. And we are branches of that one True Vine. Thus, we receive our life from the vine, not vice versa. A secular Israel is an oxymoron. The church as a self-sustaining institution is a self-contradiction. Editing the Bible into a mere manual for autonomous, moral self-improvement is a non-starter.  In Jesus we live. Apart from Jesus we die. Full stop. 

Our job is simple, if not easy. All we “branches” need to do is “abide” (menein is a very simple Greek word that means essentially “remain” or “stay”) in the vine—that is, stay connected to our life source. 

“He lifts up every branch in me that bears no fruit” — John 15:2a, my translation. When we are unfruitful but “abiding,” the good Vinedresser (the Father) will “lift us up” so we can get better sunlight and rainfall (the NRSV’s translation of the first half of verse 2’s airein as “remove” is terribly misleading, making it appear as though unfruitful branches get cut off). No. A skilled vinedresser looks for vine branches that trail along the ground, cut off from rain and sun. He carefully “lifts them up” and finds them a place on the arbor where they will thrive. Here, Jesus uses a metaphor for the Father drawing us closer to himself—creating in us a desire for deeper and more intimate fellowship with him, putting us in closer contact with other believers who can encourage and instruct, drawing us to church for the ministry of Word and Sacrament, of praise and worship. That’s what your Heavenly Father does for you! 

“Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit” — John 15:2b. When we are growing, we get pruned. The Greek word is kathairein. It means “cleanse,” and it is a lovely word play on the previous verb airein (“lift up”). The “cleansing” of branches means, of course, cutting away unproductive growth. But it also involves pulling away insects and protecting branches from diseases and fungi. Our Heavenly Vinedresser may very well do some healthy meddling: calling upon us to reorder priorities and to reorient values; he may even change tempting circumstances and comfortable but harmful associates. He may cut away things so that lesser fruitfulness in the present can lead to greater fruitfulness in the future. 

James Montgomery Boice provides two important cautionary notes. First, the sequence of the Father’s work is important. Before he eliminates the negative (the pruning), our Father builds the positive (the lifting up). He draws us to himself first, then takes away the extraneous or the harmful. We are like a girl who finds she no longer wants to play with dolls after she becomes interested in a young man. If we reverse things, we risk becoming proud of ourselves and judgmental of others.* 

Second, Boice cautions, the pruning takes place by the Word of God, not by human-made rules and standards. “It is always the Word that must cleanse us, otherwise our ideas of purity are man-made and not of God’s origin at all.” When we make up our own criteria of righteousness for everyone—what movies to watch, what to eat or drink, for whom to vote, how to dress, how to educate our kids—we substitute our own standards for God’s and we further divide the Body of Christ over non-essential matters. And the world rightly says, “See, they really are a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites.” 

“Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” — John 15:6. It’s always possible to contemplate the possibility of cutting ourselves off, of “not abiding.” That’s the scenario envisioned in verse 6. And Jesus asks us to consider that terrible “what if?”, only to remind us that by remaining “in him,” we find a profound sense of God’s responsiveness to our heart’s best desires, “love,” and “joy” (verses 7-11). Ultimately, the Heavenly Vinedresser’s goal for us is that we participate in the eternal love that has always flowed between Father and Son, and that now has been extended to us: “Just as the Father has loved me, I have loved you; remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be made complete” (John 15:10–11). 

Collect for Wednesday in Easter Week. O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

* James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Volume 4 (Zondervan, 1978), pp. 229–230.

Image:  "I Saw it through the Grapevine" by Vainsang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0