The Vine and the Branches

Victor of Crete, Christ the Vine, 1674, egg tempura on wood, Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-byzantine Studies, Venice, Italy, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en click the image to link to source.

Sermon Series “Through the Bible,” № 59, John 15:1-8

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”  –John 15:5

 Today we’ll complete our brief look at the Gospel of John. In this journey through the Bible, I’ve tried to avoid texts that are commonly read during the Advent-Christmas and Lent-Easter cycles. Instead, I’ve focused on passages that highlight unique aspects or emphases of each book.

In contrast to the other three biblical gospels, John records no parables. In framing the meaning of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection, he makes extensive use of the occasions on which Jesus presided over a feast or ritual meal. It would be fair to say that John could not tell you who Jesus was, or what he was doing in the world, without referring to bread and wine.

In this book of the Bible, the closest Jesus comes to telling a parable is his teaching recorded in today’s text. On Maundy Thursday, in the Upper Room, presiding over a ritual meal, Jesus speaks in terms of the botanical process whereby the grapes that become wine develop.  Literary critics might say that Jesus is using an analogy, describing the new life he offers with images borrowed from the familiar routine of tending a vineyard.

Osvaldo Vena is professor emeritus of New Testament at Garrett Seminary in Chicago, and puts a finer point on this literary form. He says Jesus was using a familiar rabbinic form called the “mashal” that includes an image and its application to real life. Professor Vena reviews the word’s use in the major prophets, for whom the “vine” often represented the nation of Israel or a king of Israel. He says that most of the time, these texts convey the idea of divine judgment. “But not so in Isaiah 27,” the first scripture Kalyn read today. There, a reversal of an earlier song takes place, “and now Israel is depicted as a fruitful vine.”[1] These Hebrew Testament passages provided the raw material, says Vena, out of which Jesus created, and John carefully framed, the mashal of the vine and the branches.

Vena points out how, in John, the symbolism is adjusted. “The vinegrower is still God but the vine is not Israel. Now it is Jesus.” “The secret to a productive branch,” he says, “is its attachment to the vine, its relationship to Jesus and his community, a theme expressed by the idea of abiding ….”  The root word for “abide” appears eight times in this short passage.

Working through this commentary on our gospel text put me in mind of a recent article in The Atlantic, by a 35-year-old conservative Presbyterian, editor of a journal called Mere Orthodoxy. He wanted to explain for his readers why millions of American Christians have stopped attending church (40 million in the last 25 years, by his reckoning). Common answers include disillusionment about corruption, abuse, theological and political conflicts.

But Meador’s analysis focuses on something more basic. As summarized by a reviewer for Christianity Today,  “Meador argues that ‘the defining problem driving out most people who leave is … just how American life works in the 21st century.’ Everyone is busy. Job hours are long and unpredictable. Finances are precarious. The kids have soccer. The baby’s not sleeping through the night. The grandparents need more help around the house. A friend is visiting. I’m tired. ‘Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote … common life,’ Meador summarizes, so we’re growing more ‘lonely, anxious, and uncertain of how to live in community with other people.’ Forever in the red on time and energy, we don’t spare any of our resources for church.”[2]

I know that many people outside of traditional churches don’t see this trend as a problem. But I found in Meador, some 26 years my junior, a kindred soul who worries about these changes in ways very similar to me, and perhaps to some of you.  He writes, “As a Christian, I feel this shift acutely. My wife and I wonder whether the institutions and communities that have helped preserve us in our own faith will still exist for our … children (and grandchildren).”

“This change is also bad news for America as a whole: Participation in a religious community generally correlates with better health outcomes and longer life, higher financial generosity, and more stable families—all of which are desperately needed in a nation with rising rates of loneliness, mental illness, and alcohol and drug dependency.”[3] Meador reminds us that being properly connected in relationships in the church can make all the difference between life and death.

In the text, Jesus makes a similar case. The original setting for his words probably was the house of a friend on Mount Zion at the southwest corner of Jerusalem.  Across the valley they could see the beautiful Herodian temple on its hilltop. 

The Jewish historian Josephus describes this temple, the way it was sheathed in white marble, decorated with clusters of golden grapes on golden vines, these clusters as tall as a man.[4]  Some scholars highlight the way that the Jewish people calculated the lunar month, and assert it was likely the moon was full or nearly so on the evening of the Last Supper. So, as Jesus observed the view from his place at the dinner table, it’s plausible that these clusters were shimmering in the moonlight, providing further inspiration for the mashal forming in his mind.

To ponder wine made from grapes, harvested from branches connected to a vine, is to think about the complex connections that nurture life. The vine carries the water and nutrients to the branches, which causes them to grow, blossom, and bear fruit.  Cut the branch from the vine, and it will die quickly.  Jesus says that he is the vine for us.  And in the way John frames his words, we, the church, are the branches.

Back to Jake Meador, the young Presbyterian author who says we’re too busy for community in the church. He didn’t provide any solutions that you and I haven’t heard before. He says that we may be tempted to make membership easier, and requirements for participation less. But he doesn’t think that will work. In fact, he suggests we ask for more.  While I’m not confident that asking for more is the best or only solution to the church’s challenges, I do think Jake Meador appreciates the precious value of life in a congregation in a way that many people today overlook.

Just eleven days ago, we held a memorial service for Betty Dierkes. During the service, I recalled the way this church surrounded Betty with love and support during her final years. When Betty didn’t respond to phone calls, it was Robin Paproth who arranged a wellness check through the police department, during which Betty was discovered near death after having spent nearly three days at the bottom of a stairway.  Her physical health was restored, and life extended nearly five years as a direct result of the relationships nourished in this church. An example like that makes it obvious how important participation in faith communities can be. I worry about people, without family or church friends, who will be discovered in the glow of their device screens days after their social-media or Zoom call connection ends.

My experience of helping care for Betty informs what I’m feeling. Recalling how this church stepped up to care is one way to describe the difference between a shallow connection and a deep relationship with Jesus through his church. He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.” May it be so for us.

NOTES

[1] Osvaldo Vena, “Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year B): Commentary on John 15:1-8,” April 29, 2018, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-of-easter-2/commentary-on-john-151-8-4 accessed 12 September 2023.

[2] Bonnie Kristian, “What If Churches Ask for More and No One Says Yes?” Christianity Today, 4 August 2023, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/august-web-only/jake-meador-atlantic-great-dechurching-us-attendance-stats.html accessed 13 Sept. 2023.

[3] Jake Meador, “The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped Going to Church,” The Atlantic, July 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/christian-church-communitiy-participation-drop/ accessed 13 Sept. 2023.

[4] Josephus’ observations noted by Raymond Brown, “The Gospel According to John,” The Anchor Bible Vol. 29a, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1970, p. 674.

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