This morning as I sat down to pray I was reminded of my last couple of reflections, which had to do with gardening, and planting. As I was thinking back over that I was reminded of Jesus' famous discourse on being the vine found in John 15. I thought I would spend some time meditating on His words, and doing some research into the cleaning of vines. First, here are the verses - John 15:1-8 NIV:
[1] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. [2] He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. [3] You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. [4] Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."
[5] “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. [6] If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. [7] If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. [8] This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
The foundation of understanding these verses is that we must remain connected relationally to Jesus, for He is the source of our life! He goes deeper than just basic relationship, speaking of us being in Him, and He in us, and this is part of the spiritual mystery! According to Jesus, the fact is that God is inside of us! He comes and lives with us and in us, following our salvation. At the same time we are now hidden in Christ, which Paul expounds upon in several of his letters. This relationship is deeper and more profound than the relationship of husband and wife, but for us that is a good place to start in understanding. It is in this deep relational context that we must understand Jesus' words about vines and bearing fruit.
Back to the verses, Jesus says He is the vine, and the Father is the gardener. The Father cuts off every branch that bears no fruit, and prunes the ones that do, so that they will be even more fruitful. This is such an accurate description of what gardeners, or vine dressers do to care for vines. I spent some time reading up on pruning grape vines and I think it is very helpful to understand.
First, pruning only takes place in the winter, after a season of fruitfulness, once the leaves have fallen and the gardener can easily see the vine. The gardener cuts back the majority of the vine each year, during the dry and cold season. Boy, that sure seems similar to my life. I can think of multiple times where it seemed like I was in a season of bearing good fruit, and that was followed by a season of quiet, and relative dryness. It is during those times that I can see clearly how much I have grown and in what areas. It is also then that I often have the opportunity for repentance and trimming back, based on the Lord's guidance and direction. It is important to note that pruning back means God has bigger plans for us to bear more fruit. It does not mean He is punishing us, or displeased with us!
Here is some description of the purpose of pruning - The Secret to Pruning Grapes from https://modernfarmer.com/2016/02/pruning-grapevines/
"Here’s the secret: grapevines produce fruit on one-year old wood. What the heck does that mean? When a bud sprouts in spring and grows into a new shoot within the larger grape plant, the shoot turns from green to brown by the end of the growing season, at which point it is considered one-year old wood. The following spring some of the buds on one-year-old wood will grow flowers (which develop into fruit), while the buds on older wood produce only leaves or shoots.
The primary goal of pruning is to maximize the amount of one-year old wood on each grapevine without encouraging the plant to produce so many grape clusters that it lacks the energy and nutrients to fully ripen them. Left to its own devices, a grapevine grows to a dense mass of mostly older wood with relatively little “fruiting wood” each year. The dense growth leads to poor air circulation, which encourages fungal diseases. Expect to remove 70 to 90 percent of the previous year’s growth each winter.
The second purpose for pruning grapes is to encourage the vines to grow a structure that is conducive to harvesting and which conforms to the shape of the trellis the vine is growing on. Aim to create an orderly system of evenly spaced vines that resembles the branches of a tree."
That is such an interesting perspective, and put into a spiritual and natural context for growth, it should help us! I was thinking earlier about how Jesus had so many followers but by the time of "upper-room" there were only 120 gathered there. I would say that is a very good example of how the Father pruned Jesus' vine to make it ready for a season of immense fruitfulness. I was wondering if churches might want to pay a bit more attention to these verses as they press for constant numerical growth. It isn't how big we get, but how much fruit we bear that appears to be the focus here.
Secondly, this perspective is very helpful in looking back on one's life. The cutting back is always for fruitfulness in the next season, and the Lord wants to maximise out fruitfulness. He doesn't want us to grow huge in our areas of coverage, but lacking any real fruit. He wants "one-year old wood" and that means we need to have grown through a season without much fruit, get pruned and then in the next season we will be able to produce abundant fruit. I am so often all focused on trying to bear fruit immediately, not realizing that maybe my sole responsibility for this season is to grow, and that fruitfulness will follow in the next season of grace. Wow, that is very helpful on one hand, and on the other hand it is messing with my thinking about God's call to bear fruit immediately. We must realize that God is our gardener and He totally has a long-term view of our lives and purposes. He doesn't have a 1 year plan, He has a plan for eternity, and thus He is far more patient than we are!
Third, Jesus speaks about the fact that His disciples are clean because of the word He has spoken to them. If you want to do a deep study, look up the "Clean Vine Programs" that are being developed specifically to maximise the productiveness of vines and quality of the fruit, and much of the focus is the recognition of diseases and other blights (fungus) that can affect vines. In the same way the Lord, cleans us, cleans up our thinking, adjusts our world-view, and purifies our lives so that we can bear good fruit. He knows the difference between good branches, and those that don't bear fruit, those that are diseased, or have fungus or have ceased bearing fruit. Those in the latter categories are removed from the vine. In the natural, these are burned so as to kill of the fungus or pests and remove the threat from the good vines. In my life, the Lord is constantly helping me to see areas where my thinking is not inline with His word, with His heart and desires, and giving me opportunity to repent and change, and I believe this is His cleaning. Again, this is not punishment, but instead to help me bear more good fruit!
Finally the word both cleans and nourishes us (see verses 3 & 7 above). Jesus says His word must remain in us, just as we must remain in Him. I guess You could almost call His Word the genetic code for the fruit we produce. We must produce fruit that is in line with His Word, and to do that we must remain connected to Him and constantly reflecting on His Word. A lapse in either area can cause us to become aberrant, and even heretical in our thinking.
So today, I am encouraged to remain in Jesus, and to make sure I am allowing His word to get into me and remain in me. I am encouraged to look at my life with an understanding of growing seasons, pruning and how the Lord works in my life to maximize my fruitfulness. I am grateful for such clear imagery and Jesus' desire to allow us to bear abundant fruit! I am also encouraged by God's patience and long-term vision concerning my life! Thank You Lord, help me remain in You!
Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment