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Summary
In John 5:1-11, Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser… Abide in me… you are the branches. Whoever abides in me… he it is that bears much fruit…. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” As I prepared to preach on these verses, I found myself getting angry. I think I must assume that Jesus is saying, “Have your ‘Quiet Times,’ do your devotions, say your prayers and everything will go your way.”
Nineteen years ago, I had never been more faithful in prayer, diligent in doing good deeds, and devoted to the practice of communion. And in the span of a few weeks, everything (or it felt like everything… my accomplishments) was stripped away. Perhaps you’ve been there?
Whenever I get mad at God, everything changes when I step into Jesus. Did Jesus say His prayers? Did Jesus do good deeds and celebrate communion? Actually… He had just instituted communion and washed the disciples’ feet and was about to pray the godliest of prayers when He said these words.
No one has ever been more devoted than Jesus on this day, and yet on this day He will appear to be utterly fruitless, debased, and cursed. This is the beginning of “Good Friday.” According to the definitions of this world, no man was ever, or could be, more cursed and unfruitful than this naked man nailed to this tree in a garden on the Holy Mountain. And yet, according to God, no man was ever, or could be, more fruitful or a greater blessing.
Maybe we’re confused about what fruit is and where and how it grows…
1) I think we often assume that Jesus suffered and died so that we don’t have to — which makes it rather hard to abide in the vine during certain seasons of the year.
2) And we assume that some branches go to heaven, and some are endlessly burned in Hell — which makes it kind of hard to be at home in the Vine and with the Vinedresser.
3) And we assume that the Vinedresser chooses to prune particular branches based upon the choices of those branches, our choices — which makes us all judgmental, competitive, and angry… which is the opposite of the Fruit of the Spirit. That’s called “the work of the flesh.”
In John 14:30-31, just before John 15, Jesus says, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim in me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.”
It reminds me of Job. Satan asked God, “Does Job respect you for no reason?” That is, “He only says ‘Yes’ to you for what you give him, not because of who you are.” Job is stripped of all and left sitting on a pile of dust and ashes. Job gets no explanation, and “NO” seems to be the only answer to his prayers. God appears in the end and asks, “Can you conquer Leviathan (Satan in the form of a dragon)?” God says, “Who has first given to me that I should repay him? …Leviathan is king over all the sons of pride.” Job sees God, worships God, and confesses, “I uttered what I do not understand… but now my eyes see you.”
Job had asked for knowledge of God, and God gave no answer but himself, and Job became even more fruitful; he had faith while sitting on a pile of dust and ashes — that’s fruit. Job was God’s champion, conquered the dragon, and became even more fruitful. And, of course, he is a picture of the one speaking in John 15. He just said, “Rise, let us go from here.”
They’re on their way to a garden. In the Garden of Gethsemani (“olive press”), in great distress, Jesus prays, “Abba, Father… remove this cup from me.” And apparently the answer is “No.” Jesus is the Word and Will of God the Father! So… is Jesus asking, “in Jesus’ name”? Apparently not. I think He’s asking in my name and your name and hearing “NO” on our behalf. He did say, “Abide in me, and I in you.” He then prays, “Yet not what I will but what you will.” I find that to be incredibly hard to pray (to will what I don’t will), but perhaps I can pray it in Jesus’ name.
My grandson, James, is beginning to learn the word, “No.” It kills me to say “No” to James. I love saying “YES!” but I know that unless a child learns “No,” they will always be alone and incapable of saying “Yes” to Love and Life and Joy. I think there’s a part of me in James, so I don’t want him to hear “No,” for I know how much that hurts. Yet, I long for the day that James comes home and I can say, “James, all that’s mine is yours. Lick the light sockets if you want to! Drink from the toilet if you want to! Eat the dirt in the garden if you want to! No more rules; everything is ‘YES!’”
Paul wrote, “In the Son of God it is always ‘yes.’ All the promises of God find their ‘Yes’ in Him.” The role of a good dad or granddad is to not only impose your will from the outside, like a law or prison, but to grow your will from the inside until your will becomes your child’s will — a good free will.
From the garden of Gethsemani, Jesus is taken to the Garden on the Holy Mountain, where he is hung on a tree and from which He prays, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do,” and “Why have you forsaken me?” He says, “I thirst,” quoting David in Psalm 39, and as with David, they give Him sour wine to drink.
Like Job, David heard “NO.” And in the place he heard “NO,” God answered with Himself. Jesus is literally born of David’s sin and grief. One Son of David dies. David knows Bathsheba in a new way, and another Son of David is born. Jesus is the Son of David that dies and is born (actually is resurrected) and builds the temple of living stones.
In the garden on the tree, Jesus hears “NO” on behalf of all humanity (Adam). He drinks the sour wine and delivers up His Spirit. That’s the Holy Spirit that descends into us and rises within us, crying “Abba” from the garden sanctuary of the soul.
“Rise let us go from here (to the Garden: John 18:1, 26, 19:24). I am the true vine.” This is the seventh and last “I Am statement” in the Gospel of John and the seventh sign that is the substance. In the Hebrew mind, a vine was a type of tree (ets).
“In the middle of the garden there was the ‘ets’ of Life and the ‘ets’ of the knowledge of Good and evil.” The Dragon tempts each of us to justify ourselves with the knowledge of Good and evil and so trap ourselves in an illusion that is our own arrogant, lonely, and competitive ego. And at that, God says “NO” and drives humanity from the garden, in order to save us from ourselves in the hope that we would come back to the garden, eat from the tree in a new way, and God our Father could finally say nothing but “YES! YES! YES!”
“I am the true vine,” said Jesus. It does imply the existence of a not-so-true vine. The 12 disciples knew that Israel was God’s Vine and Vineyard. Isaiah 5:1-4, “My beloved had a vineyard… and he looked for grapes and it yielded, ‘baushiym,’ sour grapes…. ‘What more was there to do for my Vineyard,’ asks Yahweh?”
I watched several videos on “Vine dressing.” The goal of the “vinedresser” is to dress the Vine in delicious fruit from the inside out. Scripture claims that we will each be dressed in the Righteousness (the right decisions) of Christ from the inside out. I learned that absent pruning, a vine will send most of its energy into growth and produce sour grapes that make sour wine, but when pruned — the same vine will produce abundant and delicious fruit. Perhaps we all eat from the tree of knowledge and become a tree of death, and we will all be pruned, right down to the root and become a tree of life. I learned that the best wine comes from old vines pruned numerous times (kind of like people).
“What more was I to do?” asks Yahweh. In the next chapter, Isaiah is told to preach Israel down to a stump that is a root and the Holy Seed. Isaiah continues in Chapter 27: “Israel will blossom… and fill the whole world with fruit… therefore the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit (harvest) of the removal of his sins.”
John 15:1, “I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser (“georgos,” from which we derive the name “George.”) It makes sense of the legend of St. George and the dragon. Our Father cuts away everything dead and diseased in which the dragon abides. In the words of CS Lewis, Jesus was “un-dragoned” on the cross. In the words of Paul, He was circumcised on the cross. I’m saying that Jesus was pruned on the tree in the garden on the Holy Mountain. Pruned of what? Our sin… in His flesh.
The Devil has nothing in Him, but on the cross, He was wearing our sin; He’s the Scapegoat that becomes the Sin Offering. He’s also the Burnt Offering (Olah). Jesus is the goat and the sheep; Jesus is the sin offering and the burnt offering. Jesus is repentance in you, and He is righteousness in you and dressing you from the inside out. We die with Him and rise with him.
To abide in Him is to be at home in Him and look at the Father through His eyes. The Self that’s hearing God and looking Him in the eye is eternal. The self that we judge in the past and try to create in the future is an illusion — the product of the dragon’s lie, the body of sin. We must all be pruned; we must all hear “NO” to our arrogance, in order that we would say “YES” to our Father in Freedom. Our Father knows that this process — growing up — hurts. So, He comes to us in Jesus and says, “Get into me; we’ll do this together. Abide in me and my love for our Father.” It’s called Faith.
When my daughter, James’ mom, was a little girl, she cracked her head on the fireplace, and I took her to the emergency room for stitches. To keep her still, they tied her down. It was Hell. Every scream seemed to say “Daddy, why have you forsaken me?” A few months later, she did the same thing, and I drove her to the same hospital once again. But this time I asked permission, and the doctor agreed to give it a try. I said, “Honey, I know it’s scary, but if you look into my eyes and believe what I say, they won’t need to tie you down.” She said, “OK, Daddy.” Then she locked her eyes on mine as I locked my eyes on hers, and she didn’t even whimper; she didn’t move a muscle. And now that moment feels eternal. Far from feeling forsaken, both of us felt closer than we had ever felt before… and that fruit abides. Her faith in me and mine in her is an eternal treasure.
John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full,” says Jesus. When prayer doesn’t “work,” He’s working me into Him; it’s working me into the image of God. “All the Promises of God find their ‘YES’ in him.” The Vine is the Way home.
3) Your choices do not give you Heaven, but Heaven is constantly giving you your choices.
2) It’s not that some people go to Heaven and some go to Hell, but that all have chosen Hell, and all must surrender to Heaven.
1) It’s not that some hear “NO” and others hear “YES,” but that we must all hear “NO” in order to all say “YES” to God and everyone else in Freedom.
Heaven is a communion of Sacrificial Love in Absolute Freedom in which the Joy of one is the joy of all, and the joy of all is the joy of one. Abide in the Vine. The Vine is within you. The Vine is I Am. Soon you will see an entire universe filled with fruit, and you’ll be entirely at home in I Am that I Am. There’s no place like Home.