--George Herbert
There's an old vineyard in a canyon that I stroll through now and then. It was an effort by some Idaho pioneer to grow grapes and make sweet wine I suppose, but it's long since been abandoned. I saw it again this winter and though the gnarled old stocks looked dead to me I know this spring they'll leaf out again and produce grapes. Through all the years its fruit remains.
That vineyard always reminds me of Jesus' words: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
When Jesus uttered these words he and his disciples were making their way down the east slope of Mount Zion-down the steps that led into the Valley of the Kidron on their way to the Mount of Olives. In that day the entire slope was one vast vineyard, stretching up and down the valley as far as the eye could see. It was the sight of the vines and the branches covered with spring blossoms and a late-working vine keeper or two that probably evoked the metaphor that Jesus uses here.
Jesus saw the vine branches trained along trellises for vast distances, yet, as he knew, one life pervaded and sustained the whole from the old root to the farthest twig, leaf and cluster. He thought of the connection between the vine and branch and the relationship his disciples sustained to him and settled on this symbol: "I am the vine; you are the branches…."
We are branches, united to Jesus the vine, integrally joined to him by faith and by God's goodness and grace. His life pervades our being from one end to the other. All that he is ours for the taking. The result, Jesus insists, is "fruit."
"Fruit" in the Bible rarely, if ever, symbolizes souls brought to Christ. Rather it represents personal righteousness-not what we do but what we are (cf. Isaiah 5:1-?; Galatians 5:22,23). Fruit, in the natural and biblical sense, is product of the life of the vine, penetrating and perfusing the branches so that something useful is produced. There can be no fruit apart from the vine. As Jesus said, "Without me you can do nothing."
We cannot, by moral effort become fruitful. It is the result of daily association with Jesus. It begins with "abiding." Abiding is utter dependence-drawing on Christ for all that we do. It means sitting at his feet in solitude and surrender, listening for his voice, asking for his counsel, waiting for his impulses in intercession and action, then walking through the world trusting, resting, asking for his help.
Abiding is acknowledging our inadequacy and our inability to change ourselves one iota. It is a moment by moment yielding-not a fatalistic acquiescence or passive resignation, but an active submission of our whole being to Jesus so that his presence and power can be released through our bodies in every circumstance. It is an open receptivity that under girds all we do.
The result, Jesus says, is "fruit"-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control"-those infused virtues that produce refreshment and healing in others.
Busy lives inveigh against our abiding. When we allow ourselves to be swept up in every cause and concern; when we surrender to every demand; when we give ourselves to every worthwhile project; when we try to be all things to all people all the time, we have no time to abide-and then we are useless. Like broken and detached branches we wither and die and are good for nothing.
Frenzy destroys the fruit because it disconnects us from the root-that source of goodness and wisdom that marks us and makes us useful. It's my prayer that you and I will learn to be quiet and to abide in Christ, "so closely joined to Him that He may produce in and through us whatever fruit He will for the nourishment of men and the glory of God" (F. B. Meyer).
David Roper
12/10/96