Being Fruitful is Fun
All through the Easter season, we have reflected on the ‘I AM’ statements of Jesus. The person of Jesus is manifested not by the ‘leadership of titles’ but by the ‘leadership of images’. Jesus spoke of himself in images/metaphors as the ‘Bread of Life’ (Jn 6:35), the ‘Light of the World’ (Jn 8:12), the ‘Door’ (Jn 10:9), the ‘Good Shepherd’ (Jn 10:11,14), the ‘Resurrection and the Life’ (Jn 11:25), the “Way, the Truth and the Life’ (Jn 14:6) and finally, today’s Gospel is on the ‘Vine’ (Jn 15:1,5).
In the Old Testament, Psalm 80 is a communal prayer to God to ‘visit this vine and protect it’. Israel was represented as the ‘vine’ planted by God’s right hand. But, with the people turning against the covenant, its walls were broken down! This ‘vine’ was destroyed and trampled upon. In Isaiah 5:1-7, often referred to as the ‘song of the vineyard’, once again brings in the theme of God’s relationship with Israel and Judah.
Jesus reinstates and heals this relationship in the Gospel of today, “I am the Vine, and you are the branches”. The key to this relationship is the invitation to ‘abide in Me’. You and I are God’s chosen and appointed ones to be fruit-bearers! With Jesus we bear ‘fruit that will last’. United to ‘Jesus the Vine’ our fruit-bearing becomes fun! “These things I have spoken to you, that My JOY may remain in you and that JOY may be full” (Jn 15:11). Apart from Jesus, we are fruitless, we wither and are thrown into the fire. Jesus calls us into an active fruit-bearing partnership.
But there is a flip side to fruit-bearing. God is also the ‘Vinedresser’ who owns us and cares for us. Bearing much fruit is not devoid of pain! Discipleship comes with a cost. God is also an active ‘pruner’. He prunes anything that hinders our growth and usefulness. He trims our weaknesses and stifling tendencies. Pruning is an opportune moment, and every gardener knows it. Pruning doesn’t stifle it, it enhances growth.
A disciple who is ‘pruned’ by the master Vinedresser, can lovingly obey God’s commandments. Pruned disciples are given a new identity. We are called ‘Friends’ and no longer ‘servants’. This human-divine partnership is not an empty promise. “No greater love than one lay down his life for his friends”. Jesus laid down his life for friends like you and me. God promises to give us all that we ask of Him. He created us to glorify Him with bearing lasting fruit.
Our only desire then is to obey God, to remain in His love, to receive from Him and to produce lasting fruit. Truly, with Jesus, Fruitfulness is Fun!
Fr Glenford Lowe
