May 10, 2009
The Fifth Sunday of Easter

John 15:1–8
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

  Today is Mothers’ Day. For nine months of our preborn life, we were totally dependent on her for oxygen, for nutrition, for waste removal, indeed, for all the necessities of life. But once that umbilical cord was cut, our lives changed. But . . . our parents’ lives changed even more! They now had to physically attend to every need that the umbilical cord did automatically. We had to completely depend on them for nourishment, for waste management, for health care, and for all of our other needs. The point is that we were totally dependent on mom for nine months. Not only so, for many more months, and even years, we had to depend on our parents for life.

   In our text, Jesus tells us that, spiritually speaking, we are totally dependent on him. The imagery is beautiful. He portrays himself as the true vine and believers as branches of the vine. He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing.”1 What strikes us is the relationship between the vine and the branches. If a branch is not connected to the vine, it dies. Likewise, if a person is not connected to Christ, he, too, will die spiritually and will be cast into the eternal fire. But the person that is connected to the vine is spiritually alive, even vigorously alive.

   Every branch that grows out of him must be pleasing to him. It cannot be otherwise. Whatever the branch draws from the vine is good, life–producing, and life–sustaining.

   But how do we get connected in the first place? We become connected by faith alone in Christ. Whether saving faith first came to us by baptism or by the Word, the Holy Spirit grafted us into the vine. Thus, Jesus says, “He who believes in [i.e., he who trusts in] the Son has eternal life.”2 Yes, faith alone in the sinless life and vicarious death of Jesus Christ connects us sinners to him who is “the way, and the truth, and the life.”3 And through faith in him, God justifies us, i.e., he declares us righteous. Yes, he declares us “not guilty” of all our sins.

   God justifies us sinners. That is, he declares sinners righteous and calls them saints, i.e., forgiven sinners. But more than absolution takes place. Every justified sinner enters into a most intimate communion with Christ. He is immediately made a branch of the true vine. A glorious mutual relationship is established: We are in Christ and he in us. And this union is so real that St. Paul exclaims, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?”4

   Indeed, according to our text, Jesus says that as we abide in Christ, so he abides in us.5 We are as intimately connected to Christ as a branch is to the vine. We branches receive a constant flow of life–giving nourishment from the vine. See the invigorating sap as it permeates every cell of the branch and gives it life, indeed, everything it needs to be strong, vigorous, and full of life.

   Now, there is, I think, a bit of a surprise in our text. We find that Jesus gives only one command in these eight verses. It may be helpful for us to note that

• He does not command us to bloom.
• He does not command us to grow.
• He does not command us to bear fruit.

   What he does command is this, “Abide in me.”6 He makes this command only after he has grafted us into himself, the true vine. And it is important to see that everything else that we branches do is a consequence of being connected to the vine. That would include blooming, growing, and bearing fruit. This is all provided by the vine.

   The crucial question is this, how does a branch remain connected to the vine? Answer: By keeping the noble sap from the vine flowing. “Okay,” you may say, “but how do I ensure that it keeps flowing?” Answer: “We go to where God promises to feed us, namely, in his Word and in the Lord’s Supper.”

   So, then, the life–giving nutrients flow to us when we hear his Word in this sanctuary, when we read and study his Word here and at home, and when we receive his holy Supper. This is the teaching of our Savior. Permit me to rephrase his words: “Man shall not ‘feed’ on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”7

   Clearly, then, the bad news is that, if a person divorces himself from God’s Word, if he doesn’t hear it, if he hears it but doesn’t believe it, if he reads it but doesn’t pay attention to it he will eventually die from spiritual starvation. He has cut himself off from the nutrients of the vine. He will, therefore, die. The Vinedresser will lop him off. Jesus says of all such lifeless branches, “They gather them and throw them into the fire.”8

   In my backyard, there is a hedge of red–tipped Photinias. But there is also a persistent Kudzu vine that grows up through it. Its limbs and tentacles climb higher and higher until they reach the sunlight. They wrap themselves around the branches of the hedge and threaten to choke out the life of the Photinias. So every year I have to find the Kudzu’s root. And when I do, I take my pruning shears and make one clean cut through its trunk. In a matter of hours the vine turns brown and ugly. No longer connected to the source of its life, it is dead. It is now good for nothing except to be used as firewood.

   Speaking of firewood, about 25 years ago, I served a church in Wisconsin. I visited a church member who had not worshiped for well over a year. I explained that I was concerned about his spiritual life and encouraged him to worship regularly. He surprised me by asking, “But what if I don’t come to church?” I said, “Well, we will have to remove you from membership by reason of self–exclusion.” He didn’t want that, so he said, “How many times a year do I have to attend to remain a member?” I explained that there was no such thing as a minimum attendance figure, but that lack of attendance is usually a clear signal that things are not well spiritually. He said, “I don’t have a spiritual problem. I have faith in God.” And then he surprised me by saying, “How much do I have to give to stay on the rolls?” I replied, “It’s not like that. God doesn’t set a minimum attendance figure or a minimum financial contribution. God doesn’t want these things. He wants you to be his!” His reaction was immediate. He shot back, “Well, God’s got as much of me as he’s going to get!” End of discussion. As I left, it seemed to me that this man was in danger of becoming firewood.

   But the Good News is this, that regular connection to the Word and to Christ’s Supper guarantees that your soul and mine will be well fed. Doesn’t Paul say, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ?”9 And wherever there is saving faith, there will be fruit, i.e., good works. Good works are not the cause, but rather the evidence of our salvation.

   And Jesus is terribly insistent that we branches bring forth fruit. But bringing forth fruit is really not our work, but the Holy Spirit’s work. Some people think that fruit–bearing means abandoning all to become a foreign missionary. It can mean that, but for most of us, fruit–bearing is more of an ordinary, everyday thing. As we serve one another in our respective vocations, whether as a spouse, a parent, a coworker, a child, these ordinary tasks are counted by God as fruit.

   To use an everyday example, whenever a mom changes the diapers of her newborn, she is bearing fruit. Or whenever a father works hard to provide for the welfare of his family, he is bearing fruit. Whenever a grandmother or grandfather provides or assists in caring for the grandchildren, he or she is bearing fruit. Whenever a child does what is expected of him without murmur or complaint, he is bearing fruit. Whenever parents discipline their children so that they do not become whining, lazy, self–absorbed young adults, they are bearing fruit.

   Yes, we who are connected to the vine bear fruit. But the heavenly Vinedresser wants us to bear even more fruit. So we shouldn’t be surprised if he starts to prune us. Every good gardener prunes. In our text Jesus says of the Vinedresser, “Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.”10 Pruning is the chastening hand of a loving heavenly Gardener. He lays a cross of heavy burdens on us. He afflicts us, not to punish but to purify us. The affliction seems terrible for a time, but afterwards, we see that it was for our good.11 His purpose is to drive us to prayer and to his Word, that we might become more fruitful Christians.

   We live in a culture where everybody seems to be declaring his independence from God and man. I think, therefore, that it is high time that we, the Church of Jesus Christ, tell the world that we want to make a public “Declaration of Dependence” on Jesus Christ. And so we say:

   We hold these truths to be self–evident, that all men are, by nature, sinners equal, that they hold from birth certain inalienable attributes, that among these are sin, death, and the pursuit of godlessness.
   In contrast, however, we hold the following truths to be evident from Holy Scripture, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to suffer and die for the sins we committed, that Jesus Christ has completely atoned for all sins as evidenced by his resurrection from the dead, and that all who trust in him alone have life, liberty, and the pursuit of godliness.
   We, therefore, declare for all to hear our Declaration of Dependence on Jesus Christ, true God and true man, the world’s only Savior.

   On this Mothers’ Day when we honor and acknowledge our mothers on whom we were once so dependent, it is even more appropriate that we honor, acknowledge, declare, and confess our total dependence on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for our eternal salvation.

   May this Declaration of Dependence also remind us to remain connected to Jesus through Word and Sacrament.

   In the name of Jesus,
   Amen.

 

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

 

 

Endnotes

 

 

1        See John 15:5.

2        See John 3:36.

3        See John 14:6.

4        See 1 Corinthians 6:15. Four verses later, St. Paul reiterates his thought when he says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?”

5        See John 15:4.

6        See John 15:4a. Perhaps, a better translation might be, “Remain in me.”

7        See Matthew 4:4.

8        See John 15:6.

9        See Romans 10:17.

10        See John 15:2.

11        For God’s purposes in afflicting us, see Hebrews 12:5-11.

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