Easter 5 B
Not Always Fruitful
St. John 15:1-8
3 May 2015 – Redeemer
1st Sunday of Consecration Sunday Emphasis
I am the true vine. When Jesus uses the word “the” and “true” He means that He alone is life for you. There isn’t life anywhere else. It’s similar to when He spoke to the sheep last Sunday, “I am the good shepherd” – “the” meaning the only one, “good” in contrast to all those bad shepherds, hired men, who will lead you astray and abandon you at the first sight of trouble.
Your life is in Jesus. That is the singular message of the Christian church. All you will produce in your life apart from Jesus is death. It’s true – look at your body, inventory your house, read the service schedule in your car’s owner’s manual, examine your family – you know how much work it takes to keep those gifts alive and even with all your work and every modern convenience and technique available – in the end your body lies in the grave, your house falls apart, your car ends up at Cotton-pickers junkyard, and you and your siblings grow apart, your parents grow old and die. But not so with Jesus. That’s the Gospel – I am the true vine. Jesus in you and you in Jesus – that’s life, that’s fruit, that’s hope and a future.
Connected to Jesus, you would imagine (and indeed some false preachers preach) that the life of the Christian is a life where everyday is Friday. Work is over and the play can begin. But that is not so and you know that from experience.
Satan’s great lie, especially when we are having trouble, is that “Jesus isn’t the true vine.” Satan loves to whisper in the ear of a suffering Christian, “If Jesus really had you and you really had Him wouldn’t your life in His vineyard be more fruitful?” Every time we lose something in life the Devil attacks us. Either something is wrong with Jesus – He isn’t really the life He claims to be. Or something is wrong with you – you must be beyond God’s love and care. Your despair is Satan’s delight. Suffering is his season to scorch you.
But the Devil is the father of lies, a murderer. He wants you dead. He knows he’s not telling the truth. Jesus, in this text, tells us Who is really at work when we suffer.
Jesus spoke these words the night when He was betrayed. Some of his disciples would see Him hung upon a dead tree and cut down in death. Saint John would see the water and blood flow from His side. What did their eyes see and their hearts feel that day? They felt the failure of Jesus. They saw His rejection by the Father. They witnessed suffering and death. But you know, according to Christ’s own words, that what you see isn’t what you get. God the Father was at work in God the Son – in suffering, in pain, in death. Jesus became the fruitless vine for you. He was cut off from the land of the living to rescue the dying. The Father’s anger over your sin burned hot and long and burned out against Jesus. When Jesus was dead as the payment for your sin, He was planted in a garden tomb. Three days later He rose. The disciples didn’t see life with their eyes on Good Friday, but with their ears the following Sunday they heard the report of the women, echoing the preaching of the angel, “He is not here for He has risen as He said.”
With the Words, “My Father is the vinedresser” Jesus tells us “what you are feeling is not what you are receiving.” What does a vinedresser do? “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.” Vinedressers who care about their vines don’t leave them alone. They cut and prune and dig around their roots and spread fertilizer. In the same way a good father doesn’t leave you alone – He’s in your life and sometimes you might think he messing everything up. You think he is a pain and only later, perhaps decades later, do you realize his love for you.
Dr. Luther preached a sermon on this text from the perspective of the branch as the vinedresser approaches to do his work. “What would the branch say, “Why do you come at me with a hoe and pruning shear? You are treating me worse than any other tree or plant in the yard.” The gardener says, “You don’t know what I am doing, but it is for your good. You will bear much fruit and produce more than you can imagine.” Then the vinedresser comes with the manure. “What is this?” again the branch asks, “Is it not enough to prune and cut me and dig around my roots, now I have to stand in this filth and smell this stench. I am a joke to the other trees. You defile me – how can this stench produce sweet fruit?” Once again the vinedresser says, “Trust me. I love you. I care for you. If I left you alone you would know that I don’t love you.”
So when you are suffering hear these words of Jesus and confess them (even if you don’t feel them), “My Father is the vinedresser.” You may not like him digging around your roots. Manure stinks and manure happens. But none of this cutting and pruning and digging and stench happens without God’s hand, apart from your Father’s love for you. You know that because of the singular sermon of Easter – Christ is risen. Christ died for your sins, was planted in your grave, and burst forth from that Garden tomb on Easter Sunday. In His resurrection you have life, in baptism you have been grafted into Christ. You’re on the vine and your Father, God your Father, is the vinedresser.
Here’s how Luther describes the Christian’s view of suffering – once again from the perspective of the branches. “See, I am being fertilized and cultivated as a branch on the vine. All right, dear hoe and clipper, go ahead. Chop, prune, and remove the necessary leaves. Pile on the manure. (my add) I will gladly suffer it, for these are God’s hoes and clippers. This is God’s manure. (my add) It hurts. It stinks, but I believe (my add) they are applied for my good and welfare.”
There is one more view from this vineyard text about our life in Christ which is not immediately obvious to our eyes. All the “yous” in this text are plural. You cannot see that in English, but Jesus says, “I am the Vine – you (plural) are the branches.” “If you (plural) abide in me, and my words abide in you (plural), ask whatever you (plural) wish, and it will be done for you (plural).” (John 15:7, ESV) Your faith is never only between you and Jesus, because faith in the true vine also means through Jesus you are connected to many other branches. Just as faith that hears the voice of the Shepherd brings you into a flock with many sheep. Once you are on the Vine you are actually delivered and rescued from thinking “it’s all about me.” Now, on the vine, the Christian confesses, “It’s all about Jesus. My life is set in Him. Now I bear fruit for those around me. Abiding in Jesus you abide in love – you love one another as He loved you and gave His life for you.
Over these first three Sundays in May we are having a brief stewardship focus here at Redeemer called “Consecration Sunday.” It’s quite simple. We are asking you to consider one question, “What is God calling me to give as a percentage of my income?” It’s a question that can only answered from God’s Word – specifically those Words from Jesus today, “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.” (John 15:5, ESV) Whenever we talk stewardship we must begin with Jesus. If we start anywhere else we’ll start looking at each others cars and salaries and houses and calculate and figure an answer that serves us, but doesn’t serve God or our neighbor. Jesus is your life. He’s your forgiveness. What He gives you and your family is for all eternity. How did you get Jesus? You were brought Jesus through the Church – through the many other branches on the vine who gave tithes and offerings not only here at Redeemer, but throughout the history of the Church. The branches bore fruit so that Jesus could be preached, Jesus could be poured on sinners in baptism, Jesus could be fed into the mouths of hungry sinners in His Supper. Do you know what that means? On the last day when everything else has fallen – they will be standing alive, you will be standing alive – that is the fruit we bear as branches on the vine and in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
3 May 2015 anno Domini