"I AM THE TRUE VINE."

Homily for April 29th, 2018: Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B.  John 15:1-8.

AIM:  To show the implications, for faith and life, of Jesus= teaching about the vine and the branches.

 

Around the outside of the Temple in Jerusalem in Jesus= day was a gilded relief of a vine with clusters of grapes as big as a man. It symbolized God=s people.  He had delivered them, under Moses, from slavery in Egypt.  God had planted his people, one of the psalms said, in the land they now called their own, as a farmer plants a vine. (Cf. Psalm 80:9-16) 

With infinite patience God had tended the vine he had planted. Too often he had been disappointed. The vine failed to produce the fruit he was looking for. AHe looked for it to yield grapes,@ the prophet Isaiah said, Abut it yielded wild grapes@ (Isaiah 5:2). Yet God never stopped hoping for an abundant harvest. When it came, Isaiah said, this harvest would be a sign of the Messianic age, when God=s anointed servant would visit his people. AOn that day B The pleasant vineyard, sing about it! ... Israel shall sprout and blossom, covering all the world with fruit@ (Isaiah 27:2 & 6).

Only when we know about this rich symbolism can we appreciate the full force of Jesus= words in our gospel reading: AI am the true vine ...@ It was the night before Jesus= death. He had just celebrated the Last Supper with his twelve apostles. One of them had left the table to betray his Master. ACome then! Let us be on our way,@ Jesus had said at the meal=s conclusion. The words, AI am the true vine,@ follow at once in John=s gospel. 

Some Bible scholars suggest that Jesus spoke these words as he crossed the Temple courtyard with his eleven still faithful friends. It was Passover time, so there would have been, as always at that festival, a full moon. The golden vine around the Temple wall would have been clearly visible, glowing in the soft moonlight. It is easy to imagine Jesus pointing first to the vine and then to himself, as he said: AI am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower ...@ These words, and those which follow, make three statements: first, about Jesus himself; second, about his followers, and finally about his Father.

         1.  In calling himself the true vine, Jesus implied a contrast. God=s people, the vine he had brought out of Egypt and planted in a new land, had not been true. By their unfaithfulness they had failed to produce the harvest God was looking for. Jesus had been true. His death the next day would be Jesus= final act of faithful obedience to his Father=s will. And even now, the little band of friends accompanying Jesus were the firstfruits of the harvest God looked for when he sent his Son into the world. Jesus confirms this with his words at the end of our gospel reading: ABy this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.@ These words are a statement about B

2.               Jesus= followers. To bear fruit they must remain united with him

and seek to do his will. ARemain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.@ The person who remains united with him, Jesus says, Awill bear much fruit.@ Then he says something which astonishes us: AIf you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.@

Jesus is not saying that his followers have access to some kind of supernatural power to get whatever they want. He is saying that if we are truly united to him in heart, mind, and will, our requests will always be in harmony with what he wants. Hence the Father will always be able to grant these requests. This brings us, then, to Jesus= statement about B

3.               His Father: AMy Father is the vine grower.@ He cares for the

branches on his vine in two ways: by pruning those that bear fruit, and by cutting off and burning the unfruitful branches. Jesus= words about the unfruitful branches being thrown into a fire and burned are an implied reference to Judas, who was even then betraying the Lord. Elsewhere Jesus warns that there may be others as well B for instance in the parable of the wheat and the weeds, where Jesus says that at harvest time the weeds will be bundled up and burnt. (Cf. Matthew 13:30)

The vine grower=s treatment of the fruitful branches seems at first sight severe: AEvery one that [bears fruit] he prunes so that it bears more fruit.@ The image, easily understood by Jesus= hearers, who were familiar with vineyards and grapes, is that of a gardener pinching off the new green shoots on a vine, so that all the growth can be concentrated in the few early blooming branches which the gardener has selected to bear fruit. 

Faced in life with setbacks, injustice, or suffering B as all of us are, at some time or other B which one of us has not asked: AWhy me? What have I done to deserve this?@ Such questions are seldom answerable. Jesus= words in today=s gospel do not answer them. Instead his words challenge us to view setbacks, injustice, and suffering as opportunities to grow. 

That is how the saints have dealt with suffering. In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul speaks of being Acrushed beyond our strength, even to the point of despairing of life. We were left to feel like men condemned to death ...@ This experience taught him, Paul says, to trust not in himself, Abut in God who raises the dead@(2 Cor.1:8f).  

Where did Paul get the inner vision and strength to deal with suffering in that way and to rise above it? He got it from his heavenly Father and ours, whom Jesus in today=s gospel calls Athe vine grower.@

Jesus invites us to do the same: to submit to the vine grower=s pruning, and so to glorify him by producing abundant fruit.