The vine and its branches is our next allegorical metaphor for the intimate relationship between Jesus and His disciples (John 15:1-8). Jesus shares His life with His followers on the level of grace and indwelling.
Fruitful branches of the vine
IN the prophets’ language, Israel is God’s vine or vineyard (Hosea 10:1; Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21), expected to deliver to the satisfaction of the vine owner; the people’s infidelity compare them to fruitless and wild vine (Jeremiah 5:10; 12:10-11). Jesus now clarifies that He is the true vine, and His Father is the vine dresser who is glorified by much fruit. Jesus is replacing Israel as God’s vine that gives life to humanity, and the works He has done pleasing to the Father proves His true identity, the promised Messiah who would fulfill God’s will (John 10:25; 17:4). His own fidelity and fruitfulness is the sign that should open the eyes of the public asking for a sign from Him.
As Jesus is the fruitful vine, His disciples are His branches that must also be fruitful. “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit.” The barrenness of Israel must now be redeemed by the fruitfulness of the new people of God in Jesus, which is guaranteed if they remain in Him like branches remaining on the vine. As a branch on its own cannot bear fruit, neither can a disciple who does not remain in communion with Jesus. Branches that are barren are cut off from the vine and wither. They are gathered and piled together in a corner of the vineyard to be burned. The sterile branches are the believers who are so only in name.
Pruned by the word
IF the disciple by remaining in Jesus bears much fruit, what will insure that the disciple like a branch remains in Jesus as on the vine and therefore will not be barren? For us to be in communion with Jesus means that His words remain in us. He is the Logos, the Word of the Father communicating to us the saving will of God. Union with Jesus is sharing the same life of intimacy with the Father. And this union with Jesus demands that His Gospel is our lifeblood, His word our nourishment, His spirit our vitality.
The word of Jesus in His gospel is what makes the disciples like fruitful branches. It is like the pruning knife that trims the branches clean. By the word of Jesus, what is in excess is excised and what is in deficiency augmented. The pruning takes place regularly. Cut to the quick and gnarled, the branches of the vines display no beauty but rugged endurance and fierce strength. It must be so if they are in a matter of time to come out with verdant foliage heavy with succulent grapes. From apparent death to abundant life, what dies produces much fruit (John 12:24).
Alálaong bagá, the symbol of vine and grapes adorning our liturgical altar and vestment should not be seen only in terms of Jesus and of the miracle of the transformation of the wine into the blood of Jesus. The completeness of the metaphor lies in the subsequent miracle, the transformation of the communicants into greater Christ-likeness and fruitfulness in Jesus. Such fruitful faith is assured by the fidelity to the word of Jesus. On the other hand, sterile unbelief is identifiable with the rejection of Jesus, as also in the barrenness of nominal Christians who do not live according to the gospel of Jesus. Trimmed clean in order to increase yield, attentive to the word as they approach the Eucharistic table, the true believers are literally the community of Christ’s fruit-bearing disciples glorifying the Father. Their fruits are love, truth, justice, mercy, joy and courage. The fruitful branches united to the vine, in the schema of John (13:1-15), are those followers whose feet have been washed clean by the Master and are, in turn, directed to wash the feet of others.
****
Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.