5-2-21 Grace-Benson & Vail Sermon

John 15:1-8 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke

The Fifth Sunday of Easter Sunday, May 2, 2021 “Connected to the Vine”

I am no expert at gardening or vine-tending. I dabble in trying to grow some citrus in my yard and trying to keep some bushes looking nice. I have a few other potted plants that I take care of, but I don’t really raise food in my yard or try earning income from produce sales. I am not an expert, but I know enough to get the point that Jesus is teaching when he talks about the vine and the branches. I understand that if I remove a part of a plant from the rest of that plant, whether it is a branch from a citrus tree or a shaggy edge of a bush, that part is going to die. The rest of the tree or plant may be just fine without the part that is cut off. It may even respond to that cutting by growing in more full and healthy, but the cut part will not fare well.

I can’t say whether Jesus was an expert in vineyards, but he lived in an area in which vineyards abounded. One of the chief types of produce from the land of Israel was the grapes that were grown there and the wine that was made from them. Many of the pictures and terms Jesus used in teaching the lesson in front of us today would have been pictures and terms known well by the people to whom Jesus was first speaking.

Those people were not the crowds who had often accompanied Jesus during his ministry. They were his close disciples who had joined him for their celebration of the Passover. Jesus spoke these words in the upper room on Maundy Thursday prior to his betrayal. Throughout that evening, he was preparing them for the harsh and even shocking realities that were coming their way. He knew what would happen to him. And so he powerfully uses the picture of those vineyards on the land of Israel to illustrate his point. He is the vine, the main part of the plant that connects to its roots. Believers are connected to Jesus like the branches that extend from a vine.

We rejoice today with those disciples that we are connected to the vine.

There are at least three blessings that we take note of that come from our being connected to the vine. The first is that life comes from the vine. As we already mentioned, if you cut the branch off of the vine, it won’t work out. But the branch that is connected to the vine receives water and nutrients and life itself. Jesus says, “without me you can do nothing.” He says, “If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. Such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”

These are strong words. They are harsh words. Jesus is reminding us that in him we have not only this physical life, but that we have an even greater life. We have a life that is filled with blessings, a life that he uses to reflect his love to others, a life that comes from a connection to him, that is through faith. Anyone who doesn’t stay connected to Jesus is a dead branch, a branch that is cut off. It doesn’t matter whether that person ever confessed faith or was a part of a church. That seems to be the point that Jesus gets at most directly when he describes branches that are cut off the vine. They had some superficial connection, some apparent connection, but they did not have, or perhaps rejected, the life that comes from Jesus. They are cast off and burned in the fire. It is certainly appropriate for us to think of the fires of hell in this connection. That is the destination, too, of those people who never knew Jesus and were never connected to him.

And it is important for us to recognize and to realize that by nature we don’t have that connection. It’s not the point of Jesus’ discussion here, but we have been connected to the vine through faith. We were dead branches that through faith have been made alive in him. And that is the case because he died for our sins and rose to life again. He took away the sins that would have condemned us, which deserved punishment and suffering. He faced the suffering and the condemnation in our place. He gives us life. That is the blessing of being connected to the vine.

But that is not all there is to being connected to the vine. Being connected to the vine also brings us into contact with the process of pruning. Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he is going to cut off. And he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will bear more fruit.” There is a process that gardeners and vine-tenders follow. They carefully shape the plant, trimming back certain areas so that it can grow more full and robust and that it might produce the most and best fruit. Wander past a pecan farm after the harvest and see how far back the branches are trimmed and pruned because those who tend them know that this is the best way to get the most out of the

next harvest. It is the same with grape vines as well. When they are properly trimmed, they are most productive.

But what does that mean for people? What does that mean for human branches that are connected to the vine that is our Savior Jesus? What does the pruning process entail? Well, let’s be honest, it may be painful. It is no doubt challenging. It is not necessarily an easy or comfortable process. But it is an important process, and it is a blessing.

God prunes us living branches as he allows challenges and difficulties to be a part of our lives. He allows us to suffer at times the consequences of our own sins and of the sins of others. He allows us to undergo challenges with the intended end result that we are stronger and more prepared to face future challenges and to continue to let our faith show itself.

Let’s just think about what some examples could be. It probably looks at least a little different for every one of us. Maybe pruning happens when we have financial struggles. Perhaps there is an event that brings them on— the stock market falls, we lose a job, something gets robbed or stolen from us. We may feel tempted to despair, to be distraught about things, to feel less secure about our future and about our opportunities. But those financial struggles prune us when they remind us that we can get too caught up in things that don’t have any lasting or eternal value. The struggles alert us to the fact that we maybe were trusting in our money when we should have been trusting in God. Our financial challenges give us the opportunity to trust that God will take care of us and will do so by providing our daily bread, that is, everything that we truly need in our lives.

Perhaps pruning takes place when we suffer physically with an illness or other issue. That can also be a powerful reminder that our sinful bodies are not going to last forever, that we will pass away from this life unless Jesus returns first, and that we are awaiting our transformation into a glorious and resurrected body fit for eternal life with him. Perhaps pruning takes place as we find our plans as a congregation and our relationship with our pastor being upended. We are forced to reckon with the power of sin, and we are forced to trust that God will use things for our good as he promises.

You could probably supply other examples, but note what all of these have in common. We don’t figure them out on our own. We benefit from pruning when we listen to what God tells us in his word. We don’t go by our own feelings or emotions. We trust what he tells us. The Word of God, the Gospel, is what brought us to be connected to the vine in the first place. Jesus told his disciples, “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” That same Word helps us understand, appreciate, and grow through the pruning process our loving gardener conducts.

And the blessed result of all of it, the third aspect of our connection to the vine, is that we bear fruit. Bearing fruit is a sure sign of life for the branches that are connected to the vine. Bearing fruit is what the Gardener looks for as he removes fruitless branches and prunes the fruitful. Bearing fruit is one of the blessed purposes of our lives as Christians. So what is the fruit we bear? In its simplest terms, the fruit is good works. The fruit a Christian bears are the things that they do out of love for God and in service to others.

Once again, we could come up with many examples. Bearing fruit would include taking care of family members, raising children, honoring a spouse, being a faithful employee, helping the needy, and more. And it certainly also would include sharing the good news about our Savior from sin so that others might be connected to the vine as we are. God uses us as Christians to share his blessings with others by the fruit that we bear. And every Christian that remains connected to the vine bears fruit.

Did you notice what an important word “remain” is in our lesson? How are we to remain in the vine? We hear and read and study God’s Word. We receive his gift of Holy Communion. We are baptized and live in our baptisms by daily repentance and contrition. And we trust not in our own power, but in the power of the vine.

It doesn’t take an expert gardener to know: being connected to the vine is an amazing blessing and remaining connected is a goal worth pursuing.

The Text: John 15:1–8 (EHV) 15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he is going to cut off. And he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will bear more fruit.

3

“You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I am going to remain in you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Likewise, you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5

“I am the Vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him is the one who bears much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. Such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this: that you continue to bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples.”