I can imagine Jesus continuing to speak as the disciples prepare to leave – even as they leave and walk to their destination. Chapter fifteen, while twenty-seven verses long, seems short because it is one solid message. At the end of the message, Jesus will return again to the comforter. He will say what he has already said but he will frame it in new words. We will compare these new words to the words already spoken. The comparison will reveal to us a deeper insight into the truth.
Jesus compares himself to the vine upon which the fruit depends. He compares God the Father to a husbandman. The definition of a husbandman is, simply put, a farmer. It is a person who cultivates the land, plants the seed, and prunes the planting to produce more fruit. We should also understand that such a person raises fruits and/or vegetables for himself. He puts the harvest in his barn for his own purposes. As for the act of pruning, if there is an unfruitful branch on the vine, he cuts it away. Those branches that are fruitful are also cut – not away as the fruitless branch is but in a way that produces yet more of what the farmer wants.
There are further comparisons and comments about both the fruitful and unfruitful branch. One very telling point is that the branch has to be a part of the vine. It cannot bear fruit apart from the vine. Jesus specifically alludes to the disciples as “clean” branches, meaning that they are the acceptable branches that will be pruned to bring forth much fruit. They are clean and acceptable because they have received the words of Jesus which, of course, come from God the Father. This also speaks of the branches that are cut away. They are not viewed as clean. They are not acceptable. The farmer, who knows his craft, can look at the branch and assess the fact that it is in no shape to bring forth fruit – it is dead. In that it is dead, we know that the life is not in it. When we connect the dots, we understand that the life equates to the word which is spoken by Jesus.
This is an either-or scenario. The fruitful branches must, first, be a part of the vine and, second, remain a part of the vine. The power to produce fruit is not an aspect of the branch. It is an aspect of the vine. The branch cannot do anything apart from the vine. To be separate from the vine is a sorry state, indeed. To be separate from the vine is a dried and withered state. There is no function, no purpose. These are the things gathered to be burned. After all, they are good for nothing else. Also, being apart from the vine, they have no immunity from being gathered for the fire.
The branch that remains on the vine may freely partake of all the vine has to offer. The branch may ask what it will. The vine will provide. In the asking and the receiving, there is produced an abundance of what the husbandman wants. Jesus tells his disciples, his branches, that the Father is glorified. We may see this in the best vineyards of the world. When an exceptional crop is produced, the growers display them proudly. People commend them. We say that they are really good at what they do, that they are the authority in their field. They are glorified.
Love is the key. The husbandman takes pride in his work. His care for the vine is intimate. That care, that love is carried through the vine to the branches. Jesus has assured his disciples not only of his love for them but, also, of God's love for them. There are few things as beautiful as a perfect cluster of grapes glistening in the light, full of the substance of the vine. They are savored for their sweetness. Not as grapes but as disciples, that sweetness is the fullness of joy. Not only the husbandman but the fruit itself may savor the sweetness. Love is key, as I have said. It is seen in the husbandman's care for the vine. It is reflected in the vine's supply to the branch. It is easily spotted in the fruit, itself. Between each glistening fruit, the same sweetness is expected. That is the underlying command. That is the process. It must proceed in that manner. It is the command of God and the command of the son that there be love between the branches. We are commanded to love as Jesus loved and as God the Father loved.
No less is expected from the branch than the vine has already given. The sweetness of the vine has been given to the branch. There is no greater love, or life, than the giving of it. Jesus gave both. He laid down his life and passed it to the fruit-bearing branches. He gave life and love. That life, in his followers, is his word. We must keep it. We must not lose it. In verse thirteen, we must see not only what Jesus says but, also, what he does not say. He said there is no greater love in a man than the laying down of his life for his friends. He did not say that such a great love included anyone other than his friends. To throw one's life away is not great love but foolishness. There are situations in which the giving of one's life is not the same as passing it on. If the life given is not accepted, it lives on in no one and is lost.
After saying “that a man lay down his life for his friends,” Jesus defined both friendship and 'laying down' or, the passing on of one's life. They were Jesus' friends if they received the command from him which he received from the Father. It may be seen that the receiving of the command is the receiving of the word – and the word is the life. By this, the laying down of Jesus' life was not merely his death on the cross but, also, the process which came before the death as well. His death without the preparations in our spirit coming first would only have been the waste of a life. You may throw a ball but without a glove to catch it or a bat to redirect it, the ball just rolls away.
Verse fifteen. Jesus gave his disciples an upgrade from servants to friends. The servant does not know why he does what he does; he only knows that he is required to serve. The friend knows why and that takes the whole matter into the arena of choice and cooperation with goals that are held in common. He makes it clear to his friends that the work is not theirs. They did not choose Jesus. It was all prearranged. Jesus chose them. Moreover, he ordained them in his work. They were then members of his team – to go out and get lasting results. Therefore, because they were doing the things that please God, they were allowed to ask anything of God in the name of Jesus (that is, as ambassadors) in full confidence of getting what they asked for.
Jesus interjected a claim. One might normally think that to love one another is a single command but Jesus clearly said, “These things I command you.” 'Things' is the plural form of the word and that changes it up. To love one another now becomes the end result of the things that Jesus is commanding them to do.
Jesus, in verse eighteen, connects the dots. He tells them a world that hates the son of God will also hate the friends of the son. They are forewarned and forearmed. He frames that statement in an unmistakable context. They are no longer of the world. The world loves its own. The world will hate them because they are not the world's own. They are set apart from the world and the worldly way of thinking. What the world cannot own it subdues, it destroys. The world has persecuted Jesus. They can expect the same.
On the flip side of that, Jesus points out that anyone in the world who has a propensity to hear and keep the word of God and Jesus will also hear and keep the word of duly ordained ambassadors. Let us take a moment to understand the terms in use. What is ordained and what is an ambassador? To ordain is to make someone a minister, it is to confer on that person holy orders. It is to invest, anoint, and consecrate that person to the work with the full authority of the one who ordains. It is to pass the torch. It is to deputize. An ambassador, for all intents and purposes, is the fully accredited representative of a major player superpower.
Jesus forewarned his friends of persecutions to come. He does not hide the reason behind the persecutions. The world will persecute everyone who is named by the name of Christ because the world does not have a connection to the one true living God. Jesus further claims that had he not exposed them with his words for what they were, their sin would have remained hidden. Because Jesus came and said the things he said, the world no longer may hide, excuse, or justify the thoughts and actions that are separated from God. Jesus makes it plain, whoever hates him also hates God. Jesus explained that unless he had done the works among the worldly that no other man stepped up to do, the world could have gone on pretending to be all that is right. It was like a trap they fell into that exposed them for what they truly were. They may be seen to hate both Jesus and God. Moreover, it was the fulfillment of their own law, the books they used to justify their stand. It said they would hate him without a cause.
In the mouth of two or three witnesses, a matter is established. That was also of their law. So Jesus returns to the topic of the comforter. Point one, it is Jesus that sends the comforter to them. Point two, the comforter is the Holy Spirit of Truth, the spirit of Jesus, which issues from God. Point three, both the Spirit and discipleship will be the two witnesses that will establish the truth of Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment