John 15:5

           In the Gospel of John there are 7 things that Jesus says He is. They are called the "I am" sayings. Each one of them signifies something different and is given to reveal a different facet of Christ and our relationship to Him. The one that I am going to discuss is His statement in John 15:5 in which He says, "I am the vine and you are the branches."
           Vines were commonplace. They generally trailed the ground and were not nearly as dignified as most other trees; especially the olive tree. So why did Jesus, in part of his last teaching to the disciples, use the vine in characterizing Himself? Because the vine was often used as a symbol for Israel. In the Old Testament Israel was compared to a vine a number of times. Each time it was in negative sense, either to introduce mourning for her sin or a prophecy of her destruction (Ezekial 15:2; 19:10, Isaiah 5:1, Jeremiah 2:21, Hosea 10:1, and Psalm 80:8-13). What Christ was doing was comparing Himself to broken vine of Isreal and proclaiming that He was the true vine and the new ideal for the followers.
           Christ also uses His illustration of the vine because He knew that the disciples would understand what He was saying because vines were common. The disciples knew three things about a branch's relationship to the vine that Christ wanted them to realize was true about their relationship to Him: a vine was the source of the plant's life and that apart from it the branch would die, a branch couldn't do anything apart from the vine, and a useless branch would be cut off and destroyed by the keeper of it.
           Paul uses an illustration similar to this one of Jesus. In His letter to the Romans He uses an olive tree as an illustration of Israel. The roots being the symbol for the patriarchs and the branches the decendants. However, his illustration was used to show how the current generation depends upon the founders and past generations, and not how we depend upon the Father; as Jesus' does.
           When Jesus says "much fruit" there is a much deeper meaning to it. Christ is showing that there is no limit to the amount of communication that He is able to give us, but rather only a limitation in the power of us to recieve it. We are the ones who inhibit how much Christ is able to do in our lives.
           When Jesus said "nothing" he did not literally meaning "nothing." What He meant was that they could do nothing good or nothing that Christ will accept as good. This means that we are not able to please God if we are not connected to the Him and His power.
           So how can this be applied into our daily lives and help us grow into a deeper relationship with Christ? First of all it can be memorized so that whenever there is a doubt about His power or about what He is able to do, we will then have some scripture digested in our systems that will, when revived, erase the doubts.
           Then we can apply it into our prayer lives and our Bible reading habits. When we truly realize that apart from Christ we can't do anything and that the only way to dwell and grow closer to Christ is to read His word and pray, it is then we truly begin to see the value of these and begin to do them not just because we think we should, but because they keep us closer to Christ. His word then becomes the standard in our life and we will bear fruit according to His word.
           This statement of Jesus is, I believe, a very powerful and insightful. And if we are to delve into the scriptures, especially the sayings of Jesus, we will find that His words were always true and the message will always enrich our lives and show us how to grow in Him. This small sample is only scratching the surface of the truths that lie in what He said.

written by Jonathan Johnston


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