1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this 5th Sunday of Easter is taken from John 15:1-8, it’s entitled, “Jesus our Life-Giving Vine,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Jesus is our life-giving vine. You are His branches. And God the Father delights to bring the inside out. Watch any home remodeling show and you will soon discover how designers like to, “Bring the outside in.” It could be something simple. The color choices they make and the furnishings they choose which mirror the natural setting outside, or it could be something more elaborate. Glass doors off a living room that fold to the side, bringing the outside in so you have access to a fire pit or a pool. Designers like to, “Bring the outside in.”
3. But, in the Church God does something different. He likes to, “Bring the inside out.” God chooses to dwell among us in Word and Sacrament, but He also chooses to dwell within us, by the power of His Holy Spirit. That is the promise Jesus offers today. He promises to dwell within us, so we experience God’s delight in, “Bringing the inside out.”
4. At this moment in John’s gospel, Jesus is preparing His disciples for His death. He has spoken of His betrayal, predicted Peter’s denial, and now teaches His disciples one last time. Which raises the question: “Why do we spend time reading and meditating on these words after Easter?” Because when you look back on these words after Easter, you see Jesus was doing something more than preparing His disciples for His death. He was also preparing them for His life: His resurrected life. In these words, Jesus offers His disciples a promise that He will live and dwell in them.
5. What happens to a marriage where husband and wife are not united? What happens to a body that’s separated from its head? What happens to the sheep without a shepherd? What happens to branches that do not remain in the vine? We have been united to Christ by faith, as branches to a vine. The vine, Jesus, is the source of our life and the fruit that we bear. But that life and fruit is not for us alone; it’s also for our neighbor.
6. At the beginning of his gospel, John reveals God has chosen to dwell among us. He writes, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us... full of grace and truth” (1:14). This is a wonder that the holy almighty God would choose to dwell among His people. Throughout the gospel, we see this wonder unfold. Jesus enters into places and engages in conversations with people. He sits at the side of a well in Samaria and speaks to the Samaritan woman in John 4. He walks along the Sea of Galilee. He shares the joy of a wedding at Cana in John 2 and the grief of a funeral in John 11 before He raised Lazarus from the dead. That Jesus dwells among us is a wonder. Though we are lost in sin, He comes to find us in grace. Wherever you are, whoever you are, Jesus brings forgiveness to you through His Word and Sacraments. He has come to dwell among us, so He calls you to be His disciple, speak to you in grace, and guide you as you follow Him in the world.
7. But, Jesus reveals something more. He has not just come to dwell among us. No, He has also chosen to dwell within us. St. Paul writes in Ephesians 3:17, “17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love.” “I am the vine; you are the branches, if a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing.” I know a little something of this verse from John 15:5, it was my confirmation verse, Pastor John Zahrte gave to me on my Confirmation day in April of 1995 at Our Savior Lutheran Church Excelsior, MN.
8. Here in John 15, Jesus says branches have no life of their own. Their life flows from the vine. So, too, we have no life of our own. Apart from the vine, branches can do nothing (John 15:4, 5c–6). Just as a branch that is removed from the vine soon withers and dies, so we have no life apart from Jesus, the true Vine. We can claim to be Christians and tout our church membership or show our confirmation certificate, but apart from the life-giving nourishment of God’s grace in Christ Jesus (the vine), we can’t live or bear any fruit. Those who live apart from Jesus the life-giving Vine, who do not hear his Word and receive his Sacraments, are like withered branches that are picked up and thrown into the fire.
9. Our life comes from Jesus. His resurrection from the dead has revealed that He is the source of all life. Though we die, we shall live. He has defeated death for us, and nothing can now separate us from His love (Romans 8). But the life He gives is not just life after death. No, it is life now in the world, in the unfolding of His Kingdom. As Jesus says to His disciples in John 15:11, “These things have I spoken to you that My joy might be in you and that your joy may be full.” Forgiveness, peace, fullness, joy... all these flow to us from Him. This life flows to us and this life flows through us to fill the world with His gifts.
10. “My Father is the vinedresser,” Jesus says. “Every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it might bear more fruit.” (John 15:1-2) Because Jesus has chosen to dwell within us, God the Father delights to, “Bring the inside out.” Forgiveness, peace, fullness, joy... all these flow to us from Him. This life flows to us and this life flows through us to fill the world with His gifts.
11. Earlier this year, before the spring growth, I passed my neighbor in my subdivision standing in the middle of what looked like a disaster on his lawn. You would have thought a tornado had gone through. He was pruning his bushes. The hedges were bare. They looked completely dead. The lawn was covered with clippings and he was getting ready to rake up the waste. Pruning can look and feel like a disaster. But, God works through the disaster to bring us closer to Jesus so people might see how Jesus bears fruit in our lives.
12. Peter knew something about this pruning. Jesus had predicted his denial. But, Jesus had also promised him that, “When you have turned again, strengthen your disciples” (Luke 22:32). Jesus was praying for Peter. Peter’s faith would not fail. Though this pruning taught him the limits of his strength, it also revealed the expanse of God’s love.
13. St. Paul also knew something about this pruning. He battled a thorn in his flesh. The more he struggled with that thorn, however, the closer he came to Jesus. Christ worked within him, leading him to confess, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” (2 Cor. 12:9) This thorn was God’s pruning, bringing Paul into an experience of Christ’s strength.
14. As branches, we have been grafted back into the true Vine. The life that flows from the side of the crucified and resurrected One now nourishes us with his life and forgiveness, so that by faith we might live in union with him. The branches bear fruit for our neighbor. By the nourishment the Vine provides, the branches bear fruit (John 15:5a–5b, 8).
15. St. Paul speaks of the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22–23). These are, above all, characteristics of our Savior in his relationship with us. Jesus is perfectly loving of us; he rejoices over us; he is patient, kind, and good to us; and so on. By being so loving, patient, and kind to us, Jesus the life-giving vine creates in us the same fruit of the Spirit. We become—in fact, whether we always notice it or not, we have become—loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, self-controlled. Hard to believe, isn’t it? But true.
16. I know a man who went through a divorce. It was ugly. Now, he gets his children on the weekends. When he does, he brings them to church. Before the divorce, on Sundays, he took his children to sports. Now, after the divorce, church has more importance for him. In the divorce, he watched everything he had built up in his marriage crumble. As he puts it, “At the end of the day, all I had left was Jesus. When I hit rock bottom, Jesus was there. So, now, I’m building my life on Jesus.” Amid this disaster, the Father was working, pruning, drawing him closer to Jesus so that now, Jesus bears more fruit in his life. Jesus is the life-giving vine. You are His branches. And God the Father delights to bring the inside out. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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