Have you noticed how often Jesus uses word-pictures, metaphors?  Take John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Vine, branches, fruit.

Katie James draws attention to this imagery with her new painting inspired by John 15:5 (thanks, Katie, for pointing us to Jesus this way!).  Stop by the Library and take a look at her beautiful work.

So, what is Jesus getting at when he starts talking trees and fruit and all?  One thing is our sheer dependence on him for life, for everything.  That’s the way it works with a tree:  the branches, and the fruit they produce, can only survive because of life-sustaining fluids pumped their way from the trunk.  A vine and its branches do not have some kind of “mutual support” arrange­ment—hardly.  Apart from Jesus we can do nothing.

Now, the whole purpose of a vineyard is to produce fruit.  What good is a grapevine if it doesn’t give grapes?  What use is an apple tree with no apples?  Still, you don’t have to coax a grape­vine to make grapes—it just does it.  If a branch is organically linked to the vine, it will produce fruit.  Jesus stresses this dynamic connec­tion in 15:4, “As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”

Notice how Jesus interprets his own metaphors:  a branch’s rela­tionship to the vine is like our reliance on him.  He uses the word “abide” eleven times in John 15—you can’t miss it.  What, then, does this abiding involve?  Two key ways we abide in Christ are by following his words and pray­ing to him; without serious attention to the Word and vigilant prayer we do not and cannot abide (see 15:7).  And abiding leads to fruit bearing, which means reproduc­tion, further obedience, and love (vv 3, 10, 16-17).  So, being attached to Jesus is not a ho-hum life:  it’s vibrant, creative; it’s humble, joyful, and hopeful—the life you were made for!