The Fifth Sunday after Easter
May 5, 2024
(John 15:1–8, NIV84) “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 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. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
We could write much about this text, but think of cutting a branch off a vine, or a tree, or any plant which is supposed to bear fruit. If you cut the branch off, the branch will die and never bear fruit.
Jesus is the vine that gives life to the branches. Each believer is a branch.
Jesus makes application to our lives. Without being attached to him we die. Not just an earthly death. A forever death.
The true believer in Christ continues to receive nourishment – like the sap that feeds the branch – from what Christ says. And where do we find what he says? In his Word, the Holy Scriptures, the Bible.
Shortly after telling his disciples the words of our text in the upper room, Jesus also said “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17, KJV)
May we always remain as branches in Christ the Vine!
Prayer
O God, from whom all good things do come, grant to us, Thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by thy merciful guiding do those things. This we ask through Jesus Christ, thy Son, Our Lord. Amen
