John 15

John 15:1-27

The Gospel According to John John 15:1-27 John 15:1-27. The closing words in chapter fourteen of John are these, “Arise, let us go hence.” At that point they left the upper room, where the Passover had been observed, and the new feast had been instituted. When they left the upper room where did they go? Did they immediately leave the city? Chapter eighteen begins, “When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the brook Kidron, where was a garden.” Does that mean that He went forth from the city then? It may do, but not necessarily so. There are those who believe that when they left the upper room, they took their way to the Temple, for it was the Passover season, and at that time it was the custom at Passover season to leave the great outer gates of the Temple open all night so that those desiring to enter in might do so for preparation for Passover observance.

If Jesus took His disciples there, as they passed in through those gates, their eyes would very probably rest upon the golden vine which adorned the gates, and which was the symbol of the national life. That may have been so. I cannot tell. Personally I am inclined to believe that they left the upper room, and left the city, and went somewhere on the slopes leading down to the place where the winter torrent, or the Kidron, was running on its way; and that halting there, He uttered this great allegory of the vine. If that were so, in all probability at that time in the night, with the Passover moon shining upon them, they could see almost everywhere the vines growing, those stunted, gnarled, little vines of Palestine; and here and there, perhaps, they would see the flicker of a flame from the fires in which branches were being burned. Be the location what it may have been, wherever they went, He uttered this great final discourse.

The questions and answers recorded in chapters thirteen and fourteen were concerned with super-earthly matters, as we saw. The troubled hearts of His disciples were peering out into the mystery of all that lay beyond the here and now; asking Him where He was going, and telling Him they did not know the way, asking for a glimpse of God, and wondering why now, He was manifesting Himself to them, and not to the world. He had answered their questions, and hushed them into quietness and peace.

Now, in this great discourse He brought them back to the earth life in a very definite way; and that with regard to their relationship with Him in service on behalf of the world. They naturally, wistfully were staring out beyond, to where He was going, and asking their questions. He answered them, and then in effect, He said, Come back now with Me, and see what I plan for you on the earth level. The allegory itself in its entirety is briefly given, and is followed by exposition and enlargement, in interpretation of this, His final sign, in the realm of words. As we have been travelling across this Gospel, we have listened to Him on varied occasions, using the personal pronoun “I” in conjunction with the simplest form of declaration concerning being, “I am,” and linking it with human symbols. This is the last, the final sign in the realm of words, uttered to that little gathered-out company that were round about Him.

The whole chapter is needed for an understanding of the allegory of the vine and the final sign; and indeed, the greater part of chapter sixteen is also needed. We begin with the sign itself, and then rapidly survey His interpretation thereof. Said He, as we have read it all our lives, and very beautifully, “I am the true vine.” To me, however, there is suggestiveness in the Greek form in which those words are recorded. It may be said that it is merely a matter of idiom, and we have changed it from the Greek into the English idiom. The words are identical, but their arrangement is slightly different. This is how it reads: “I am the vine, the true,” There is a difference of suggestion, the Greek form gives us at once a sense of intended contrast. “I am the true vine” is perfectly accurate, but when we hear it thus, “I am the vine, the true,” we immediately see that He was intending to put Himself, under that figure of the vine, in contrast with all that had gone before. “I am the vine, the true.”

The figure of speech in itself was perfectly familiar to those who heard it. We can only appreciate its value as we remember that our Lord was not making use of a new figure of speech, but one which in their religious literature had had its place for long years; and in their national life had become definitely and positively symbolic.

This figure of the vine emerges in the Biblical literature in Psalm eighty. There, in the midst of national declension, a singer, singing a song with national intention, said,

“Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt.” That was a symbolic reference to the beginning of their national life.

Then we find the prophets made use of the figure. Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, all employ the figure of the vine. Hosea in his tenth chapter says, “Israel is a luxuriant vine, which putteth forth his fruit.” That means that Israel was failing. It was not bringing forth the fruit it was intended to bring forth. It was bringing forth its own fruit. The following statement shows this: “He hath multiplied his altars.” Later, Hosea speaking of God’s restoration of His ideal through a spiritual Israel, says that in that day, “Ephraim shall say . . . from me is Thy fruit found,” that is, fruit according to the purpose of God.

In Isaiah we find two great passages. In the fifth chapter, “Let me sing for my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.” God was looking for fruit from the vine, and wild fruit was brought forth. That was failure. Then in the twenty-seventh chapter, Isaiah is looking on to a time when there shall be realization, and he says then the vine shall be fruitful. He “will water it every moment.” So Isaiah uses the figure, first of failure, and presently of fruition.

Jeremiah in his second chapter speaks of that nation as being “a degenerate vine.”

Ezekiel uses it on different occasions. The first is in the fifteenth chapter, when he employs it with caustic satire, as he declares that the wood of the vine has no use, especially when it is burnt at both ends. Then in chapter nineteen he uses the figure as he speaks of one that caught up the vine, and carried it away, and planted it somewhere else; thus referring to the captivity of the people of God. Again in satire he speaks of the branches in the vine becoming rulers over the vine, so referring to the fall of Israel to monarchy, when they clamoured for a king, when God alone was appointed to be King.

During the Maccabean period they had made the vine, on the basis of these references by psalmists and prophets, the symbol of their national life. Now Jesus stood among them and said, “I am the vine, the true.” Not many hours before, He had made use of the same figure. Matthew in the twenty-first chapter records the parable of the vineyard. Servants sent, who were beaten and stoned and killed; the son sent, who was cast forth and killed. In that connection, when He had used the figure of the vine as illustrating the national life, He had excommunicated the nation, “The Kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” His disciples had heard Him say that solemn and awe-inspiring thing. Now He was giving them His last consecutive teaching, and He took hold of that figure, so familiar, the vine, the emblem of national life, which the prophets had used to show national failure, and to predict ultimate realization. He stood there amid the ruins of the vine so far as the nation was concerned, and having excommunicated it from the position of responsibility and privilege which it had held, He said in effect, God has not failed, if the nation has failed.

The purposes of God are not abandoned. He Who created the vine to bring forth fruit for the world is not defeated. “I am the vine, the true.” Thus in that great word He transferred the privileges and responsibilities from the Hebrew people to Himself, and those associated with Him, for in the fifth verse He repeats the figure, not using the word now, “the true,” but indicating the relationship of all such to Him, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.”

It is impossible to conceive of anything more startling, august, splendid, final than that. Hell was all round about Him. Through the treachery of a man, and the animosity of a degenerate priesthood it was getting Him now, and was about to put Him on His bitter Cross. Then it was He said, “I am the vine, the true”; “I am the vine, and ye”-that little group of men-“are the branches.”

Then followed His interpretation. In the first ten verses He interpreted the fact of union between Himself and His own. “I am the vine, the true, and My Father is the Husbandman.” “The Husbandman,” the One Who cares for the vine, Who sees to it that it bears fruit. Nowhere in the Gospel narratives does that word husbandman occur, except in His parable of the vineyard, which He had uttered a few hours before, in excommunicating the nation. There He had spoken of “wicked husbandmen,” to whom the care of the vine had been committed, the whole order of priests and rulers who had all broken down, killing the prophets, killing the Son. After that parable this word becomes the more arresting. He said, Now no longer will the care of the vine be entrusted to husbandmen on the earthly level; “My Father is the Husbandman.” All intermediation in care of the vine is abandoned, superseded. Then He told of the process; pruning, cutting out fruitless branches, and committing them to the burning; and the purging, or cleansing of the branches that remain, in order to more fruitfulness. Thus He said, Now the care of this vine is in My Father’s hands. He and He alone will do the pruning; He will do the cleansing necessary to produce fruitfulness.

Then He revealed the vital condition of fruitfulness. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.” Then, “I am the vine, ye are the branches; He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for apart from Me, severed from Me, cut off from Me, ye can do nothing.” The condition is that of abiding.

What then is the value of this new union? He stated it in words which I am going to render a little differently. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall demand as your due whatever you are inclined to, and it shall be generated unto you.” That rendering is certainly warranted, and is an amazing statement. But do not let us forget the flaming sword which guards the way, If ye abide in Me! If we do that, what then? You shall demand as your due. The Greek word certainly warrants that rendering.

It is one of the strongest words used with regard to prayer. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, utter your demands, whatever you are inclined to. It shall be done, and the word means generated, caused to be; creative power shall operate. If we are abiding in Him, and His words are abiding in us, we shall not be inclined to anything out of harmony with His will. That is the condition. But if we are there; then we may demand as our due, and God generates, if necessary, that which is so demanded, as the result of living union with Christ. The intended issue is fruit. “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.” The value of the union is that we are admitted into a relationship that makes us free of the franchise of heaven; and access to God enables us to make demands upon God through which, when we make them, God can do things that He does not do except upon those conditions. Such demand always issues in fruit-bearing. Any prayer which does not react upon my life, and make it a more fruit-bearing life, is not prayer at all. The value of the union is the franchise of asking, and the reaction of fruitfulness.

Then He revealed the nature of this union in those wonderful words, “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” The nature of the union is that of the love-mastered life that demonstrates our loyalty to our Lord, and allows Him to express Himself through us in fruit. Having thus interpreted the new union, He went on to show what it means with regard to His disciples and Himself. “These things have I spoken unto you, that the joy that is Mine may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.” What then is the purpose of the union so far as the disciples arc concerned? That they may have His joy. This is the first time in the ministry of Jesus that we have it recorded that He referred to His joy. He referred to it when He was approaching His unfathomable sorrows. “My joy”! I think the writer of the letter to the Hebrews had that somewhat in mind when he said, “For the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising shame.” Union with Him means that we have His joy. Those who do so know what joy really is, their joy is fulfilled. The measure in which we know anything of His joy, is the measure in which all other joys are like the crackling of thorns under a pot, the attempt to satisfy life with apples of Sodom.

Then is revealed the law of this union; “This is My commandment that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.” Always, in these last discourses He was keeping these men face to face with love as the supreme matter.

Then, very tenderly and beautifully He told them of the new name He was now giving to them. “No longer do I call you bond-slaves, but friends; for the bond-slave knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends.” I am interpreting to you the things from My Father; and because you are coming into an understanding, you will be My friends. I call you friends.

Then followed that wonderful statement, “Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you … I appointed you.” He was talking to the eleven, of course; but through them He was talking to all whom they represented. His Church was in His mind, as we shall see by and by, when we get to His prayer in the seventeenth chapter. I chose you, and appointed you, what for? “That ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name. He may give it you.” I chose you and I appointed you to two things, to fruit-bearing, and to asking. The same two things already referred to, only now He put the ultimate first, and the secret behind it. I chose you in order to bear fruit, and in order that you may do so I chose you to ask, and so to get into touch with God, that fruit may abound. Once more He repeated His command: “These things I command you, that ye may love one another.” If we really love Him, we have fellowship with Him in suffering. “If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hated you.” The world loves its own, and hates that which is not of itself and its own nature. Therefore it hates Christ. So long as the world is of the world, living by the philosophy of the world, conditioning life wholly within the earthly, the materialistic order, it loves its own, its own people, its own ways, and its own self-satisfaction. The world, so mastered, is bound to hate Jesus Christ Who comes crashing across everything in His first requirement, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Therefore the world hates Christ’s people, that is, if they can see Christ in them. The measure in which the world agrees with us and says we are really a fine type of Christian, we are so entirely broad, is the measure in which we are unlike Jesus Christ. Union with Christ means fellowship with Him in suffering in this world.

But He had something else to say. “But”-I am glad that “But” is there, against that solemn passage. “But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me; and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.” Thus the last thing He said was not merely that we are to suffer in fellowship with Him, but we are to witness in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. The chapter is over. He had more to say to which we come in our next meditation.

“I am the vine, the true.” God’s purposes are not failing. They never have. They never will. His instruments have failed almost continuously and disastrously; but through the ages, the “one unending purpose runs.” Or in those wonderful lines of Russell Lowell,

“Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own,”

not merely His own people, but His own purpose. His own passion, His own redeeming intention. “I am the vine; ye are the branches,” so fulfilling God’s purpose in the world of bearing fruit that will meet the world’s hunger, and satisfy its deepest necessity.