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1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ~ John 15:1-3
John 14 closed with the Lord Jesus saying to His disciples. “Come now; let us leave." Then they left the Upper Room, situated in the southwest corner of Jerusalem, making their way through the vineyards that grew around Jerusalem toward the Garden of Gethsemane.
In v.1 we read, "I am the true vine." A vine is the delivery source of sustenance for the rest of the plant or tree. As the Lord Jesus is walking with His disciples toward the Garden of Gethsemane, they’re passing by vineyards. It is the optimum time for Him to use the scenery around Him to illustrate the lesson that He wants the disciples to learn.
To be the "true vine", the Lord Jesus is saying He is the source of that which is needed for the branch to realize its purpose. He is connected to that which is life, real life. He is saying He is the source for all of our needs, and we can trust Him to have our best interest at heart. We must receive from Him all that is needed to experience Zoe, eternal life, the life with the touch of eternity on it.
In v.1, the Lord Jesus identifies the Father as the Gardener. The Lord Jesus uses the Greek word georgos for the word Father, which means "earth worker." This word tells us the Father takes care of the vineyard and He is ultimately responsible for the fruitfulness of the believer.
In v.2, we learn of the work of the Father as 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." Every fruitless branch "He cuts off." That phrase is one word in the Greek and is better translated, ''He lifts up."
It was common for these branches or little vines to fall between the cracks and crevices of the terrain. And, at certain times, the Gardener would have to lift up the fallen branch so that it would be in the direct rays of the sun and therefore would be able to yield fruit.
In addition, the Gardener would "prune" those branches that were yielding fruit so that they would be more fruitful. This is what Gardeners do, they cut back the branches, so that the branches will bear more fruit. I have found that no matter how much I have grown, there will always be things in my life that He must prune away in order to make my yielded life more fruitful. These things may be faulty ways of thinking or anxieties, or faulty ways of living.
Most often, it is His word that He uses to prune us most. Sorrow, disappointment, failure, a sense of weakness or some passing experience of life, He often uses to prune us. Yet, having walked with Him for years, we must realize these prunings are necessary for our fulfillment and important for our usefulness in His kingdom.
Now, you probably recognized the Lord Jesus does not identify the fruit that He was speaking of directly. Probably, the best scripture to go to for these fruits is found in Galatians 5:22, where the Apostle Paul wrote, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control." These nine qualities are what the Father is now laboring to produce in our lives.
Finally, the Lord Jesus draws attention to the fact that He is not talking about justification or being made right with God through believing in the saving work of the Lord Jesus. No, He reminds the disciples that they are already clean by the word He has spoken to them. He is talking about our sanctification, and the end goal of our sanctification is His expression through our lives by the expression of His fruit. As He expresses Himself through our yielded lives, others are drawn to Him. This is our purpose in our lives and the purpose of our sanctification.
