Day 15: You are the branches
Jesus leans forward, and the torch flickers on his face. His eyes are bright and penetrating, the corners of his mouth turn up slightly in a playful smile. He looks around at the serious, furrowed brows of his beloved disciples. They are still pondering his words, “I am the vine.” Not only does he want them to know who HE is, he wants them to know the incredible, joyful truth of who they are and the importance of their role. He motions around the group with his hand.
“You are the branches,”
…he says as his smile broadens. He leans back to take in their responses. Peter looks down, rubs the back of his neck, then looks back at Jesus and tries to smile. He's so tired and struggles to take it all in. Andrew’s eyes trace the vine and the branches next to Jesus. John’s gaze never leaves Jesus’ face. He tips his head and strokes his beard as he thoughtfully considers the metaphor of being a branch. Connected. Fruitful.
Vineyard Metaphor
Inasmuch as the vine is the sum total of the value of a vineyard, a vine without branches is dead. A living, healthy, fruitful vine has branches, even during a dormant season. As we continue to learn from the metaphor of the vineyard, it’s worthwhile, here, to more closely examine the characteristics and functions of the vine and the branches.
The vine is the locus of life. It is the DNA of the vine that determines the type of fruit that will hang on the branches. The healthy roots of the vine draw up life-giving water that feeds the vine and the branches. It is the vine that holds the sap during winter dormancy, when everything looks dead, preserving the life force that will push out new buds in the spring.
The branches are not the vine.
Branches serve a completely different, although integrated, function. First, and perhaps most clearly evident, the branches are where fruitfulness happens. As we have seen, fruit is formed in the secret chamber of a tiny, almost hidden bud located at the base of a branch during a year when that branch is not fruitful but only provides leaves for the canopy. The vine infuses the bud with the DNA needed to produce the kind of fruit that is in keeping with the varietal of the vine. At the end of the year, during the winter season, that cane is cut back to a stump that is just long enough to preserve two buds that have been developing the fruit. The following spring, when the vine pushes out the two buds, and they become branches, those branches will produce the fruit that was mysteriously formed inside the bud the year before. The cycle continues, year over year, as long as the vine is healthy and there are branches connected to the vine.
Without branches, there would be no fruit on the vine.
Reflection and Meditation
Take a moment to close your eyes and visualize the symbiotic integration of vine and branches.
Let your mind and heart explore the roles and the interdependence of each.
What questions come up for you? Does it surprise you that the Vine chooses to be fruitful through the branches? What might this metaphor mean in your life right now?
In what ways do you depend on Jesus for your sustenance and fruitfulness?
Where is the Vine bearing fruit through you, a branch?
Rest in the sweetness of Christ’s love for you.
“Religion is meant to be in everyday life a thing of unspeakable joy. And why do so many complain that it is not so? Because they do not believe that there is no joy like the joy of abiding in Christ and in His love, and being branches through whom He can pour out His love on a dying world.”