Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary
The metaphor of the vine, its gardener, and its branches is a familiar one (John 15:1-8). Jesus clearly alludes to OT passages that envision Israel as God’s vine (sometimes lamentably fruitless). The text opens with the last of the “I am” statements (with predicate nominative) in John, and its context is the “Farewell Discourses” (chs 13-17). The surrounding material needs to be kept in mind, since themes of mutual “indwelling” and the primacy of love are important interpretive clues. Many commentators treat today’s verses and next week’s lection (15:9-17) as a single pericope. Three verbs are key for interpreting today’s text: “to abide”/”remain,” “to prune”/”cleanse,” and “to bear [fruit].” Throughout, “you” is plural. Singulars refer only to non-abiding branches (v 6)!
Most of us know this text for the phrase, “I am the vine, you are the branches;” but that is not how Jesus begins. Jesus describes the vine-dresser, who is God. A brief foray into the essential practices of vine-tending can clarify for listeners why Jesus stresses God’s pruning of all the branches and discarding of unproductive ones. Strategic pruning is critical to producing high quality fruit; pruned branches are productive branches. Fruitless branches must go; they sap the vine’s vitality and yield.
Our text provides more specifics about pruning than about abiding. His “word,” says Jesus, has already functioned as God’s pruning/cleansing tool for his disciples (v 3). God’s part, the pruning, has already begun. But what about our part? What does i “abiding” or “remaining” in Jesus—for the disciples, or John’s community to whom this gospel is addressed, or for us who read the message today—look like? And what does it look like to be “fruitful”? The text offers us clues.
First, we “abide” in Jesus as Jesus “abides” in us (v 4). And how is it that we see Jesus “abiding” in his disciples? He reveals himself to them, entrusting the deepest truths about himself to them. This suggests that to abide in Jesus is to entrust the wellbeing of our communities to Jesus and his ways. This will mean allowing Jesus’ practice of inclusive, risk-taking, outsider-seeking love to become our community’s characteristic modus operandi. In communities of faith where this practice flourishes, a “marketing” mentality about attracting others to faith diminishes. The focus is on developing strategies for serving vulnerable neighbors—isolated seniors, minorities, immigrants and spiritual seekers. Shared servanthood displaces pretense and creates an atmosphere of mercy and care. Seeing society’s invisible ones and caring for them matters more than how, or whether, we are seen.
The aim of abiding, says Jesus, is fruitfulness. Fruit nourishes others; it also replicates the life of the vine. What does it take to be fruitful carriers of Jesus’ life-giving presence into the world? A clue lies in the conditional promise of v 7: “if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will …” Here, Jesus points his disciples (and us) back to all the words they (and we) have heard from him. Live by these words, and our lives become anchored in the embodied life of God, on display in Jesus. Live by Jesus’ words, and you emulate his life-giving, life-nourishing practices. Reshaped practices lead to reshaped desires. Our desires—what we “wish” (v 7)—will align, increasingly, with God’s desires and will be fulfilled. And to God’s delight (glory, v 8), we shall bear fruit, nourishing the hungry in body and spirit and sowing divine mercy into the fields of the world.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 