The True Vine

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.

It seems like each time I read Scripture, especially the New Testament, and give myself time to meditate on it, I find a different meaning, maybe even a better understanding. Some of the simplest things, such as the vine and the branches and bearing fruit, have such profound meanings.

The words that were spoken and used to teach over 2000 years ago are still relevant today and will be for eternity. But then what else should I have expected from the greatest teacher in the world. I must confess that there were times that I’d heard these words and paid very little attention to them. I was distracted with my own concerns; things were probably going all right for me then, so I thought. I was a branch on the vine, but was not bearing much fruit.

As I read this passage on the vine, I recalled that growing up in the North End of Boston; my world was of cobble stones, tar and concrete. The only exposure I had to grass and dirt was when I went to the baseball park to play. Even the trees that grew seemed to be shooting up out of concrete sidewalks.

Years later, I got married and eventually bought a house which had a little backyard. I decided to try my hand at gardening. With the help of my father-in-law, I planted some tomatoes, basil, peppers and carrots. That little, seventy two square feet of land, got a lot of attention that summer and I reaped the fruits of my labor.

A few years later, I moved into a bigger house which had a lot more land. The previous owner had planted several fruit trees, peach, plum and fig. At the back end of the property, there was also a grapevine. By this time, we had been blessed with two boys and my father-in-law would come over frequently to play with them. When he wasn’t playing with them, he spent a lot of time nurturing those trees and the grapevine. I had no idea on what had to be done. As far as I was concerned all I had to do is to make sure that I watered them and the rest was up to nature. When I came home from work, I would often find my father-in-law out in the yard pruning and mulching and weeding. Coming from a rural area in Italy, he had much experience and took pride in his work.
That fall he schooled me on how to winterize the fig tree I had inherited. I would soon find out that trying to get fruit from a fig tree with the short summers we have in the Northeast was almost impossible, but he did it. Some people would actually dig up the tree and bring it inside for the winter.

As much as I tried to pay attention and learn from him, there were a lot of little things that I missed along the way. He knew the appropriate time of the year to prune the grapevine and the fruit trees. I would soon find out the hard way after he moved back to Italy.

A few years after he left, I found that my fig tree died and my peach and plum tree’s fruit production diminished with each passing year and the grape vine was growing upward uncontrollably among the surrounding branches of trees and stopped producing grapes. Since then the fruit trees being diseased were eventually cut down. So now the only thing that’s left is the grape vine. Last year, I spent a lot of time pruning back a lot of the dead branches and was finally rewarded with an abundance of grapes. As I look out back now, I can see it budding and hopefully with some tender care I will have fruit in three months.

In our lives, the Father is the vine grower and Jesus is the true vine. We are the branches growing from the true vine. That vine provides everything that we need to bear fruit. All we have to do is to cling to the vine and let the Father prune whatever is bad for us.

We have been given everything we need, Jesus as the vine is our lifeblood, the Father is constantly weeding and pruning and on top of it all we have the Holy Spirit shining His light on us to make sure we grow stronger to the point that we will bear additional shoots from our branches.

“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.”

The message couldn’t be any clearer, yet there are many times that I have drifted away.

Give thanks to the Lord.