On Line Bible Study - For the Week June 3-9, 2013

Lesson 561

 

The part of gardening I seem to do best is pruning.  But first ...

It has been over six months since last I posted a "weekly" on line Bible Study.  I think I needed an extended break from the discipline, but I have often been aware of this study by virtue of its absence.  I am back now, and determined to continue with it until I see it through to its completion.

When we left off last November we were discussing the section of John's gospel related to the last supper.  You may recall that we are heading into the deep waters of the passion and crucifixion, and before we do a comparison study between the four gospels, we are looking at this section which is exclusive to John.

This week our focus is on John 15:1-17.  You can click on that link for the full section, but we are going to focus on several verses in particular:

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.

You might recall that Mark has a vineyard story in his gospel (Mark 12:1-11), but the situation is different from the one in John 15.  There is an ominous tone in John - the threat of being cut off if we don't produce fruit, and the promise that we are going to pruned one way or another in order to make us more fruitful.

One summer we had some wonderful tomato plants going.  I happened to read somewhere about the need to remove the "suckers" from where branches joined the vine.  In my enthusiasm for pruning and cleaning up the plants I killed all our tomatoes.  (Jan and I were just talking about this the other day ...)

The fact that the gardener in the allegory Jesus presents us with is one who first looks for fruit prior to cutting off the branch is some consolation; still, the tone carries with it the centrality of our bearing fruit in the garden of God.  We'll come back to this in a moment.

Another verse from this section we want to look at is this, from John 15:12  My commandment is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

There simply is no getting away from the notion that Jesus sees his own death as an act of love.  It is a destiny intimately intertwined with the divine expression of love for the world.  Perhaps we can think of God's garden as a place where love is the fruit borne by every one of its inhabitants.  And just so we don't get too sentimental or superficial about it, we reminded of the fact that love expressed for each other is the litmus test for the presence of true disciples of Jesus.