John 15:1-15
I am the true vine and my father is 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.
You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“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.
If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
This passage, from the gospel of John, is both powerful and daunting. For many, these words are the incredible promise of what it means to be connected to the very person of God through Jesus, who walked the planet with us. For others, it seems to serve the primary purpose of excluding all those who do not believe exactly as we do. Undoubtedly, it has been a tool used in the service of condemnation and exclusion—an excuse to say, “You’re not one of us.” For some people with whom I have talked, it is the essence of what they dislike most about Christianity and a reason they cannot embrace our tenets.
Let me make this case:
• Jesus was the most inclusive person, to the date of his birth, who ever walked the planet. He made a ministry of pulling in the outcasts, the unclean, the imperfect, the disdained—he worked and spoke to and included women, children, diseased people, Romans, Jews, Samaritans. If Jesus had meant his followers to be exclusive, his own ministry would have looked extremely different
• Jesus was talking to an intimate group of friends in this passage—his disciples. He was speaking of great mysteries, beyond their comprehension (and, subsequently beyond ours). But he surrounded his words with the language of love—read the passage—over and over again—love and love and love.
The word “true” in Greek is aletheis—this word means coming from the genuine nature of something—valid, trustworthy, confirmed, vetted. Jesus is speaking of his legitimacy here—that his origins, his faith, his work, and his words are trustworthy, because they come from a valid source—God, the Father, the gardener. Our task is not to worry about the behavior or beliefs of those around us (Jesus has quite a bit to say about splinters and logs and not judging others). Our task is to attach ourselves to that genuine source and grow. Rooted, grounded, we are able to become fruitful—without being connected to the source of our strength and our love, we fade and wither.
Accusing Jesus of exclusion is not a defensible position in light of his ministry—such an accusation does not hold up to scrutiny. Using his teachings to be exclusive, therefore, is problematic. What we can do is approach this passage with a sense of who Jesus was, and then we hear him say, “You are part of something wonderful. We are friends—in the truest, deepest sense of the word. And because you know what it means to be friends with me, and because I turn to God as the source of my love, you are also connected to that great love.” Good news—great news for a world where genuine love is hard to come by.
One Comment
Amen, Martha.