John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Jesus’ metaphor/parable of himself as the vine and his Church as the branches is a powerful demonstration of teaching that is visual, every day, contextual, Scriptural, ethical and profound. A parable is like a Tardis, bigger on the inside than it first appears, and John 15:5 is a gift that keeps on giving.
I am the vine
- Contextual resonance
Vines were (and are) everyday realities in the eastern Mediterranean. Yes, they were a widespread agricultural sight, especially in the two hilly regions where much of Jesus’ ministry took place, Judea and Galilee. But vines were also an extremely common domestic reality – as in the refrain “each under his own vine and fig tree” – with many homes training climbing vines with their broad leaves to provide shade in the courtyard or on the flat roof. Everyday objects constitute excellent teaching aids. Because everyday moments – sitting in one’s garden or watering one’s vine – provide opportunities for ongoing reflection.
Secondly, this image is immediately contextually resonant because the setting of John 15 is Passover in Jerusalem, and Herod’s temple had an extensive sculpted golden vine stretching over the entrance to the sanctuary, symbolizing the nation of Israel. Only hours previously, the disciples would have been standing under this canopy. Immediately, therefore, their imaginations would connect Jesus’ “I am the vine” to the nation of Israel, to the Temple, and to a fulfilment of these big ideas in the person of Christ.
Thirdly, the vine was a common symbol for religions across the region at the time of writing. John’s concern, as we know, was the global spread of the gospel (Savior of the world, light of the world, sins of the world). He chooses universal symbols, not merely Jewish ones – like logos, and fig tree, and wedding, all of which were widely-held religious ideas across the entire known world. Likewise with the vine. Gnosticism, the Mandean corpus, Philo, Dionysus, Bacchus, Babylonian religion, Egyptian religion all had gods of the vine. John is skillfully seeking, at the end of the First Century as the gospel has spread rapidly across the known world, to present Christ in terms that resonate deeply with multiple contextual realities.
2. God’s big story
“I am the vine” is also a statement which, like a vine, has a vast underground root system in the Old Testament, drawing nourishment and energy from diverse themes together into the person of Christ. It becomes, therefore, a brilliant aid for summarizing God’s big story, the flow of the Old Testament narrative into a fulfilment in Jesus.
“I am” is God’s name, revealed to Moses in the Exodus. Jesus here takes it for himself. In John, Jesus seven times takes “I am” with a predicate (the light of the world, the resurrection and the life, etc), and another seven times states an absolute “I am” without predicate, which are sometimes lost in English translation (e.g. “before Abraham was, I am”). Jesus is taking God’s name for himself. This Vine is ancient, eternal, rooted in pre-history. As the branches, our connection to Christ is a connection to God himself, a tapping-in to the eternal Source, a theosis, a mystical communion. To be in Christ is to be in God, because Christ is God.
The vine is a consistent metaphor for the people of Israel:
- Psalm 80:8-17 (vine is a “chosen son”)
- Ezekiel 15:1-8, 17:1-21, 19:10-14
- Isaiah 5:1-7 (fruit is moral/ethical), 27:2-5
- Jeremiah 2:21, 12:10 “choice/true vine” in ancient Greek translation is the same as John 15:1
- Hosea 10:1-2
The story of Old Testament Israel can be summarised through the story of the vine. God brought a vine out of Egypt, a choice and precious vine, and planted it in the promised land. It spread out and produced both shade and fruit But in time it stopped producing fruit. It stopped yielding justice and righteousness and mercy (the fruit is always described by the prophets ethically). So God allowed Israel’s enemies to burn it and trample it and destroy the vine completely – the Exile.
What remained was a fire-blackened stump – the promises of God, the underground root system intact, a prophetic hope, a preserved DNA and the potential for new life.
Isa 11:1-2 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
The shoot from the stump of Jesse is Jesus. Jesus is the true heir of the promises. In Him, all the promises of God are yes and amen – that is, all the underground energy and momentum of the Old Testament flows into Him. That’s why he says, “I am the true vine.” He will bear good fruit – sweet fruit – mercy and gentleness and goodness.
And in Christ the vine is opened up to all peoples, to the whole world! And his shade will fill not merely a sliver of land in the Middle East, but the whole world, made up not just of ethnic Israel but of all ethnicities and heritages, providing shelter and fruit among all nations.
The Church, therefore, the branches, is heir of the prophets, the true and global people of God.
And “Christ”, as Augustine wrote, “could not have been the vine if he had not been man. He could not have provided grace to the branches if he had not been God”.
In the next post, we will consider what it means to be told, “you are the branches”.
