RCL reading for Sunday, May 10, 2009:
Excerpt from the New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)
John 15:1-8
1 ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower.
2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
STUDY GUIDE
What does the passage tell us about God?
What does the passage tell us about human beings and the relationships between people?
What does the passage say about the relationship between God and human beings?
How does the passage call us to change?
Adapted from “Theological Bible Study,” from In Dialogue with Scripture: An Episcopal Guide to Studying the Bible, ed. Linda L. Grenz (Episcopal Church Center, 1993), p. 96.
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ReplyDeleteGeneva Study Bible
I {1} am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
(1) We are by nature dry and fit for nothing but the fire. Therefore, in order that we may live and be fruitful, we must first be grafted into Christ, as it were into a vine, by the Father's hand: and then be daily moulded with a continual meditation of the word, and the cross: otherwise it will not avail any man at all to have been grafted unless he cleaves fast to the vine, and so draws juice out of it.
People's New Testament
15:1 The True Vine
SUMMARY OF JOHN 15:
The Vine and the Branches. Bearing Fruit. Glorifying the Father. The Greatest Love. The World's Hatred. The Cloak for Sin.
I am the true vine. The scene must be kept in mind. The Lord and his disciples had just eaten the last supper. He had said, Arise, let us go hence (Joh 14:31). They had risen, but were still standing in the room. On the table, from whence they had just risen, was the fruit of the vine, and the Lord had said he would never drink it again upon the earth. In the Old Testament, the Vine is often used as the type of Israel, planted and tended by the Almighty as the husbandman. See Isa 5:1 Ps 80:8-16 Jer 2:21. Israel, however, had proved a wild and fruitless Vine. Instead of it, therefore, Christ had now been planted by the Father as the True Vine.
Wesley's Notes
15:1 I am the true vine - So the true bread, John 6:32; that is, the most excellent.
Scofield Reference Notes
Margin true
"True" in contrast with Israel. Isa 5:1-7.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 15
Joh 15:1-27. Discourse at the Supper Table Continued.
1-8. The spiritual oneness of Christ and His people, and His relation to them as the Source of all their spiritual life and fruitfulness, are here beautifully set forth by a figure familiar to Jewish ears (Isa 5:1, &c.).
I am the true vine-of whom the vine of nature is but a shadow.
my Father is the husbandman-the great Proprietor of the vineyard, the Lord of the spiritual kingdom. (It is surely unnecessary to point out the claim to supreme divinity involved in this).
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
15:1-8 Jesus Christ is the Vine, the true Vine. The union of the human and Divine natures, and the fullness of the Spirit that is in him, resemble the root of the vine made fruitful by the moisture from a rich soil. Believers are branches of this Vine. The root is unseen, and our life is hid with Christ; the root bears the tree, diffuses sap to it, and in Christ are all supports and supplies. The branches of the vine are many, yet, meeting in the root, are all but one vine; thus all true Christians, though in place and opinion distant from each other, meet in Christ. Believers, like the branches of the vine, are weak, and unable to stand but as they are borne up. The Father is the Husbandman. Never was any husbandman so wise, so watchful, about his vineyard, as God is about his church, which therefore must prosper. We must be fruitful. From a vine we look for grapes, and from a Christian we look for a Christian temper, disposition, and life. We must honor God, and do good; this is bearing fruit. The unfruitful are taken away. And even fruitful branches need pruning; for the best have notions, passions, and humors, that require to be taken away, which Christ has promised to forward the sanctification of believers, they will be thankful, for them. The word of Christ is spoken to all believers; and there is a cleansing virtue in that word, as it works grace, and works out corruption. And the more fruit we bring forth, the more we abound in what is good, the more our Lord is glorified. In order to fruitfulness, we must abide in Christ, must have union with him by faith. It is the great concern of all Christ's disciples, constantly to keep up dependence upon Christ, and communion with him. True Christians find by experience, that any interruption in the exercise of their faith, causes holy affections to decline, their corruptions to revive, and their comforts to droop. Those who abide not in Christ, though they may flourish for awhile in outward profession, yet come to nothing. The fire is the fittest place for withered branches; they are good for nothing else. Let us seek to live more simply on the fullness of Christ, and to grow more fruitful in every good word and work, so may our joy in Him and in his salvation be full.
The hydraulic analogy of the winesap representing the love of God in Christ leads us into the first letter of John the elder. We must keep in mind that the fruit of the vine will then be the love for the brother. John the fourth evengelist may not be the same man as John the elder but their theologies dovetail so precisely as to almost overlap. Even the details of the withered branches being fit only for firewood recalls the hellinistic view of the man without a soul.
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