Pruning

"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" (John 15:1-8).

When you think of spring, you think of gardening.  Browsing at the store as you try to decide what to plant this year.  Planning the layout of your garden.  Tilling the ground and applying fertilizer.  All this in preparation for the day when you put seed in the ground.

But this is only the beginning of a gardener’s work.  You must make sure that the seedlings get adequate moisture.  You check each plant for bugs.  You are constantly pulling weeds.  A beautiful garden requires much care and attention.

When a farmer plants a field, he has to look at the big picture.  But when you tend a garden, each plant gets your individual attention.  You want them to grow tall and strong, and this requires pruning.  Pruning keeps a plant from growing in the wrong direction; pruning trims away things that are not productive or are diseased, things that keep the plant from achieving its potential.  Dead branches are gathered up and taken away for burning.  It only takes a glance to tell whether a garden is being tended or neglected.  Gardens that are left uncared for quickly grow wild; they are not pleasing to the eye, nor do they produce good food for the dinner table.

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus speaks of a garden planted by God.  That garden is supposed to be a thing of beauty; it’s also supposed to be productive.  You and I are plants in that garden, growing from seeds of faith planted by the Lord.  In Luke chapter eight, Jesus described that planting in a parable: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up.  Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown."…His disciples asked him what this parable meant.  He said…"The seed is the word of God.  Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.  The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.  But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop." 

There is more to gardening than just putting seeds in the ground.  Each plant needs to be looked after—you give it water, you pull weeds, you apply pesticide.  And you prune it.  Like a gardener, God prunes us. He cuts off every branch…that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  He trims away things that keep us from growing into healthy and mature Christians.  He might arrange it so that you move to another city or state, maybe to get you away from something exerting a bad influence on you, maybe to place you where your God-given skills can be put to better use.  God might allow you to get sick, forcing you to reexamine your priorities in life.  Our heavenly Father might use severe weather, economic problems, or some other tough challenge to strip away things that are keeping you from focusing on Him like you should. 

Pruning is painful.  A plant that is pruned bleeds for a time.  When God prunes us, it hurts—sometimes it can hurt for quite a while.  But the thing that gives us hope is this—God prunes us because He cares about us.  He does not want us to grow up stunted because of our love for sin.  He does not want us enslaved by addiction.  He does not want us leading empty lives, trying to find closeness through one night stands because we’re afraid of commitment.  He wants to spare us from a lifetime of regret because we chose having fun over acting responsibly.  So God prunes us, cutting away the things we love that ultimately cause harm. 

It hurts to give up something or have it taken away, even when that change is for the best.  The only way we can make it through is by relying on Jesus.  He is the seed that our faith sprang from.  He is our strong root when the storms of life try to knock us down.  He is our source of life, and He makes it possible for us to blossom and produce something of value with our efforts. 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. 

We need Jesus in order for our lives to produce anything worthwhile.  God did not give us life just so we could eat and sleep and have fun; we were created for a purpose.  Paul writes, we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).  God planted us with the expectation that we would be fruitful.  No gardener will put up with a plant that doesn’t give beauty to the garden or food for the plate.  Jesus speaks of this in Luke chapter 13: A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any.  So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, `For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' `Sir,' the man replied, `leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it.  If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'  In this parable, God the Father is the landowner who is angered that His fig tree is doing nothing productive.  The fig tree represents us, men and women blessed by God but too selfish and lazy to do anything useful with His gifts.  The gardener is Jesus; He asks the owner to be patient while He works with us, encouraging our growth and usefulness. 

Jesus is our source of life and He is our source for second chances.  We fail God constantly; we ignore His rules, we don’t pray to Him as often as we should, we don’t make time for studying His Word even though we have easy access to a Bible.  We treat our parents with disrespect, we let anger cloud our thinking, we break promises when they are inconvenient, we spread gossip and lies, we cheat on tests and take things that don’t belong to us, we whine and complain when we don’t get our way.  We deserve to be cut off from God and thrown into the fire to be burned.

Thankfully, Jesus has come to our rescue.  He obeyed God’s law down to the finest detail, living the perfect life God expects from each of us.  Jesus offered up His perfect life in place of ours; the punishment we deserve from God was heaped on Jesus instead, causing His death on the cross.  Then Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning, rose to be our living vine so that by being joined to Him, we might live and bear much fruit. 

We cannot go it alone. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me…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.  We need a strong connection to the Author and Giver of Life.  That connection starts when He plants the seed of faith in us through baptism.  But that connection must be nurtured to stay alive and grow in strength.  You cannot plant a garden and then go on vacation; that garden needs constant attention.  Faith draws its nourishment from the Water of Life which flows from Jesus. Faith needs the light that shines from God’s holy Word. Faith needs the fertilizer of Jesus’ body and blood, shared with us through Holy Communion.  If we neglect our faith it will shrivel and die, and God will cast us into hell to be burned as worthless for all eternity.

When we draw our life from Christ, we have access to His almighty power.  He said, 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.  With these words, Jesus reveals the key to God-pleasing prayer.  Some people grumble that they pray and pray and pray, yet God never seems to be listening.  But consider these words from James chapter four: When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.  God is not interested in supporting your bad habits; prayers for such things are a waste of breath.  The kind of prayers God values are those that seek help to do His will.  When we ask God to forgive our sins and the sins of those who have trespassed against us; when we ask God for wisdom to teach our children the ways of righteousness; when we ask God to restore our health so we can serve Him better—when we ask for such things in the name of Christ, we can be sure that God listens and will bless us. 

Everyone enjoys a gardener’s work.  We love to gaze at a beautiful garden that is well maintained and artfully designed.  We enjoy fresh garden produce and appreciate the spices that can make even bland food taste good.  But those gardens take a lot of work.  You take a lot of work.  God planted you as a part of His garden, drawing your life from Christ.  But you need a lot of care and attention—sin makes you grow in wild and unruly ways.  Be grateful that God lavishes so much attention on you, watering, fertilizing, weeding and pruning you so that you might be productive and beautiful.  Show God your appreciation by bearing much fruit; make sure that the things you say and do give glory to the Father who cares for you.