Abiding in Jesus, Living in Him (3)

 

 

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4 – 5.

 

This is the heart of our passage (John 15:1 – 8) and so we will begin with it and then drop back (in future reflections) to verse 1 and work our way forward. There is also a sense in which it is the heart of the Upper Room, even though the trajectory of the Upper Room is the Holy of Holies in Chapter 17.

 

Can we see, in John 15:4 – 5, a connection, an affinity, with John 14:21 & 23? Can we see 15:4 – 5 in John 17:23?

 

In addition to 15:4 – 5 being the heart of the Upper Room, it also reaches back and pulls chapters 1 – 12 into itself, most especially the central focus of the Son and the Father. How might this be? How is 15:4 – 5 portrayed in the relationship of Jesus and the Father?

 

We might think of 15:4 – 5 as middle C on a piano, if we don’t know where middle C is our music will be off. Or think about what happens on a computer keyboard when your fingers are not positioned properly. What happens? Yjod od ejsy js[[rmd/ I meant to type, “This is what happens”, but my fingers were off by one key, just being off one key to the right created nonsense.

 

Jesus says, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” Then He says that unless we abide in Him, live in Him, dwell in Him, that we cannot bear fruit. Jesus says, “…apart from Me you can do nothing.” Do we believe that “the branch cannot bear fruit of itself”? Do we believe what Jesus is saying?

 

If we do not believe what Jesus is saying, and if our lives are not lived in Him as the Vine, as our sole source of life, then our fingers are misplaced on the keyboard and we will produce nonsense. If we give lip service to what Jesus says, but functionally live life on our own, then at best we produce nonsense and at worst we produce religious hypocrisy and death, leading others astray.

 

“Unless Yahweh builds the house, they labor in vain who build it, unless Yahweh guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.” Psalm 127:1. What is true of the house and true of the city is true of you and me; Jesus must be our Author and Completer, our First and Last, our Alpha and Omega – and of course, everything in between.

 

Koinonia with Jesus Christ is often first “Me and Jesus,” then it is “Jesus and me,” and finally it is “Jesus.” Of course we also have the horizontal dimension of others which we see throughout the Upper Room, including in the Holy of Holies (see John 17:21 – 23; and let us not forget the beauty of 1 John 1:3).

 

Let’s return to the question, “How is 15:4 – 5 portrayed in the relationship of Jesus and the Father?”

 

The answer to this question is foundational to the Gospel of John. It is foundational to our life in Christ, both vertically and horizontally. While I am hesitant to use language that can be construed as sensational or overstatement or hyperbole, I will say this, that for the Christian, for the woman or man or young person who has come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, John 15:4 – 5 and the answer to the question about how the relationship of Jesus and the Father portrays these two verses, is the key to understanding and living the Christian life.