“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” John 15:1.
As we embark on John
Chapter 15, let’s remind ourselves that chapter divisions (and verse numbers)
were not in the original manuscripts, they did not appear until a few hundred
years after the Bible was first in circulation. Sometimes chapter divisions
indicate a break in the action or line of thought, and sometimes they don’t. It
is up to the reader – you and me, and us as a People – to determine the
connection between chapters; sometimes this is straightforward, sometimes it is
challenging.
There are sections
of the Prophets in which it can be difficult to see where one prophecy ends and
another one begins. In the Epistles, chapter breaks often interrupt the flow of
thought and it is important to teach ourselves to ignore them so that we can flow
down the river with Paul and Peter and John and James.
Many Bibles also
have section headings. These are headings inserted within chapters by the
editors of Bibles. As I write this, my NASB has the following headings in John
14: “Jesus Comforts His Disciples” (verses 1 – 6); “Oneness with the Father” (7
– 15); “Role of the Spirit” (16 – 31). These headings are not part of
the Bible and should not be read as if they were part of the Bible.
I have often
heard well – meaning folks read Scripture aloud to a congregation and include
section headings in their reading, we need to teach our people to do better
than this since the headings are not the Word of God.
Having a visual
break on the page makes sense to me, breaking the text up with white space can
make it easier to read, but having section headings in the breaks is, I think, distracting
and for many people it is misleading. A visual break in the text does not
mean a break in thought, and a section heading is distracting at best and
misleading at worst.
We must do our
own reading, together in Christ, to enter into the flow and depth of the Bible,
we must open ourselves to the Bible, we must submit ourselves to the Bible, and
we must allow Jesus, the Word of God, to enter us and live within us as we eat
Heavenly Manna (which is Jesus, Jesus, always Jesus Christ – see John Chapter
6).
The way we read
and hear God’s Word determines how we see Jesus coming to us in His Word. We
read in worship, in thanksgiving, in submission to Jesus, in responsive
obedience to Jesus, in adoration of Jesus, in attentiveness to the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. We read in expectation, in meditation, in prayer, in
faith and hope and love. Perhaps the writer of Hebrews gives us a firm
foundation for reading when he says:
“And without
faith it is impossible to please [Him], for he who comes to God must believe
that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6).
Perhaps we can
also say that all Divine reading is anchored in meditation on God’s Word. “But
his delight is in the law of Yahweh, and in His law he meditates day and night”
(Psalm 1:2). Psalm 1 gives us not only the foundation for the Psalms, but for
reading the entire Bible. There is a sense in which meditation on and in the
Word of God is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus – that is, of
partaking of Him as our source of life (see John 6:32 – 71).
Also consider that
our Father has given us the Bible so that we “may become partakers of the
Divine Nature” (2 Pt. 1:4). The Bible is a Eucharistic Table spread for us; we
partake of Christ as we eat from this Table…can we see this? Are we
experiencing it?
The Bible is the
revelation of Jesus Christ, and it is our Main Street where we experience
koinonia with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and with one another in
the Triune God.
If we are in too
much of a hurry to meditate on the Bible, to read it as it is written as opposed
to reading it piecemeal and as a self – help book, then we are simply too busy.
We are to be God’s People of the Book, not a people who use the Book for our
own ends.
I’ve taken the
time to remind ourselves of these things because we are moving from Chapter 14
to Chapter 15, but we really aren’t moving anywhere because the flow continues,
what began in John Chapter 13 continues through John Chapter 17 and we are
invited by Jesus to experience this glorious dance of joy throughout the Upper
Room. Also, the Vine and the Branches (John 15:1ff) connects what precedes it
and what follows it – for the only way to obey the commands of Jesus (John
14:21, 23; 15:10) is to abide in the Vine!
As you read John
14:16 – 15:11 can you see how the Vine and the Branches (15:1 – 9) form a door
from Chapter 14 into Chapter 15?
(A Note on John
14:31, “Get up, let us go from here.” I view John chapters 13 – 17 as the Upper
Room. Whether or not all of the words and actions in these chapters occurred in
the physical Upper Room, they began there and flowed from there. There is one continuous
narrative that begins in Chapter 13 and enters the depths of the Trinity in
Chapter 17. We are given what we are given, and John and the Holy Spirit do not
interrupt the flow of Jesus’ teaching with descriptions of whether they remained
in the Upper Room, were walking toward Gethsemane, or were in Gethsemane. If
the Holy Spirit and John did not interrupt Jesus, I have no warrant to
interrupt Jesus – let us read and hear Jesus speaking to us in the form that He
has given us, let us allow the Holy Spirit to draw us to Jesus and into the
Holy of Holies of koinonia with the Trinity and with one another.)
