Tomorrow at Saint Paul’s, May 6th, 2012: “Christ Is Your Vine” (John 15:1-8)

Dear Christians,

Don’t be bashful about the ramifications of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in the life of His people! Sometimes we are self-conscious about speaking of the new life for fear that we will slip into legalism or somehow contradict that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, but the Scriptures are clear about the new life. For example 2nd Corinthians 5:17 proclaims that you are a “new creation.”

That new creation is described in terms of a real, spiritual and mystical union between the Christian and the Lord Jesus Christ in John 15! John 15:5 states, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” 

In Holy Scripture, the children of God saved by Christ are described as being both in Christ and Christ in them. Such a life must yield something; it will most definitely produce something! It does! The fruit that is produced is real indeed. Tomorrow our 1st reading is from Acts 8. There the fruit in Deacon Philip’s life was more than evident. He witnessed to the Ethiopian eunuch. Because of that fruit that God produced, the eunuch came to saving faith! Our second reading is 1st John 4. There we hear about the fruit of the Christian who confesses the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ and furthermore, loves their fellow believers! Let’s track the progression here: Christ is the Vine…His people are the branches…Christ produces such fruit — as true confession and true love for one another — in and through His people!

A Christian without bearing fruit is like a sun that doesn’t bear light; or a glass of water without the water…yeah, that’s right, it’s like a contradiction in terms right? It doesn’t make sense. St. James taught that faith with works (another reference to the fruit of the Spirit) is dead (James 2:17 & 2:26). A Christian without fruit “doesn’t make sense.” This would be a contradiction in terms!

But here’s the thing: you can’t get all self-conscious or feel guilty and say to yourself, “Wow, I had better start producing fruit!” And then make yourself fruitful! Doesn’t work that way! We can’t self-generate. God takes care of that too! He keeps us producing fruit through repentance which in John 15 is described as “pruning.” At verse 2, the Lord says, “…and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes…”.

Through His word in you — Jesus speak of His words abiding in us at verse 7 — the Holy Spirit leads us to experience the pruning that God conducts upon those He loves. Pruning is not exactly a pleasant process. In fact, at times it can be down right painful. It involves a “tearing away” that is exactly what occurs in repentance (Matthew 5:29-30 is vivid in describing the tearing away of repentance). Repentance is the constant confession of sin that includes the tearing away from the sin that would otherwise dominate you. But we daily return to our baptismal grace — through the Word of Christ abiding in us through which the Holy Spirit works — and return to the Lord who heaped our sins upon Himself and tore our sins from us and placed them squarely upon Himself.

In that same verse mentioned above — that is John 15:2 — Jesus also invites us to “ask whatever you wish…”. I don’t imagine Jesus had in mind that we ask Him for sports cars and entertainment systems, but as the Lord works in us, we are filled with what He desires for us. So ask away! Ask Him to keep you in His pruning work, ask Him to keep you steadfast in His Word, and ask Him to keep you as His living branch through whom He produces fruit!

Come and worship tomorrow! Experience His work in you through Word and Sacrament, giving you the fruit of His saving body and blood especially in Holy Communion, and then experience His ongoing work in you as His branch filled with His fruit pruned and pruned constantly, because you are in Him and He is in you!

In Christ,

Dr. Espinosa

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