Vines Don’t Bear Fruit
The branches do.
Lectio divina. John 15. I am the vine. You are the branches.
I am the vine. You are the branches. Remain in me, and I in you, and you will bear much fruit.
Reading this familiar passage, I had the sudden thought: Vines don’t bear fruit. The branches do. If Jesus is the vine, he’s not bearing fruit. We are.
On Monday of Holy Week, friend, priest and co-founder of the Minnesota agricultural ministry Good Courage Farm, Kerri Meyer, offered a graphic image: the Cross as pruning shears that split open Christ so we could be grafted on. So we, as tender mortal branches could be inserted into the divine rootstock Christ. Just like the deep pruning of a fruit tree seems like butchering but is necessary to open the way to more fruit.
I am the vine, you are the branches. Vines don’t bear fruit, branches do.
Pre-Easter, Jesus was the one bearing fruit: Healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven, eating with sinners.
Post-Easter, Jesus is no longer bearing fruit. The branches are. This week’s lectionary links Acts to John. Just as we hear Jesus saying, “I am the vine,” we see Peter preaching in Jerusalem and 3,000 followers are added in a day. Just as we are instructed, “You are the branches,” we find Peter and John as they approach the Temple, encounter a disabled beggar, and heal him on the spot. Just as Jesus would have done, now they, the branches, do.
I am the vine, you are the branches. Vines don’t bear fruit, branches do.
In the 16th century, Teresa of Avila wrote:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth by yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
I am the vine. You are the branches.
Vines don’t bear fruit. Branches do.