Ep. 244. John 15-16 | I am the Vine
EPISODE 244
I AM THE VINE: JOHN 15-16
Jesus said, "I am the TRUE vine." It is a good idea for us to ask what he means by "true" vine. Again, we can mine the Old Testament to arrive more closely at the truth. It would take me much too long to include all the verses the OT uses to talk about Israel/Judah as the vine. Consider Jeremiah 2, where God talks about planting Israel as a pure vine but that they had forsaken the Lord and become a "wild vine."
In Ezekiel 15, the nation of Judah/Israel is referred to as a worthless vine. Many prophets have dealt with the nation of Israel as God's wild or unruly vine. There is a promise that God will one day restore Israel to its place of prominence, but when Jesus says he is the "true vine," he is offering that as a contrast to Israel.
Where Israel had faithlessly represented God, Jesus had succeeded. Where Israel was no longer an entity for the glory of God, Jesus was nothing but the fullness of God's glory. Where Israel had failed to bear fruit for God, those people connected to Christ could do nothing but bear fruit. Where Israel had been a false hope for the salvation of the people, Jesus had been a true and living hope.
We want so badly for this language about the vine to be connected to the vineyards in California or some Tuscan hillside, but the language of the vine first had a place in the Old Testament prophesies and for us to begin to look for answers anywhere other than the Old Testament will likely set us on an unstable footing with false conclusions.
Second, if Jesus did not depart from the disciples and return to the Father, the Holy Spirit could not come. In fact, Jesus says that it is to the "advantage" of the disciples that he departed so that the Spirit could come. The believer has a tremendous advantage in that they are empowered by the Holy Spirit, and now the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us.
ADDITIONAL READING: Ezekiel 15; 1 John 2:22-23; Psalm 35:19; Psalm 69:4; Isaiah 66:14; Psalm 22:24
