Easter 5B, 2023

Text: John 15:1-8
Title: Abide in Me

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!

“Abide in me,” says Jesus.

“Stay put.  Remain here.  Don’t go anywhere,” says Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t tell the disciples to come to Him. They’re already there.  Jesus is not talking to non-Christians, outsiders. He’s talking to His followers, His friends.

The disciples are in Christ, because Christ has called them, He has drawn them out of their old life, and given them a new one. Their job now is simply to stay where they are.

Jesus says that they are clean.  Their sins have been washed away.  They are holy.

You are clean, you are holy, you are in Christ because you have been baptized.

That’s what we heard in the first reading with the story of the Ethiopian.  He was reading about Jesus from the Old Testament.  And he wanted to be connected to that Jesus, after Philip had told him the good news. And so he was baptized, he died and rose again there at the water, and the Ethiopian became connected to Jesus.

In baptism, you are grafted into the vine, Jesus Christ.

“Abide in me,” says Jesus.  “You don’t need to go looking for me; You don’t need to connect yourself to me.  I’ve already done all the work for you.  Just stay where you are.”

And that’s a hard thing.  You want to wander.  You want to try new things.  You want to dabble in a bit of this or that. 

There are other vines out there that seem attractive to you.

This might mean trying a new religion. There are tons of them, how do you know you’ve chosen the right one?  Maybe there’s one out there that’s a better fit for you.

This might mean joining all your friends who have given up on organized religion and decided to just be “spiritual.”  Why do you need to read a bunch of old stories and follow a bunch of outdated rules.  Haven’t we evolved beyond all that superstition?

Here’s the point: You need to stay connected to Jesus because He is the only true vine, the only source of life.

We’re still in the Easter season.  We’re still celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That event is the cornerstone of our faith.  Because Jesus rose from the dead, you have the hope of everlasting life.  That’s what being connected to the vine means, receiving that life from Jesus. 

And Jesus is the only one who has risen.  The Buddha is dead.  Mohammed is dead.  Every other prophet and messiah out there has died and stayed dead.  Every modern-day philosopher, politician, and pop star will die. 

Your only hope for everlasting life is in Jesus Christ.

“Abide in me,” says Jesus.

He has connected you to Himself.  You can’t disconnect from Him and hope to stay alive, any more than a branch disconnected from a vine can hope to stay alive.  It doesn’t work.  On its own, a branch will quickly shrivel and die.

What does it mean to stay connected to Jesus?

It means listening to Him.  Jesus says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you.”

Jesus’ words are His lifeline, the source of your nourishment.  Jesus’ words bear the Holy Spirit.  They create and strengthen faith in you.  His words are not just information to make you smarter.  You can’t simply say, “Oh, I went to Sunday School.  I’ve been confirmed.  I know everything that I need to know,” any more than you can say, “I ate last week.  I had a few good meals.  I’ve eaten everything I need to eat.”

Abiding in Christ means receiving nourishment from His word, each and every day.  Because, if you don’t, your spiritual life will shrivel and die, just like a branch disconnected from the vine.

“Abide in me,” says Jesus.  Not just to stay alive, but to bear fruit.

You are not just some comatose patient on life-support, who just lays there day after day, simply existing and staying alive and nothing more.

You are connected to Christ to bear fruit!

What does it mean to be fruitful? 

This doesn’t mean to have a lot of money. This doesn’t mean to have an easy comfortable life.  This doesn’t mean that everything you do will be successful and beneficial to you.

Fruit does not benefit the branch at all. Fruit does not do the branch any good. Fruit is the branch’s gift to the world. Fruit is for the enjoyment of the farmer and others with whom He shares it.  Fruit helps to spread the seed and create new plants.  Fruit brings joy and refreshment.

Jesus says, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.”

The whole reason for having a grape vine in the first place is to produce fruit.  Not just to look nice, but to grow grapes. 

The fruit you bear is your love for other people. You fruit is your selfless, sacrificial love for the world around you.  Your fruit is doing what John says in receiving the love of God, and then loving other people.

Your fruit is not your love for yourself, but your love for other people.

Being connected to Jesus Christ, the vine, means that you will be pruned from time to time.  Notice that the fruitful branches still get pruned.  Jesus says, “every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

When a vinedresser prunes back a branch, he is often cutting away good, healthy shoots and leaves.  Why does He do this?  He wants the branch to put all its energy into growing fruit.  To the branch, this may seem cruel and painful.  The branch doesn’t understand why it’s being cut back. The branch may even judge the vinedresser to be foolish or unfair.

But the vinedresser has a plan, and only he knows what it will take to get the best and biggest harvest from the branch.

So it is with you.  You have felt the pruning shears cut away parts of your life that you value, that you thought were good and healthy.  But in the end, these took your energy, your focus off of producing fruit, and so they were taken from you.

When you experience pain and loss, it’s easy to blame God and to doubt Him.  And yet these can be the times that we grow the most in our faith and learn to rely on Him more and more.

Grapes only grow on new growth.  By cutting branches back, the vinedresser stimulates them to grow more and produce more fruit.

“Abide in Me,” says Jesus.  But this abiding, this staying put doesn’t mean to be stagnant, to be lifeless.  Jesus calls you to abide in Him so that you will grow, so that you will flower and be fruitful.

It’s a bit of a paradox.

On the one hand, we abide in Christ.  We don’t go looking for new saviors, new sources of truth.  We don’t seek our own pleasure and enjoyment as our goal in life.  As Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”

On the other hand, we grow and bear fruit. We engage the world around us with the love of Jesus.  “If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

“Abide in me,” says Jesus.  He is the vine, and you are his beloved branch.  He has connected you to Himself.  He feeds you with His word.  And through His loving care, you will bear fruit, to the glory of God the Father.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!