The Vine and the Branches

Homily for Wednesday in The Fifth Week of Easter

Behind the image of Jesus as the true vine lies the rich tradition of the vine as a symbol for Israel and enshrined in the Scripture, art, and liturgy of the Jewish people. Israel is God’s vineyard, a vine God brought out of Egypt and planted in the land God cleared. It was a choice vine that became wild, a luxuriant vine which Hosea prophesied would yield abundant fruit to false gods. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel proclaimed that Israel’s faithless branches had to be stripped away, its remnant gleaned, and its withered stem consumed by fire. The prophets’ thunder against the fruitless vine did not, however, obliterate the image of Israel as God’s vine, an image that appeared on coins from the Maccabean period and adorned the entrance to the sanctuary in Herod’s Temple, sculpted in gold. According to the Book of Sirach, the vine could also symbolize Wisdom and the Messiah.

St. John’s Gospel frequently references that the disciples of Jesus must bear good fruit. The text that we read today is an allegory in which the vine is Jesus, the vine grower is God the Father, and the branches are Jesus’s disciples. Against this background, Jesus’s final “I AM” saying carried climactic force for John’s first readers. Whereas they had previously counted on their being Israelites to assure their living relationship to God, Jesus’s claim to be the true vine means that he is the final link with God, fulfilling what Sirach affirms about Wisdom and what about Baruch later affirms of the Messiah.

Jesus’s direct command to his disciples, “Abide in me as I abide in you,” is the heart of the matter. It connotes a deep, mutual indwelling. Jesus has already introduced the theme of mutual indwelling in his teaching about the Paraclete in the previous chapter. This inward, spiritual union is contingent on loving Jesus and keeping his word or commandments. There is an essential connection between abiding in him and bearing fruit. When we love, we remain in Jesus and he in us. It is through him that we are able to bear fruit for the world. He is the vine, we are the branches. Without him we can do nothing.