Psalm 80:8-19 Isaiah 5:1-7 John 15:1-8
The Purpose of Life
I don’t think I need to tell you that Covenants are extremely important in the Bible. In the Old Testament we have several covenants, starting with God and Adam and Eve, God and Noah, God and Abraham, God and David, and finally, God and Israel. The Hebrew word often used is “berît”, a legal term that can be compared to what we would call a treaty or a contract.
Now, many Ancient Near Eastern nations used various contracts in various ways, but the one I would like us to focus on today is the so-called suzerainty contract or treaty, which is an agreement between a superior power and a lesser power. These treaties followed a basic pattern that usually included, the identity of the superior power, the nature of the relationship between the active participants, and the requirements to be heeded for this relationship to continue. Copies of the treaty were most often placed in a holy place like a temple. There were witnesses to the treaty and all agreed to a series of blessings if the requirements were met and a withdrawal of blessings if they were not.
Now, all these points are included in the biblical covenants. Basically, in the biblical covenants God said, this is who I am, this is who you are, this is what I did for you to bring you into a relationship with myself, and therefore this is how you will live as my people. If you obey me, I will bless you, but if you disobey me, I will withdraw my blessing.
Of course, as you all know, a copy of one such biblical treaty, inscribed on stone, was placed in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies and the people served as witnesses to the agreement. Later, when the Ark of the Covenant was lost, Scripture itself, especially the Torah, served as the covenant document as well as a witness for God. This is more than likely why much of what Jesus and later New Testament authors said was prefaced with words like “it is written” or “according to the Scriptures” pr “this was to fulfil what was written”. They were appealing to the covenant.
Now, I’m telling you all this because I believe that John 15 ought to be interpreted in terms of this kind of covenant treaty. In this passage, Jesus says this is who I am, this is who you are, I have made you clean, and I have chosen you to be my own and appointed you to bear abundant fruit, therefore this is how you will live as my people. If you obey me, I will bless you, but if you disobey me, I will withdraw my blessing.
Why do I think this passage ought to be interpreted in terms of the covenant treaty? Well, mainly because the imagery of a vine or a vineyard is not new as we saw in our two Old Testament readings. (By the way, you can also find references to this imagery in Jeremiah 2:21 and Ezekiel 15:1-8 and Ezekiel 17:1-10. Paul used a different image in Romans 11, describing Israel as an Olive tree with branches being grafted in or cut off. John would later use the image of the Tree of Life in the Revelation. But these are talks for another time.)
In Psalm 80, after Asaph rehearsed the identity of both the superior power and the lesser power – describing God as not just a Shepherd, but the Shepherd of a specific people…he is the Shepherd of Israel…but he is not a mere local or tribal deity…he is the almighty Lord God of hosts – after Asaph reviewed this, he then addressed the nature of the relationship between the two active participants, in this case a broken relationship.
He then outlined the history of this relationship as a basis for an appeal for clemency. He said, “You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took root and filled the land.”
But then, he described the withdrawal of blessing. “…you (have) broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit…the boar from the forest ravages it, and all that moves in the field feed on it…they have burned it with fire; they have cut it down…”
Likewise in Isaiah 5, the vineyard was planted and nurtured by God, but did not yield appropriate fruit…instead it yielded wild grapes, indicating an improper response to the requirements of the treaty. As a result of this breach of contract, as it were, God said that he will “…remove its (protective) hedge, and it shall be devoured; (he) will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. (He) will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; (He) will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”
Now, at this point, it is important to note that in both Psalm 80 and Isaiah 5, the vine is identified as Israel…God’s own chosen people. So, when Jesus said to his first century Jewish disciples, “I AM the true vine (or “choice vine” as in Jeremiah 2), and my Father is the vinedresser” what would they have understood? When he spoke to them as those appointed to bear abundant fruit, do you think they would have remembered these two passages, as well as the others from Jeremiah and Ezekiel? And the language of prolific blessing as well as of overwhelming cursing…removal, casting out, and being burned with fire…all of this would surely have been interpreted by them in terms of the covenant.
Interestingly, Greek scholars have recently discovered that the words usually translated as “vine” and “branches” here had shifted in meaning a long time before John wrote his Gospel. The word “ampelos” or “vine” came to mean a “vineyard” and the word “klema” or “branch” came to mean the “vines” planted in that vineyard. If John used these words according to the meaning current in his day, we could translate our Lord’s words as, “I AM the true vineyard and my Father is the vine grower”; “I AM the vineyard, you are the vines”; “he removes every vine in me that bears no fruit”; “every vine that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit”; “the vine cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vineyard”; and “whoever does not abide in me is cast out like a vine and withers; such vines are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
Interestingly, something like this actually happened in the great French wine blight of the mid19th Century. Vines were ripped up and burned to stop the spread of the problem…but I digress…
Either way, vine or vineyard, I believe this parabolic teaching of Jesus can be favourably paralleled with another agrarian parable found in Matthew 13 of which I’m sure you are all familiar. Remember the parable of the wheat and the weeds? “The kingdom of heaven,” Jesus said, “may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field (a field we are later told represents the world), but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So, when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So, the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather (or uproot) them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest (later explained as the “end of the age’), and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned but gather the wheat into my barn.””
Now, if we read these two parables, together with the other passages, in the light of what we understand about the covenant, I believe we can better interpret and apply what we read in John 15.
Remember, as Paul would write later in the New Testament era, Jesus is more than just the New Israel. Jesus is the New Adam…he is the new head of humanity. All are subject to him, including the so-called “ruler of this world” who has no claim on him. All things have been placed in subjection to him (1 Corinthians 15:27). All authority in BOTH Heaven AND Earth has been given to him (Matthew 28:18). And while we might not yet see all things in subjection to him, but we do see him crowned with glory and honour (Hebrews 2:9). Every knee will bow before him. Every tongue will confess him as Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11).
Jesus, dearest beloved brethren, is the current sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords, presently reigning at the right hand of the Father until all his enemies are placed under his feet (Psalm, 110:1; Acts 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:24-25; Hebrews 1:13, 10:12-13) and all the fruitless vines (or the weeds) are uprooted and cast into the fire.
In the one parable, Jesus’ kingdom is the field, and that field is the world, where wheat and weeds grow alongside each other. In the other parable, Jesus is the vineyard. Fruitful vines and barren vines apparently grow together. In this sense, both are ‘in him’ in that neither can escape his present reign. Both are subject to his sovereignty. But a time will come when the weeds and the barren vines will be removed, cast out, and burned in the fire.
Personally, I think we are barking up the wrong tree when we reduce the meaning of ‘in me’ to the Church. That only leads to wild speculation such as who can lose their salvation or the possibility of losing your salvation, not to mention harsh unfounded judgement, on who is ‘saved’ and who is ‘not saved’.
If Jesus is seated at the right hand of God right now, well then all who live post crucifixion, post resurrection, and post ascension are ‘in’ the field… or ‘in’ the vineyard…because all are under the reign of the second Adam.
If we read John 15 together with Isaiah 5, Matthew 13, and the other passages, then we see that the wheat and the good vines produce not just abundant fruit, but the right kind of fruit. This echoes the teaching of John the Baptist in Matthew 3: “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
However, according to Jesus, the vines cannot bear good fruit by themselves. Apart from him, he said, we can do nothing. The only way the vines can bear good fruit is if they have been cleansed by Jesus and if they remain in Jesus. So, if I understand these passages correctly, then it seems to me that the main purpose of life in the Kingdom of God is not to produce fruit but rather the main purpose of life in the Kingdom of God is to abide. If we abide, abundant fruit will follow.
This is where Israel got it wrong…this is where the Galatians got it wrong…this is where the Corinthians got it wrong…this is where so many of us get it wrong. It is not for us to produce the fruit. It is for us to abide in the vineyard. It is not our fruit to produce…it is the fruit of the Spirit. Again, if we abide, abundant fruit will follow.
Just as in the case of the Ancient Near Eastern Covenants or Treaties where the blessings were not obtained by self-creation or self-cultivation but rather by remaining obedient to the requirements of the treaty, so too the fruit Jesus spoke of here is obtained by abiding in Jesus and Jesus abiding in us. The blessings and the fruit come as a result of abiding by the rules governing the relationship.
Abiding in him…living according to the rules of the relationship…being governed by the word abiding in us…this leads to correct thinking and asking and receiving. That is why the bearing of much fruit glorifies the Father and not the fruit bearer. That is why the bearing of much fruit proves that we are Jesus’s disciples. The fruit points directly to God not to us.
According to Deuteronomy 7, the covenant of God with Israel was based on his love for them…nothing more and certainly nothing less. It was not anything done by Israel that made God love them. He loved them because he loved them and therefore, he delivered them and he made them his own precious people. But for this special relationship to continue, Israel had to stay true to their new benevolent superior power. He did not set them free from slavery only for them to continue to live like slaves. He set them free to be free…and that freedom is demonstrated through and maintained by obediently abiding. Staying true to our new identity.
Abiding is so much more than simply staying…so much more than remaining. It is living as we were designed to live…living according to the life-giving principles of the one who is the source and sustenance of all life. That is why abiding produces fruit…it proves that we are alive in him.
Now as with Israel of old, God demonstrated his love for us by delivering us while we still slaves to sin or while we were still sinners. As John will go on to say in this same passage, abiding is living and thriving in that love.
For this reason, I believe, Jesus chose the imagery of his death…his body broken, his blood shed…he chose the imagery of his sacrifice for us (using the fruit of the vine as an element) to be the memorial by which we remember him. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood takes the image of abiding in him to another much higher level. It is something internalized…it is something absorbed and made part of who we are as individuals united with him and each other…it is a rooting and a grounding in him…it is a union with him.
So, as you take the bread and the wine today…before you eat…before you drink…before you swallow, think of how this simple yet profound action validates your abiding in Jesus. And then in gratitude, rest in the assurance that as you abide in him and he in you, he is pruning and cultivating you to bear his abundant fruit for the glory of the Father.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment