I was asked to write a devotion for St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis this year as a clergy person/friend who came out of St. Luke's. I was honored to be asked to write one. They are doing a series of devotions based on the "I Am" sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of John. I chose to write about Jesus as the "true vine." Below is the devotion I wrote:
“I am the true vine, and my father is the vineyard
keeper…remain in me and I will remain in you.
A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine…I am
the vine, and you are the branches. If
you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit.” -John 15:1-5 (Common English Bible)
In December
of 2011, my husband, Corey and I had the opportunity to travel to the Holy
Land. We saw and encountered many
wonderful things on our trip. There were so many sights, sounds, and feelings
to experience as we walked in the footsteps of Jesus. One image that has remained with me is that
of the olive tree, especially the many we saw while on the Mount of Olives
overlooking Jerusalem where Jesus prayed over the holy city. Later, while walking in the Garden of
Gethsemane, we were told that some of the olive trees there today date back to
the time of Jesus. The more I learned
about olive trees, the more I kept coming back to understanding why Jesus was
surrounded by them, and perhaps some that heard his words still might be
standing today. Olive trees are strong
and hearty trees. Their root systems are
such that they are capable of regenerating the tree, even if the structure
above ground is destroyed. Some of the
trees that we saw were thousands of years old with twisted, gnarly trunks, and
many branches of shapes and sizes making up the canopy of the trees. These branches had obviously been broken off
or destroyed at some point, and had grown back in, yet the root and gnarly
trunk remained.
When Jesus tells his followers, “I
am the true vine,” he is probably referring to more of a vineyard vine that
produces fruit, but the image is the same: that Jesus is the root to which we
all should cling. When our lives get
chaotic, loud, and distracted, we are to return to Jesus, the true vine, the
root of us all. Like the olive tree,
when our lives feel destroyed, shattered, and broken, Jesus is there to bring
us back to life. Like the gnarled trunk
and branches, we too may feel tattered, torn, and twisted, but Jesus as the
root will reshape and transform us if we put our faith and trust in him. As Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans,
even if we are like the limbs of the olive tree that have been broken off, God
has the power to graft us back in again if we realize that it is not we that
sustain the root, but the root that sustains each of us.
Lent is a time of turning back to
God as our root and our true vine. We
remember when Jesus might have prayed in the shadow of an olive tree at the
Garden of Gethsemane: “Abba, Father, take this cup of suffering from me. However, not what I want, but what you want
be done.” This unthinkable act of love
from Jesus reminds us of his strength, power, and capability to withstand space
and time, to transform and recreate us, to graft us back in no matter how far
we might have strayed. With Jesus as the
true vine, we are reminded that we cannot produce fruit of our faith without
trust in him. And finally, when Jesus
says, “I am the true vine,” he proclaims his strength and power, that we might
know the root of everlasting love.
Gracious and merciful God, we thank you for Jesus, the true
vine. During this Lenten season, may we
turn our hearts to you once again so that we may be transformed, recreated, and
grafted into the community of faith in order to produce fruit that reflects
your light in a world of darkness. Shape
us, mold us, make us new. Amen.
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