“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
This is the last of Jesus’ great “I am” statements in John’s gospel, and each gives us important information about his saving revelation. Jesus alone is the source of life. Furthermore, as Richard Burridge points out in his book on John’s gospel, the fruit of the vine is used to make wine which summons up the image of the Eucharist. Added to this, in several places in the Old Testament (notably in Isaiah 27:2-6 and Psalm 80:18-19), Israel is described as the vine although usually as an unfruitful one. Jesus claims here to be the true vine which means that he is the real Israel. Jesus presents the Father as the gardener or vine grower who takes care of the vine. Ultimately, the Father is responsible for all that Jesus reveals and does.
To understand what Jesus means here, we need to know a little bit about caring for vines. They grow slowly, and in Palestine it takes about three years before grapes can be harvested. A moment of damage to the vines can undo months or even years of work. In John’s image, Jesus is the vine, and his disciples are the branches. The Father is the gardener who cares for the branches by pruning them to make them more fruitful, but he also destroys those branches that bear no fruit. In verse 3, Jesus addresses the disciples, telling them that they have already been made clean (or pruned depending on the translation). So they are fruitful branches, united to the vine and pruned by having heard the word of Jesus.
But this is not enough as Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial will show. The bond with Jesus, the vine, cannot be taken for granted. They must “remain” in him. Indeed, Jesus tells them that no branch can bear fruit by itself but only by abiding in him – without the link to Jesus, a disciple can do nothing. What is the task given to these disciples? John has already told us: all disciples are commanded to love.
Verses 6 to 8 describe what it means both to abide and not to abide in Jesus. The branches that do not abide in Jesus will wither and be cut off. But abiding in Jesus will bring fruitfulness that will glorify the Father. At first glance, it looks like Jesus is saying that some people will be saved and others damned. But it makes much more sense if we apply this to ourselves. Each one of us has bad parts that must be pruned before we can fully live in Christ, and this pruning is never easy. As the Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has written: “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
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