FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (2024)

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (2024)

Readings:

Acts of the Apostles     9:26-31

Psalms 22:26-28, 30-32

1 John   3:18-24

John 15:1-8

The evangelist John’s Gospel, almost always, forces us to delve deeper into the mystery that is Christ.  At its core, it is more theological in its approach than the synoptic gospels.  Without diminishing the Synoptic gospels, which each have their own singular approach to the materials that were available about Jesus in the first century, one might think of John’s gospel as the ‘thinking man’s’ gospel, for it demands a careful reading, and a genuine need to go behind the printed words on the page if we are going to discover the depth of what John is trying to tell us.

Today’s gospel from John is part of Jesus’ Final Discourse in John, and it is not about an appearance of Jesus, not about a miracle (often referred to as “signs” in John’s gospel), but it is solely about a metaphor which Jesus uses to describe the depth of the relationship which should characterize the bond between Him and all those who call themselves His disciples.  It is one of several “I Am” statements (“I Am” the Good Shepherd) that Jesus proclaims in the Gospel of John.  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower…. You are the branches.”  Our relationship with Jesus is not like a Club we belong to, nor is it a request by Jesus to “sign up for My emails.”  Our relationship with Jesus is meant to be an intimate relationship, where the source of who we are, and whether we will bear fruit, comes from the trunk to which we are attached.  Jesus is very much meant to be the force from which we draw nourishment, the force which enables us to bear fruit, the very source of our being as Christians.  The Father, who is the vine grower, implanted His Son into our world, and through our attachment to Him, we are able to bear much fruit.  It is not because of any ‘specialness’ on our part that we get to produce “much fruit,” it is because God in His goodness has allowed us to attach ourselves to Jesus, who is the ultimate source of all the good we do.

My privileged walks through the vineyards of Northern California, especially during the harvest season, also pointed out the difficult side of not being able to produce fruit.  Somewhere in the rolling hills and valleys there would be wisps of smoke in the air, wisps that were the result of burning the vines and branches that were no longer able to produce fruit.  Appropriately pruning grape vines and branches is an essential part of their proper development, and we are reminded by Jesus that God the Father prunes us so that “we might bear more fruit.”  With almost a certain harshness, Jesus reminds His listeners that bearing fruit is critical, and that “anyone who does not remain in Me and I in him will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.”

Our role as followers of Jesus is to “bear fruit,” and our second reading from the letter of John clearly tells us what that entails: we should keep God’s “commandments, and believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as He commanded us.”

It is our union with Jesus Christ, a union so intimately close that it is like the stock of a vine and its branches.  It is the love of God, made visible in Christ Jesus, and confirmed by the Holy Spirit, that should flow through our veins, just as the nutrients flow from the roots, through the stock, and then through the branches to produce abundant fruit.  The pruning we sometimes endure is nothing compared to the pruning/suffering Jesus endured for our sakes.  May we always “remain” in Him, that all of us might become the most abundant of fruit bearers.