Crew neck, tonal colour pocket, neck ribbing, side seamed, shoulder to shoulder tape, double needle hems, preshrunk to minimise shrinkage
John 15: The Vine and the Branches
15 “I amthe 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 fruithe prunes[a]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 meand 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.
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In John 15 Jesus is teaching his disciples, as he often does, metaphorically to describe what the relationship between Himself and the Father is like and by extension what the relationship between himself and His disciples are like. This is also the last of the 7 I AM statements in John’s gospel where Jesus lays out his identity clearly if we pay attention.
As in so much of these teachings there are multiple layers to what is communicated here. Our predominant worldview in the Western world is one of science and rationalism and when we engage symbolism we crumble in the depth of its meaning by attempting to rationalize it. We miss the true beauty of what is being communicated.
The symbolism of the vineyard and the vine harkens back to the Old Testament where Israel was depicted as the vine who ultimately produced “worthless grapes” and received God’s divine judgement for their disobedience. Jesus contrasts this by calling himself the TRUE vine. That we are all grafted, surgically transplanted into LIFE by God, into Him by His redemptive sacrifice.
Here’s the real freedom in what Jesus is communicating. It’s not by your effort that you remain in Him. Gardeners tend to their vineyard. We can reject and harden our hearts to the Fathers’ loving embrace, but His desire and will is that we would respond to his advances to draw us to Himself. The invitation is always open if we only allow Him. The Father prunes every branch with the sole goal of us being more fruitful.
As J.I. Packer puts it:
“Still He blesses those on whom he sets his love in a way that humbles them, so that all the glory may be his alone. Still he hates the sins of his people, and uses all kinds of inward and outward pains and grief’s to wean their hearts from compromise and disobedience. Still he seeks the fellowship of his people, and sends them both sorrows and joys in order to detach their love from other things and attach it to himself”
The Father longs for his children to remain in THE VINE and bear much fruit. Jesus says we are UNABLE to bear fruit apart from Him and I would add by extension without His church. We are made to be Rooted in the vine and in communion with Him and His branches. To be “in Christ”, Paul the apostle says is to be radically transformed to the core of your being.
Jesus ends this teaching by declaring that the Father is GLORIFIED by the fruit in our lives. The prophets envisioned a day where we would “blossom and bloom and fill the whole world with fruit”. Why do we bear much fruit? So that the love of Jesus would be proclaimed to the ends of the world. That others might see God’s work in our lives and say “surely God is among you”.
There is none like Jesus and by being Rooted in the vine we testify of his goodness in us and for all.
John 15:5 (CSB)
5I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me
