Read: John 15:1-11
I am the vine; you are the branches. (v. 5)

When my family moved into our house two decades ago, I realized I needed to learn how to care for the trees and bushes that surrounded it. I hired an arborist to identify all the trees and teach me how and when to prune them. Having not previously owned a home or done that kind of work, I needed all the instruction I could get. It took no instruction, however, for me to understand that no branches could live when cut off from the tree that nourished them.

In this the last of the seven “I ams” Jesus used a powerful metaphor to convey the nature of our relationship with him. Just as branches live only by being connected to the vine, so we live only by being connected to Christ. Union with Christ, the great theologians call it. Abide in me, as I abide in you, said Jesus.

Love is the sign of this mutual abiding. And this love is manifest in the keeping of the commandments, whose purpose is that our love be embodied in our everyday lives. And the aim of this mutual abiding is that Christ’s joy may be in us and that our joy may be complete.

Prayer:
O Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—may your joy be in us, that our joy may be complete.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger