“I (Jesus) am the true vine…” - John 15:1
The word “true” in the original language means, “genuine,
real, and sincere.” It means that He, Jesus, resembled the very
nature of a vine and that, in studying the vine, Israel would
uncover His character.
In a very literal sense, Jesus was saying: “I’m not just
calling myself a vine. I AM your vine. This isn’t just a name. It is
the very reality of who I am.”
As the “vine,” He was the part of the plant that provides
“sap and productiveness,” the source and sustainer of the
branch. My favorite part of the definition was the idea of the vine
being the “life-giving conduit” for the plant. This is who Jesus
was to Israel and who He is to us now. We can’t live without
Him.
When you break a branch off of the trunk of a tree, it
immediately begins to die. Why? Because life comes through
the connection. Apart from the trunk, a branch cannot survive.
When Jesus called Himself the “true vine,” He was
emphasizing the disciples’ complete and total dependence on
Him and their desperate need for constant connection. Apart
from Him, they would not survive.
Luke 10:38-42
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a
village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet
listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the
preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked,
“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by
myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and
upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or
indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not
be taken away from her.”
This story has always been one of my favorites. Martha
often gets a bad rep, but in truth, her heart was to serve the
Lord and that is a beautiful thing. However, in all of her serving,
Jesus said she had forgotten the “one thing that is necessary.”
This word in the original Greek means, “needed,” but in a much
deeper sense, it means, “that which is absolutely necessary to
supply life;” the very thing that is needed “for the journey.”
Jesus was telling Martha: “Martha, I am your Vine.”
Not a day goes by that I miss a meal. Like clockwork, you
will find me at the table for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even
the occasional afternoon snack. Why? Because I love food and
because I know I need food to survive.
Plants feels this same desperation. “Tropism” is simply
the bending and turning of the plant to reach for the things that
stimulate life. Last year, my children and I watched video after
video in our science class of grass seeds grown in a box
bending toward the light peeking through a small hole poked in
the side. This led us on hikes into our woods to seek out trees
that grew towards the sunlight – often bending around objects in
their path to create hilarious paths upward. We found the same
awkward growth by the water’s edge, where the plants
instinctually began to spread out towards the drink it offered.
If I believe that Jesus is my vine – than I must
acknowledge that I cannot live without Him and, like the grass
seeds in the science video, I must reach for Him by any means
possible. He is what is “absolutely necessary.” Like food, like
water - in Him, is life (John 10:10). To live without Jesus is to
live my life starving.
Connected to the “life-giving conduit,” you are supplied with
everything that is “absolutely necessary” to sustain life.
Do you believe that? Do you look to Him as the source and
sustainer of your life? Do you see time spent with Him as an
option or the “one thing” that is “necessary?”
*This is an excerpt from our Planted Bible Study on Abiding. The complete study can be purchased on our resource page.
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