[Machine transcription]
Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, hallelujah.
I am the true vine, says Jesus, and my father is the vinedresser.
You may be seated.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear saints, what comes to mind when I hear that phrase, I am the vine, I almost automatically
fill in the second phrase.
I don’t know if this happens in your imagination as well.
I am the vine, says Jesus, I’m the vine, you are the branches. And it seems like
that’s what naturally follows, in fact it does. In verse 6 in our text, that’s
what Jesus says, I’m the vine and you are the branches. And that’s the
basic idea of all of these I am statements that Jesus gives to us. I am
the Good Shepherd, that means we’re the flock. I am the way and the truth and the
life, that means we are the ones who are on the way and who are given the truth
and who are made to live in him. I am the light and we are those who sit in
darkness and are enlightened by Christ. I’m the gate of the sheep, and we are the
sheep that go through the gate. But interestingly enough, in this particular
text, in John chapter 15, which Jesus is giving to His disciples as they’re on
their way from the upper room down to the Garden of Gethsemane. So it’s holy,
it’s already Good Friday, but it’s what we would say Thursday night, and Jesus
is between the washing of the disciples’ feet and the praying with such intensity
that He⦠His sweat is drops of blood. He’s on the way and He’s teaching them this.
I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. As far as I can tell, this is the one I am
statement of Jesus, which is more than just about us and Jesus. It’s about us and Jesus
and God the Father. It’s a Trinitarian text. And the main⦠And I think I have a sense
of why, but the main point of Jesus’ preaching here is not even that He’s the vine and we’re
the branches, but that He is the vine, we are the branches, and the Father is the vinedresser.
He’s the one that prunes.
Now I think Jesus has this in mind because He’s looking forward and knows what’s coming.
His great pruning, His affliction in the garden, His crucifixion on Calvary.
He sees it coming.
He sees the trouble.
He sees the pain.
He sees the sorrow and the blood and the cross.
He sees it on the way, and He sees it as the pruning, the good, healthy, holy pruning of
God the Father.
And he’s teaching us in this text to see our own suffering in the same way.
Now I want to admit to you all that I read Luther’s sermon on this text probably four
times this week and I kept going back to it and I thought about just preaching Luther’s
sermon to you, just reading that because it’s so good, but I thought that’s kind of cheating.
So I printed it out and it’s in the Narthex, you should take it home and that’s your homework
to take a look at.
But I’m going to kind of follow his outline as he thinks about this, because he has this
beautiful picture.
He says, can you imagine being a vine, and you see the vine dresser coming, and there’s
a couple of things that catch your attention, namely his shears, his pruning hooks, his
wheelbarrow full of manure, and you say to the vine dresser, hey, this is terrible.
What are you doing?
Look, poking, cutting, ripping, tearing, chopping, tying, digging, scraping, you’re horrible
to me.
And the vine dresser says, look, you don’t even understand what’s good for you.
This is good.
This is for your good.
I’m doing this so that you would bear more fruit.
And the vine says, here, I’ll just quote Luther for a little bit, the vine says, well, I just
don’t see it that way.
And the vine dresser says, that’s because you’re a fool.
That’s Luther.
We don’t see it that way, right?
We don’t see the troubles of this world, the afflictions of this world, all of the bad things
that are happening to us outside and inside, the world afflicting the church, and even
the troubles that we have as a family or as individuals, we don’t see them as the Lord
pruning us.
We see them as the devil attacking us, or the world overwhelming us, or our own sinful
flesh having its way with us.
We don’t see it as a gift, but rather as an affliction.
We see it as torture, as trouble.
But this is why Jesus is preaching to us, Himself first.
It’s why He’s explaining His own suffering and then preaching to us, I am the true vine
and my Father is the vinedresser.
He cuts off that which doesn’t bear fruit, and that which does bear fruit, he prunes.
So the sufferings in this life, the trouble that you have in this life, is pruning from
God the Father, who loves you, and who does it so that you would bear much fruit.
There are some examples to consider, for example, Saint Ignatius, who was a disciple of John
the Apostle, who was being led to Rome to be martyred, and he writes about it.
He’s going to be thrown into the arena to the lions, and he’s reflecting on his being
devoured by the lions before it happens, which is kind of gruesome to think about.
And he says, I am like wheat that must be ground into flour so that I can be baked into
bread that would be useful for God.
The teeth of the lion are God’s millstone.
Can you imagine it?
He’s thinking of the⦠that to be made useful, he’s got to be devoured by the lions
so that he can⦠instead of being grain, he can be wheat that can be baked into bread.
And so he goes joyfully to his martyrdom, fearlessly.
Or St. Agatha, who Luther also preaches about, and it’s one of his favorite martyrs, and
he preaches about her on this text.
I remember St. Agatha was a young girl who was being tortured by the pro-council because
she refused to marry him.
In fact the pro-council, Agatha had made a vow to be a student of the Scriptures and
kind of a nun before there were nuns.
And the pro-council went to Agatha and said, you should marry me.
And she said, no, I’m married to the Lord and to His church, I’m going to serve Him.
him, and the pro-council says, well, if you don’t marry me, I’m going to kill you, which
is I don’t think a winning engagement proposal really, I’m going to burn you at the stake.
And Agatha said to him, your fire only lasts for a few minutes, but the fire of the one
who will judge you lasts forever, and then she left the presence of the
procounsel going to her death, and this is what the story says, skipping, like a
young girl, skipping as if she was being led to a dance or to a wedding, can you
imagine it? With joy, because she was being led to a dance, she was being led
to her wedding, she was being led to death, which is the worst thing, which is
the best thing. She was being brought to Jesus. It was for her as the church sings
and there’s this old Thomas Aquinas hymn written about the martyrs who says this,
he says that when the world and the devil afflicts the Christian, unknowingly
they lead us to bliss. That the devil comes and tries to do his worst to us,
but what is the worst that he can do? He can kill us and usher us into the
glorious presence of Christ, unknowingly they lead us to bliss, unknowingly all the afflictions
that the world and the devil would bring upon the church are actually for our own good,
so that we would bear much fruit, so that we would cling with hope to the promises of
God, and so that we would at last stand before Him in glory.
What can the world do to you?
What can the devil do to you?
The worst thing is the best thing.
It’s like, this is the picture, and it’s the best picture I’ve got until I get another
one.
So you’ve heard it before, but this is where it fits, if you can imagine, that you’re walking
along the street and some thugs come and grab you and tie your hands behind your back and
put duct tape over your mouth, and they throw you into the back of an unmarked van, and
they drive you to the Texas Roadhouse and drop you off with gift cards.
Which is where you wanted to be in the first place, right?
Thank you.
wrong. That wasn’t nice of you. This is what the devil⦠when the devil comes to attack
you and afflict you, he’s bringing you closer to Jesus, the thing that you want
in the first place. Can you see it? Remember Joseph? This is in Genesis
chapter 50. He was⦠his brother sold him into slavery and he was in⦠he was a
slave and then he was in prison and then he was serving⦠he was in prison again and
all this stuff until the Lord exalted him and made him second in charge over
all of Egypt and used him to rescue the people and even his own family, and he says to his
brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
And so it is with every single trouble that you have in this life.
The devil means it for evil, the world means it for evil, but God means it for good, and
he uses it for good, for you.
Now this is hard to see.
When we’re the vine, it’s very easy to see the scissors and not the hand that operates
the scissors.
It’s very usâ¦
It’s very easy for us to see the shears and the saw and not to see the kind face of the
vinedresser who is operating them for us.
But this is the point, is that the Lord sets limits.
It’s the devil and the world are the tools that God the Father uses to prune.
And He means it for good.
If you want to see that He means it for good, you have only to look to the cross of Jesus.
I think this is why Jesus gives this picture at this time in John chapter 15, because He
sees that He is about to go and receive the worst that the world and that the devil could
offer anybody in His crucifixion.
but more than that, he was going to endure the wrath of God, but he knows
that it’s good, that it’s on purpose, that it wins salvation, that it is the way
that we come into eternal life, that the devil who thought that
he had conquered on Good Friday had become an accomplice to the greatest
and most beautiful act that ever happened in the history of the world, the
crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, devil, for pushing Jesus to
the cross and for holding them with the nails and for being God’s devil to
accomplish the salvation of the world. Can you see that? And that is also what’s
happening in our own lives, that the devil comes along plotting, thinking he’s
going to destroy us, but he goes only so far as the Lord lets him and
accomplishes only what God the Father wants him to accomplish for your good,
for His glory and for the sake of the gospel.
We are the vine that’s being pruned by, not the devil or the world, but by God the Father
who is the vinedresser.
And this is so important because while the eyes of our flesh see only the troubles of
this world and the disastrous difficulties that we’re surrounded by, and it looks like
it’s only getting worse, and we see all of these troublesome things in the world, and
And we worry about it, we distress about it, we think, boy, today’s bad, tomorrow’s
probably going to get worse.
And we feel it in our own bodies, in our families, in our consciences, in our hearts, and in
our minds, and in our hopes, and in our dreams.
We feel all of this trouble.
Here Jesus comes to us and says, all of this is a gift from God the Father who is pruning
you and using it for your good.
And by that word, the Holy Spirit starts to open our eyes to see that all the afflictions
and troubles in this life are given to us by the One who loved us, from the hands that
not only created us but that are also bringing us through this life to stand before Him in
life eternal.
Now, one of the key things that we have to know by faith is that the Lord sets a hard
limit on all of our afflictions.
It looks to us, it looks to me though, like the devil has free course, like the devil
can just do what he wants, like the world is winning, like the church is just being
beaten down and soon ready to be devoured, but that is not true.
you. The Lord sets hard limits. The devil can go this far and no farther. The world
can go this far and no farther. Your enemies and the troubles that afflict you can go this
far and no farther. The Lord, and this is good for us to remember, that if the devil
had his way, we would have all died in despair years ago. If the world had its way, there
There would be no church at all, no faith on earth, this would be spiritual and everything
would be destitute, it would be nothing.
So that the Lord has set this hard limit on all of these troubles because he means to
use them for our good, that you would, as Jesus promised, so that you would bear much
fruit.
And so we have to trust the Lord Jesus, we have to trust what he says, we have to pray
that the Holy Spirit would enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we would begin, and
I’m notâ¦
I don’t want to suggest that this is easy, this is hard.
For me, it’s hard for all of us.
But Jesus invites us to believe this, that all the troubles in life, and this counts
for the physical troubles, for the mental and spiritual troubles, especially for the
persecution that comes upon us as Christians and for being in the Lord’s church, that
all of this trouble, that this is the vine dresser pruning the vine, you, the
vine, the branch, so that you would prove to be his disciples, so that you would
bear much fruit, so that you would abound in faith and hope and love for God and
for your neighbor. Jesus gave us the promise. I’m the vine, you are the
branches. My Father is the vinedresser. God be praised. Amen. May the peace of God
which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen. Christ is risen. He has risen indeed.
Alleluia.
