THE UNION OF CHRIST AND THE BELIEVER
‘I am the vine, ye are the branches.’
The vine was a national emblem, like our rose, thistle, or shamrock, or like the lily of France. One of Isaiah’s most striking parables was the Parable of the Vineyard. He compared Israel to a vineyard planted by the Lord, protected and cultivated, but which brought forth only wild grapes, and was condemned and destroyed. Now Jesus takes up the old parable to make it a parable of the new covenant with heaven.
I. The union of Christ and the believer.—The great thought here is perhaps the deepest thought of all the Christian religion: the most essential truth of the reality of the union of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, with His believers, called Christians. He is the vine—and the vine is no good without the branches—and we are the branches. The anxious disciples may say, ‘We cannot live without Thee’; and He answers, ‘But ye shall not live without Me. As the branches of that climbing tree live by the life that springs from its root, so shall you live by My life in you. Ye cannot see the sap that flows from the stem into the branches, neither shall ye see Me with your eyes, but yet shall feel the power of My life. Your union shall be closer than ever; a vital union. But oh, beware! lest you be separated from Me in spirit like that dead branch. Let not the world tear you from Me, for then you would be as that branch that dies.’
II. The branches bear fruit.—The full beauty of this paragraph appears when we realise that the branches are as necessary to the stem as the stem is to the branches. The branches bear fruit, so that from Christ grew the Church. Your faith and life spring from His life, your Divine power to do good comes from Him, and God proves His confidence in us by entrusting to us, wholly and entirely, without any reservation, the fulfilment of His purpose on earth. He bids us do the work that Jesus did in the world, aye! and greater work, because Jesus could only do them one at a time in one country. We can do them always, everywhere. Each of us is then the appointed minister of Christ. We have His eyes to look with love on the poor, His hand to help the sick, His tongue to speak the word of truth, His feet to carry far and wide the message of eternal life. Christ depends upon us; He cannot work without us. He is the vine, we are the branches; and since He wants us to be fruitful, He watches us with constant care. As the gardener prunes away those luxuriating branches which would spend the life of the vine in fruitless growth, God cleanses His vine with the discipline of religion to rid us of those tendencies to self-love and self-indulgence which mar our Christian service.
Thus the parable is complete, for its shows us God planting Christ in the world, and bringing forth from Christ His Church and giving to His Church the Divine life of His Son, and training the Church to do His work; and it shows us ourselves having the Divine life abiding in Christ, enabled to work out God’s purposes and to attain, at last, His ends. There cannot be any fruit unless He sends it.
—Prebendary the Hon. J. S. Northcote.
Illustration
‘A story is told of a Welsh preacher having engaged to preach on some special occasion. The hour of service had arrived, but the preacher did not appear. A servant was sent to call him, and she said he had a Companion, for she had overheard the remark, “I shall not go unless Thou goest with Me.” They understood, then, that he was praying, and when he went into the pulpit he was not alone, for Christ went with him, and the power of the Gospel prevailed over the hearts and consciences of men.’