Jesus is the True Vine

Only four more Sundays until Easter! It feels like the year has just begun. Wasn’t it 2024 just the other day?

Don’t forget that next week will be our monthly potluck. It’s always a blessing to be around tables with our brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope you’ll make plans to be there.

I hope the series through the Gospel of John has been a blessing to you. I never get tired of studying and thinking about the accounts of Jesus’ life that we have in the Gospels. These stories and teachings are at the very heart of our faith. We’ve been focused on the question: Who is Jesus? This is the same question that many of the people we encounter in the Gospel of John are asking.

Yesterday during worship we saw Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” That Jesus is “the way,” means that he is the one leading us to God. He speaks “the truth” to us in his teaching and through his actions, but he also says the Spirit of Truth will continue to guide his followers into all truth (John 16:12-13). Through his death and resurrection, Jesus is the one who gives us “life,” and not only life in this age, but also eternal life in the age to come. That’s all a pretty big deal.

Next week we will see Jesus teaching his disciples more about himself when he says, “I am the vine, and you are the branches,” (John 15:5). There is a lot to this statement, but one part of it that may not be immediately obvious is that “the vine” is one of the images used in the Old Testament for Israel (see, for example, Psalm 80:8-11). So when Jesus begins this discourse with the statement “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener,” (John 15:1, NIV) that’s quite a bold statement that his disciples would understand.

I hope your week is full and the weather stays nice! That was quite a storm we had last week.

God bless, Brian

Scripture readings for next Sunday

John 15:1-17—Why do you think Jesus uses the image of the vine and the branches?

Psalm 80:8-19—What is the vine in this psalm? What is being taught about it?

Romans 11:11-24—What do you think Paul is talking about in this passage?

Matthew 21:33-46—What point is Jesus making at the end of this parable?