John 15:1-8

John 15:1-8 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Jesus' words clearly teach us a fruitful Christian will experience pruning in life. For the Spirit to harvest fruit from our lives, times of pruning are necessary that we might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. (Isaiah 61:3) Pain, disappointment, frustration, and even feelings of loss, uncertainty, confusion, and doubt remain inherent in spiritual growth because the Lord prunes us that we might be even more fruitful. He wants less of us and more of him. Our human will strives for success, achievements, to be all we can be in life. We constantly relive our accomplishments, thinking of the high points and the accolades: the blue ribbons on the wall; the plaque for winning the spelling bee in third grade; that straight A report card; the picture with the prom queen senior year; the positive job performance analysis with no but's attached. We want recognition so we seek meaning through work, experiences, and events. We seek affirmation by meeting our own expectations or the expectations of others and do not handle losses or trials well. We want to go from victory to victory, from point A to C in a straight line with no detours. People facing life's struggles sometimes ask us for prayer and counsel. After a few moments, they often share their successes, tell about the important people they have known, their many accomplishments, and all their high points. Then they despair or express hopelessness or bitterness over their current situations. You can hear: "Woe is me; how could God treat me this way?" They feel entitled to continued prosperity and fruitfulness. Pruning is nowhere on their list of accomplishments: loss is not part of their agenda.

As believers, we carry our natural tendency to strive into our Christian walk. Our need to be important and noticed by others does not help us function well in the body of Christ where we are called to serve. When we ask God to make us the biggest tree in the orchard and to let us bear the most fruit for our own motives, we are as James and John asking Jesus, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” Then they request boldly: “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” Jesus says,“You don’t know what you are asking.” And He asks them, “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” When they innocently answer they can, He tells them they will indeed drink of the same cup He drinks and be baptized with the same baptism, but only the Father can grant what they have asked, for the honors they seek belong to those for whom they have been prepared. Drinking that cup for James meant he would be the first of the disciples to die; and for John, he would watch everyone he loved give all in death for the sake of the gospel. God's will means surrender to him. We rejoice as a small fruitful tree in the corner of a forsaken garden exactly where God plants us, sharing the good news of the gospel, crying out as John the Baptist to the lost, Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. (Luke 3:8) We trust the Master Gardener as He looks to prune what we think are our powerfully long, beautifully impressive branches as they reflect his light. We do not want to experience the pain of pruning when we cannot see the end result. But the Gardener looks at the tree and says, "I see wasted energy put into sustaining those branches and that imposing height. I will prune this beloved tree so the energy will be spent in developing abundant fruit for me." The natural inclination of the tree is to prosper by extending its presence on Earth, by not having any restrictions to its growth, its energy. The natural gardener's will is for more fruit for the present, but the heavenly Father seeks eternal fruit, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth. (Ephesians 5:9)

After James and John asked Jesus to give them what they wanted, He did not chastise them; He merely taught them spiritual truths they did not understand but would come to understand as they yielded control to him, took up the cross, died to themselves, and gave everything by the Spirit's power. If pruning were easy, we would all want to be pruned. Christians are not bad people; they want God's will for their lives. But pruning is dying to the self and coming alive to spiritual realities by literally giving up control of our own lives. When we are crucified with Christ and lay down our lives completely, we agree to go where He sends us, to do what He asks us to do, to grow where we are planted. We experience pain, struggles, hurts, and sorrows in that process that extend beyond our human coping abilities. In these circumstances, the struggles of life sometimes seem too much to bear: we grow weary, think our hearts and minds will faint or we will die in the desert places without water or sustenance. As a tree of righteousness, the pruning seems too drastic; but God is perfecting us; and He never makes mistakes. We are being pruned for much fruit, abundant fruit that love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11) Those who endure to the end will see God. After Jesus answered James and John, He said to the twelve, Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:43-45) He prunes us for that calling. We say, "Yes, Master, prune my life."