Easter 5 2021 – 1 John 4:7-21 & John 15:1-8
Still, John’s gospel is sometimes a lot. It’s a lot to take in, a lot to understand, it contains a lot of theological weaving and knitting together of thoughts and ideas all intended to lead us to, and to guide our faith in, the true identity of Jesus Christ.
The reason we hear so much from John in this Easter season, is the same - so that we may fully believe in the Christ as we prepare for the Spirit’s coming and sending us out to proclaim the Good News on Pentecost.
Today we heard twice from John – certainly in this beloved gospel, with imagery offered to the believers and lovers of Jesus, emphasizing their need always to be fully connected to the vine.
But this morning, we also heard in the first reading, from the letter entitled 1 John, the necessity for love to shape and define our actions and interactions. The connection between these two concepts – abiding and loving are deep – they instruct us as Christians, in how to live and move and be in the world as his branches, his beloved followers and lovers, and that is what I want us to focus on today.
We hear in this gospel talk of fruit and branches and pruning and abiding. Finally, at the end of the passage today, we read, 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”
Sometimes, in our childlike rendering of this passage, what we hold on to is, “ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” This leads us to models of prayer that are not actually what Jesus intends when he stresses the importance of prayer or models prayer in his own life.
God is not the genie-in-the bottle which we rub, and he suddenly appears and grants us our wishes. Our relationship with God through Jesus Christ is the essential connection that this passage points to and that we often miss. The prayers we pray are on behalf of the world; on behalf of God’s creation; in support of God’s agenda and our part in it. The prayers we pray create pathways of connectivity to God through which we are fed and nourished and transformed so that we might continue in the world, living lives that are increasingly reflective of branches that are integrally connected to and dependent on the vine.
Note that in this text, what we see is a conditional clause – the bible uses those a lot – statements that offer concepts or instructions which cannot be understood apart from what comes before them. This conditional clause offers a fuller, more mature understanding to the promise of answered prayer. So, we might – and should – ask, what does Jesus mean here? What is the condition and what is the promise?
“If you abide in me and my words abide in you…”
The answer to these questions is connected to what comes before this text in the gospel of John, and it is connected as well to the first reading today.
In the thirteenth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus shares the Last Supper with the disciples. He washes their feet, instructing them live in humble service to others, in his name.
Following that, Jesus gives what he refers to as “a new commandment.” Just as I have loved you, he says, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples”.
A little further on, at the beginning of chapter 14, Jesus promises an eternal place in his Father’s house, where he will take all those who believe in him when he comes again, declaring that he is the way, the truth and the life who leads the way to the Father.
In John 13:15 he says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask my Father and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. A promise is made: those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
It is then that Jesus uses the metaphor of vine, vinekeeper, and branches.
As Jesus continually draws the undeniable, inviolable connection between abiding in his love, keeping his commandments, and remaining integrally connected in and to him, he helped those who were intimately aware of the world of vineyards and vine-keeping to understand the reliance of those he would soon be leaving in the world to abide in him, in his teachings, in his word.
Jesus states that the ruler of the world – the evil one, that is – is coming. He has no power over me; Jesus declares, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. It is only through abiding in Jesus, being connected to him firmly and completely as branches are connected to the vine that we too can resist and defeat the evil one, that we too can show others the way to the Father.
The letter from John from which our first reading was taken is further support and reminder of these teachings; So essential are they not only in the life of the believer but in the community formed to live for Christ.
7Beloved, the Evangelist writes, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
We know that when words, topics, and concepts are repeated in the Bible it is because they are essential. What theme is more revisited than the love of God? Yet, the Evangelist points out, No one has ever seen God; rather, if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Then we are told, 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
Jesus reminds us that this love comes first from God. We are able to share it only because we have received it – and we pass it on so that others can know the joy of knowing, loving, and living in Christ.
We know that the love described, illustrated, and commanded in the Scriptures is not simply describing a particular type of emotional attachment – in fact this love has little to do with emotional or physical attachment or intimacy.
Rather, the love that is named and appears throughout the Bible is lived in and through Jesus, is a verb – it is an action word, which cannot be known – anywhere or by anyone – without generous, caring, compassionate, grace-filled, powerful action.
Abiding in Jesus is living out the love he gives us and the life he prepares us for through behaviors, attitudes, words, actions and the like – behaviors that support life and ensure good lives for every person, remembering that each is created in God’s image and therefore whatever is done to one of God’s creatures is done to and for Godself.
In John 15:12 Jesus states, This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love thank this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
To abide in love is to remain connected to the vine, living as Jesus lived, loving as Jesus loved, never checking a person’s credentials to determine their worthiness, but relying on God’s never-ending love to determine it.As Jesus has saved us through his love, he equips us for loving as well. As Jesus showed us, loving isn’t always easy, it is not “safe” and it is sometimes complex. But it is also so wonderful, so awesome and awe-inspiring, and is a precious gift, meant to be shared. God help us to love, as you love; to abide in you always, and to give ourselves away in your grace. Amen.
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