Fifth Sunday of Easter

Lectionary: 53

Remain in me, as I remain in you.

Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own

unless it remains on the vine,

so neither can you unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,

because without me you can do nothing.

 

 

The Lord in this passage of Saint John's Gospel describes an intimate, very personal, even physical, connection to Jesus. No branch, twig, or leaf can live apart from the trunk. This is more than the loyalty of students to their teacher, for they can be miles and years apart and remain faithful to the teaching.

Jesus’s physical resurrection is a two-edged sword which demands much of believers. More than just an incident of many centuries ago, we recognize Jesus as a living human being among us. He is still as he was an Asian Palestinian, a man and a Jew.

We believe in this man because he has been faithful even to death, and because his faithful God has raised him from the dead. We believe also because we trust in the apostolic church which has retained the gospel through these many centuries despite enormous resistance. We cling to his church and his sure presence in the Church. Our faith and scriptures assure us God will never abandon his people; his covenant is everlasting.

In 1988 I moved to Louisiana and grieved the loss of close friends in Minnesota. Ten years later, as God would have it, I returned to Minnesota. I looked forward to catching up with my social circle but they had moved on. They were acquaintances; the old intimacy was gone and could not be revived. 

Our continuing intimacy with the Lord entails daily prayer and a readiness to take up our crosses and follow in his footsteps. We don’t ask for privileged treatment; we don’t expect to be blessed except with the abiding presence of his Holy Spirit.  Losing that spirit through discouragement or sin, we turn back to the Lord and wait on his return.

Jesus insists that we remain in him “because without me you can do nothing.” He assures us we will bear much fruit in him; and without him we are utterly useless:

Anyone who does not remain in me

will be thrown out like a branch and wither.

people will gather them and throw them into a fire

and they will be burned.

It is pointless to do anything which is not directed by the Lord. We might build Egyptian pyramids and Great Walls of China; they cannot stand unless God wills them. We might make a name for ourselves but only one Name will live into eternity. …because without me you can do nothing. Let us make it our daily study to abide in him.