The Message translation of these verses reads this way: “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.”
As spring begins to make her appearance in our yard, I go over to deadhead the hydrangeas. (Note that I am not a real gardener, and right now might not be the best time for this task!) I break off the dead brown flowers from last year. You can really tell which branches have life in them. They are the ones all tipped with leaves and buds. And the branches that are brittle and dry have none. Unseen by me, there is life surging in that bush, vitality connected to new growth, new buds, and leaves. I know there will be new life in these hydrangeas.
In the same way, there is life in Jesus, life to which we all can be connected. If we abide in Him and if we are connected to Him, we will be able to bear fruit.
What does that mean personally for me and for you? If I am connected only to myself and my own wants and wishes, I am a closed system, giving only to myself. If I am well connected to Jesus, if His love and grace and compassion surge through me, I can sense not only that deep connection to Him but can also pass the flavor of it on to others, my colleagues, my family, and friends. The life He gives me I pass along to others when I listen to them, offer a good word, correct a wrong, or help open a mind to the Jesus way of living. And because I am connected to Him, that good life flows through me, reminding me of who I am made to be. It’s health and life to me, and then through me to others.
Jesus was made to be the vine, the deep roots, and the healthy strong trunk that connect us to the life of God. I was made to be connected to Him, made to bear fruit, to do Jesus-things, and to offer the flavor of God to others in my words and actions.
Without Him, we can do nothing—nothing that lasts or satisfies, nothing that has the flavor, the savor of the Jesus way. I want always to be connected.