JOHN 15 The gospel reading for Sunday is taken from John’s gospel, Chapter 15. It is the last night before His death and Jesus is giving instructions to stress the absolute necessity of a close relationship between Him and us. To do this He uses the illustration of a vine and its branches. Jesus often used scenes which were from Jewish heritage. Israel is pictured as the vineyard, and one of the glories of the Temple was the great golden vine with clusters of grapes placed in front of the Holy place. This is taken from the story of Moses receiving clusters of grapes from spies he had sent out to view the land of Canaan. Jesus said He was the true vine and it did not mean that because they were Jews they were a branch of the vine. It had to be understood He was the vine not the land of Israel, for only He could offer salvation and the only means of having that was to have a belief in Him. Only a personal relationship with Jesus can make a person right with God. The vine grew wildly but needed much attention if the best was to be obtained from it. The vine needed much pruning and so was cut drastically for without that the vine would not produce good fruit. Jesus knew His followers were like that. Some were fruit bearing, but others were like the dead branches. In His teaching Jesus saw the Jews as the branches of the vine as did all the prophets, but the people would not accept Jesus. He could also foretell that one day people claiming to be Christians would hear His teaching, profess to follow Him, but in practice would not. The bond between vine and its branches is strong, it is in fact the means by which the branch gets it’s strength and fertility, and apart from that the branch has no life of its own. Sap flows from the stem to give power to the leaves and blossoms the fruit, and if cut off would die. The bond between Jesus and the believer has to be just as close and real for we have no spiritual life, all the power comes from Him, we draw our strength from the Lord. We are assured of our salvation and our place in heaven when we remained joined to Him, for in Him we have our growth. The non believer may scorn and mock us for resting our faith from stories in an old Jewish book written many years ago but will one day regret such ridicule and envy our place. It has to be accepted as fact that there are many men and women professing to be Christians who are not what they claim to be. They are like branches of the vine which bear no fruit. In every Church there are people whose relationship is more make believe than real. They have been baptised, confirmed and even hold office within the Church, even are clergy ranging from the highest clerical positions to people in the pews. They may make much profession, and as we are regularly reading and hearing do not accept the authority of Scripture. We even find Bishops increasingly tolerant of immoral behaviour which contradicts the Bible, and who prefer to adopt the philosophy of society and say things have changed now we are in the 21st century. God was not just a God of the first century, His Word endures for all times. Well has it been said that the spirit of the age has invaded the Church, and infected it. If people wish to reject the contents of the Bible that is their choice, but will one day regret such decision. To have a casual relationship with Jesus is like being a non fruit bearing branch of the vine, you produce nothing and give nothing. There are many instances of a young person who leaves home and falls into bad ways, because he/she has separated from the family. As long as they are with the family they are strong and cared for but when they break away they fall. Having a relationship with Jesus provides the strength to meet the problems of life and prevents one from falling into the ways of the unjust. And you need constant attachment just like the branches of the vine. This passage shows the offer Jesus makes to help them become more worthy and better Christians. If we abide in Him and His teaching we can ask and seek an answer. Be therefore in close communion with Jesus, lean on Him, and keep His words in your mind so that they will be the guide of your life. And be in Church on Sunday.