John 15:1

CHAPTER XV.

THE TRUE VINE (John 15:1-16)

The solemnity of the moment, when the Redeemer rose to leave the Upper Room where he had eaten the Passover, must have produced. powerful effect upon the hearts of his disciples. Up to this period they had been. united and. peaceful band, and the beloved Master was yet with them; what. separation awaited them in. few hours! The anticipation of this arrested their steps; the assembly broke up but no one moved; they stood in silence around their Lord. Then it was that he again opened his lips, and delivered the following discourses, which made an indelible impression on the mind of the beloved disciple. It may be that some incidental circumstance led Jesus to begin the comparison; perhaps. twig stretched through the window into the room where he then was, or the apartment was decorated with the foliage of the vine. According to Josephus, on the door, 70 cubits high, which led into the Holy Place of the temple, an artificial vine was spread out, the branches and leaves of which were made of gold, and its clusters of diamonds and pearls. Rosenmuller thinks that it was this that led Jesus to institute the comparison before us.-- Olshausen.. am of the opinion rather that the comparison sprang from the juice of the grape which had just been used to represent his blood. After the Lord choosing and distributing the fruit of the vine to represent the blood that should cleanse from all sin, and declaring, "I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God is come," what more natural than for him to say, "I am the true vine?" As before stated, the Lord did not pass out over the Kedron, until after the discourses of the 15th and 16th Chapter s and the prayer of the 17th. It is, then, almost certain that these were spoken in the Upper Room. It then becomes probable that the feast was broken up with the words that close chapter 14, the preceding discourse having been at table; that with the command, Arise, all arose from table to prepare for departure, but as they were standing the Savior, out of his full heart, spoke the words that are contained in the three Chapter s, closing with the 17th. The student is then to picture to himself the Master with the eleven apostles, in the dimly-lighted chamber, standing, girt for departure; and they, eagerly watching every look and gesture, and drinking in every word, while he begins, "I am the true Vine."

1.. am the true vine.

On the table from whence they had just risen was the "fruit of the vine," and the Lord had said that he would never drink it again upon the earth. That may have been the occasion of the striking figure that he now uses, in which he exemplifies union with Christ. In the Old Testament the Vine is often used as the type of Israel, planted and tended by the Almighty as the husbandman. See Isaiah 5:1. Ps. 80; Jeremiah 2:21. Israel, however, had proved. wild and fruitless Vine. Instead of it, therefore, Christ had now been planted by the Father as the True Vine. He is the true Bread, the true Light, as well as the Good Shepherd. All these figures fitly express some of his relations to his people and the world. The Vine stands in. much closer relation to the branches than the Shepherd to the sheep. The latter cares for the sheep, but the Vine imparts its life to the branches and there is one life in the whole, the branch having no life except as it draws it from the vine. The relation is similar to that expressed by Paul when he describes Christ as the Head of the body, and the servants of Christ as the various members of that body, all pervaded by the life and will of the Head. See Ephesians 5:23, and Colossians 2:19.

My Father is the husbandman.

God had planted the old Jewish Vine, which was not the True Vine, but "a figure of the true," Hebrews 9:24, and God had also sent his Son, the True Vine, into the world, or "planted" him, and his care was always over the Son and has been ever since the Vine was left to grow and fill the earth. "God giveth the increase."