John 15-16
John 15-16
These chapters are often viewed as a devotional goldmine; this is a place where believers come to find inspiration from Jesus. But any interpretation of the rich themes of Jn 15-16 must be considered within the framework of the Farewell Discourse. Here Jesus was preparing His disciples for the formation of a new community. Toward that end He commanded them to pursue the closest possible union with Himself—as opposed to the nation of Israel—to love one another, and to be strengthened by the ministry of the Spirit. These three elements would serve to fortify the disciples as they endured ferocious persecution, first from the Jewish leadership and then from the Roman officials. If the disciples failed to abide in Jesus, or love one another according to Christ’s example, or quenched the ministry of the Spirit, they were sure to apostatize before their opponents.
John’s Gospel is steeped in Old Testament imagery, and his use of the “vine” metaphor in ch 15 should be understood accordingly. In the paradigm of Judaism, God had chosen His people to be a vine that would bear fruit for His glory; so Ps 80:
“Restore us, God of Hosts; look on us with favor, and we will be saved. You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared a place for it; it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered by its shade, and the mighty cedars with its branches. It sent our sprouts toward the Sea and shoots toward the river…Return, God of Hosts. Look down from heaven and see; take care of this vine, the root Your right hand has planted, the shoot that You made strong for Yourself. It was cut down and burned up; they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance. Let Your hand be with the man at Your right hand, with the son of man You have made strong for Yourself” (vv. 7-11, 14-17; cf. Is 5)
Thus, when Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper” (15.1), it is likely that He employed the metaphor to demonstrate the ‘fulfillment’ motif so prominent in the Gospels. Jesus, not Israel, is the source of spiritual fruitfulness. Individually then, the disciples were exhorted to remain in His love, to value Him and His teaching and to bear fruit—not the least of which would be answered prayer (15.7-10). Any who chose not to abide in Him would be destroyed (15.6). While believers are individually responsible to abide in Jesus, their faithfulness is manifested within the corporate body of Christ (15.8-17). As Jesus gave Himself for the disciples, He commanded that they walk in His steps—which would bring joy to both Him and the disciples. Indeed, now that Jesus had disclosed Himself and His desire to establish a new community, the disciples were considered insiders, “friends” (15.15)—those chosen to live in union with Him, asking of the Father in His name and bearing fruit, which was in accord with the command to “love one another” (15.17). In light of the situation the disciples would soon face, this command had practical implications. They would, because of identification with Jesus, be hated by the world (15.18-25); this would include ostracism (cf. 12.42), slander (cf. Mt 5.11), and both physical and financial persecution (cf. Hb 10.32-34). The disciples would thus need each other! In this way love for Christ had daily horizontal implications.
Yet, Jesus promised the disciples supernatural help for their difficulty (15.26-16.33). He said that the ministry of the Spirit would include counseling the disciples, reminding them of His truth, and convicting the world of sin (15.26-16.15). Jesus told them that the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of truth” (15.26), who would help the disciples in their time of need and keep them from stumbling (16.1). In light of the difficulty that would come upon the disciples for identifying with Jesus, He declared to them, “It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you” (16.7). In fact, the ministry of the Spirit is so significant that He would guide the disciples “into all the truth…He will also declare to you what is to come” (16.13). Jesus promised that the Spirit would operate in conjunction with the Father and the Son, declaring the truth of the Son—that which He had received from the Father.
While Jesus was preparing the disciples for the difficulty they would soon experience, they—like a woman giving birth—would have the most dramatic of emotional transformations (16.16-23). In just a few days they would see Jesus no longer, and then in three days they would see Him again; the former would produce the grief of a woman in labor, the later the joy of a mother holding her newborn! As is the mother’s joy surpasses her grief, so Jesus said to the eleven yet with Him in the Upper Room, “So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice and no one will rob you of your joy” (16.22). The disciple’s joy would not result only from seeing the risen Lord, but also in the provision of direct access to the Father, such that they could ask anything in Jesus’ name and be confident of success; “Ask and you will receive that your joy may be complete” (16.24).
According to John, Jesus’ death and resurrection had multiple relational implications (16.25-33). The disciples would have direct access to the Father, He told them, saying: “For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came from God” (16.27). As Jesus had come from the Father, He was filled with desire to return. Yet the path of His return, the crucifixion, would cause the disciples to be scattered and leave Jesus alone. Jesus told the disciples that He was plainly disclosing the new relational matrix of their union with God and each other, “so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world” (16.33).
In the storyline of Scripture, the plan of God was to glorify Himself through the nation of Israel living according to His law in the land of Canaan (Dt. 4.1-8). There they would be planted as His “vine,” bearing fruit to Him, making the surrounding nations aware of Him (Ps 67). But they failed.
Isaiah prophesied of God’s grace upon Israel, and their failure of faithfulness, saying:
“I will sing about the one I love, a song about my loved one’s vineyard: The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted it with the finest vines. He built a tower in the middle of it and even hewed out a winepress there. He expected it to yield good grapes, but it yielded worthless grapes” (Is 5.1-2; cf. 27.2-6).
Jesus’ point in the metaphor of the vine was that whereas the descendants of Jacob had failed to maintain covenant loyalty to God’s expectations for the nation of Israel, His disciples ought to be wholly faithful to Him; He is the source of fruitfulness, relationship to Him is the criterion for escaping the coming judgment, He was the victor over the world.
*For a complete list of references, please see scripturestoryline.com