I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful….Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. (John 15:1-8)
A few weeks ago, I – and the other members of our Uganda Village of Hope mission team – was given the challenge to read through this chapter, meditate on it, study it, mull it over, let its words sink in and penetrate our hearts and minds. Despite the fact that the past two weeks have been frantically busy and I haven’t made the time to just sit and ponder like I should, these verses have run through my mind in a nearly endless loop, over and over and over again in a chorusing refrain: I am the Vine, you are the branches. Remain in Me. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Remain…remain…remain.
And that redundancy got me thinking: what does it all mean? What does it mean to “remain”? According to my trusty online thesaurus, here are some of the words Jesus could have used if He’d had a copy of Roget’s handy:
- abide
- be left
- cling
- continue
- dwell
- endure
- hang out
- inhabit
- linger
- live
- persist
- reside
- sit tight
- sojourn
- stick around
- tarry
That list of words gives me a better understanding of the point Jesus was trying to drive home to His listeners. Remaining in Him is not giving him 5 minutes at the beginning and end of my day. It’s not a hurried prayer over mealtimes. It’s not even listening to Christian radio or CD’s in my car as I’m driving around town.
No, this idea of “remaining” is a little more than that. Take a closer look at that list above. To remain means to “hang out”, “stick around”, tarry, wait, continue, dwell, abide, persist…endure. That’s taking the long view. It’s not a quick fix or a simple 3-step process. Rather, this act of “remaining” takes time…and sacrifice…and a radically different perspective from what we see in the world around us.
While everyone else is hurrying, scurrying from one activity to another, “to remain” means to sit still.
While everyone else is shouting “me first!” and “It’s my way or the highway!”, “to remain” means to let go.
While everyone else is emotionally bound up by stress and worry, “to remain” means to rest.
While everyone else is clambering and pushing to be number one, “to remain” means to stay put.
While everyone else needs to go faster and do more, “to remain” means to be patient and wait.
And as I “remain”, I take the twig that is my life, my heart – my dreams, my goals my ambitions – and I graft them in to the healthy, strong vine that is securely rooted, never shaken, never cut down, never split apart. Slowly, as my roots grow and deepen into the Vine, I will find that it is the very source of my life blood. The strength of the Vine will now become my strength. The food from the Vine will now become my food. The flowers and fruit that bloom on the Vine will now begin to bud and bloom on my offshoot as well.
And someday, if I “remain” and continue to flourish and grow and be nourished by the Vine, I may actually find that it is impossible to tell where my branch ends and the Vine begins. The scar of grafting will heal. The nips and cuts of pruning will be covered over. All that will be left is what was there to begin with: the Vine.
It’s a good place to be. I think I’ll hang out, stick around, sit still, wait, linger, tarry, continue, and cling here for awhile. Or maybe I’ll just “remain.”