In John Chapter 15 Jesus makes His 7th and final “I Am” statement. In vs 1 He says I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. That tells us quite a bit about Jesus and about God.
Jesus is saying there are many things in life that will seem to sustain us and give us life, but He is the one that actually does that. Our life, our vitality, and our growth come from Him.
Jesus also says His Father is the gardener—the one who watches over and takes care of every plant in the garden. And a lot of that care involves cutting branches. The gardener cuts off the branches that aren’t producing fruit. And he prunes the ones that are producing.
What’s the difference? Getting rid of the unproductive branches sends more resources to the fruitful branches. Pruning productive branches means to cut away everything that isn’t necessary for the branch to flourish-the dead weight. The goal of both operations is to help the tree to produce the most fruit possible.
This of course is a spiritual parable. Jesus explains it by saying that we have to stay connected to Him to be productive. The goal for us is to bear fruit—that is to do things that enhance the Kingdom of God, draw people to Jesus, and ultimately produce more disciples.
As a Christian I need to be OK with God removing things from my life that get in the way of me staying connected to Jesus—jobs, hobbies, relationships, even good friends if necessary—so He doesn’t have to cut me off of His tree.
