In today's Gospel Reading (John 15:12-17), we can see what Jesus meant by his parable of the vine and the branches (John 15:1-17) in reflecting his relationship with us as his disciples, in juxtaposition to his relationship with the Father. It is important to see what characterize this vine-branches relationship. It is, of course, love. And we also see why love.
An important lesson today is that the vine-branches unity of Jesus and us the disciples is what the Church, as one body of Christ with many parts, is, as characterized with love, filled with the Holy Spirit.
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Jesus invites us to remain in him, as he remains in
us (John 15:4a), as he is the true vine and we are the branches (John 15:1, 5).
This is for us to bear fruit (John 15:4b) so that the Father, who is the vine
grower (John 15:1) , is glorified (John 15:8). This I possible because Jesus’
words remain in us as we remain in him (John 15:7). And, his words give life to
us as they are the Spirit, the Holy Spirit in essence (John 6:63). In other
words, as we remain in Jesus, the true vine, as the branches, he, who is the
Word in flesh (John 1:1, 14), remain in us, meaning that we have the life
within. This is absolutely necessary for us to bear abundant fruit for the
glory of the Father.
Then, Jesus shift a focus of his discourse on love,
calling us to remain in his love by reminding us that he has loved us as the
Father had loved him (John 15:9). This is to say that remaining in Jesus, as
the branches remain in the vine, for the Father’s glory by being abundantly
fruitful (John 15:1-8) is to remain in Jesus’ love. To remain in Jesus’ love
for us, which echoes the Father’s love for him (John 15:9), is to obey his
commandments, as he remains in the Father’s love by obeying His commandments
(John 15:10). This expounds what Jesus said in John 14:15: To love Jesus is to
obey what he commands.
In today’s Gospel Reading (John 15:12-17), Jesus
gets to the bottom line of what he meant by remaining in his love by obeying
his commandment, reminding of his new commandment to love one another as exemplified
by him and the greatest way of observing
this command of his to love (John 15:12-13).
We need to obey Jesus’ commandments to remain in his love (John
15:9-10). And, Jesus reminds us his new commandment is to love one another as
he has loved us (John 15:12; 13:34). Jesus further explain that the greatest
way of loving one another is to lay down one’s life for friends (John 15:13).
Remember, we are to love one another as Jesus has loved (John 15:12; 13:34),
and the its greatest way was demonstrated by Jesus as the Good Shepherd (John
10:11;1 John 3:16), as commanded by the Father and as His beloved Son (John
10:17-18). In fact, Jesus’ words in John
15:9-13 reflect what he said in John 10:17-18. Namely, we are to remain in
Jesus, in his love by obeying his commandments, especially his new commandment
to love one another as exemplified by him, even laying down for others as the
greatest way of loving one another, just as Jesus has laid down his life for us
as the Good Shepherd and as the beloved Son of the Father, because it was His
commandment. Laying down our lives for others, as exemplified by Jesus the Good
Shepherd in his observance of the Father’s commandment, will make us bear the
greatest fruit.
Now a focus shifts from love to friendship.
Jesus tells us that obeying his commandments makes us not his slave but his friends (John 15:14-15), as it also means to remain in his love (John 15:10) and to love him (John 14:15). And loving Jesus, being in him, by obeying his commandments, also means to be his friends (John 15:14), reflecting what he has taught what he heard from the Father (John 15:15). In other words, the Father the vine grower (John 15:1) designed His vine (Jesus) and its (his) branches (us the disciples) to bear abundant fruit: love, by remaining in his love by obeying his commandments, especially his new commandment to love even in its greatest way by laying down life for others. So, now, Jesus reveals that he has chosen us and taught us what the Father has told him, in order to prepare us for our apostolic mission of love – to bear abundant fruit of love, as commanded by him (John 15:16). This is why Jesus concludes his parable of the vine and the branches to describe his relation to us in connection to his relation to the Father by reiterating his new commandment (John 13:34):
This I command you: love one another (John 15:17).
To love one another as he has loved us is what makes
us Jesus’ disciples (John 13:34-35). Observing this commandment of his to make
us his disciples (John 13:34-35) also means to remain in him, as he in us, for
our joy to be complete, as well (John 15:9-12). To be his disciples by loving
one another as commanded and exemplified by Jesus is to remain in him and his
love. So, we are also his chosen friends, prepared to be sent out as his
apostles to bear abundant fruits of love (John 15:14-16). And for this, he also
challenges us to make our observance of his commandment of love greatest by
laying down life for others (John 15:13; cf 1 John 3:16), as he has shown as the
Good Shepherd by the Father’s command (John 10:11-18).
Love really defined Jesus the true vine, and he
wants to remain in him, his love (John 15:1, 4, 9-10), by observing his
commandment of love (John 15:12-13), so we are not just the branches but his
chosen friends with knowledge of what the Father has told him (John 15:14-16).
This is how we are his disciples to be sent out on mission as his apostles to
bear abundant fruit of love, for it is his commandment to love (John 15:16-17).
The Acts of the Apostles reflect how the apostles of
the nascent Church bore fruits of love through their observance of Jesus’
commandments.
Now Paul and Barnabas have returned from their first
mission trip (Acts 13:4-14:28), yielding abundant fruit of love, winning many
souls for Jesus, especially among Gentiles. But, this brought complaints from
the Pharisaic Judaizers, who even went all the way to Antioch to insert their
own teaching and demanded newly converted Gentile Christians to circumcise as
written in the Law of Moses, just as all Jewish men had to do. In response to
this, the nascent Church convened council to make sure that this problem will
not compromise the unity in the Church between Jewish Christians and Gentile
Christians. So, the apostles, like Paul, and the presbyteries, such as Peter
and James the Less, held the council of Jerusalem around 50 AD (Acts 15:1-21).
In today’s First Reading (Acts 15:22-31), we see how
the council’s conclusion on Gentile Christians and Mosaic Law was put in a
letter to them. It was not just to send the letter but the letter was delivered
by Paul, Barnabas, Judas, and Silas (Acts 15:22). And, the message of the
council’s conclusion was expressed in this way:
It
is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden
beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols,
from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage. If you
keep free of these, you will be doing what is right
(Acts 15:28-19).
Note that the council was not run by humans. It was
governed by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, its decision is also by the Holy
Spirit. The apostles and presbyteries participated in the council as directed
by the Holy Spirit.
The decision of the council is an expression of love
that characterized the Church. It is because the apostles and the presbyteries
of the Church acted out of Jesus’ commandments, especially his new commandment
of love to ensure that newly brought Gentile Christians remain in the Church,
as we all remain in Jesus and in his love.
And love keeps us together in unity (Colossians 3:14).
Jesus, the true vine of love, has called us to
remain in him, in his love, by obeying his commandments, as he obeyed the
Father’s. This is our apostolic life in order to bear abundant fruit of love,
empowered by the Holy Spirit. And this is a life in Christ (Romans 8:1), and
therefore, the Law does not become a problem with us, for it is also a life in
the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:2-5). All branches in the true vine are fine with the
Law, Gentiles and Jew. Therefore, the Law cannot divine this unity in one body
(1 Corinthians 12:12-27), for the unity is due to love (Colossians 3:14), and love is the fulfillment of the Law (Romans 13:8).
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