Pruning

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. (John 15:1-3; 11-12)

I have never been real comfortable with the idea of being pruned. My mind imagines pruning shears painfully cutting some part of me off which doesn't sound very pleasant. It sounds like taking part of me away, maybe even part of my identity which sort of feels like a threat to me. I understand the concept of pruning, that excess limbs can waste life energy of the plant and that old limbs can suck the life away from more productive parts of the tree or vine.

But still, most people just don't feel attracted to having something cut off of them even though logically they may accept that it is necessary. We feel like everything we have belongs to us for a reason and we don't like pain. Some of us become so afraid of pain that we will do nearly anything to avoid pain even if we know that not taking painful steps will result in even greater pain in the future. We are hard-wired to want comfort now even if it means we will have far less comfort down the road. Our addiction to comfort can become very self-destructive as any addict might be able to relate to you.

As I meditated on these verses this morning my mind was drawn to this phrase because of the word which I have spoken to you. That is interesting. How can words prune me? What was Jesus saying here in this metaphor that I need to understand and experience in my own life?

I look at the cross-reference I had at some point put beside this verse. My Bible is full of these. It led me down the page to verse 11 where again Jesus refers to things He has said to them. As usual I begin to compare these two verses to see what God might want to share with my heart. What can I take in today from the life-giving words of Jesus for me personally? How might I embrace what He says so that useless or even damaging parts of me will be pruned and more fruit can be produced in me too?

In the margin note in verse 3 I see the substitute for the word clean can be pruned. You are already pruned because of the word which I have spoken to you. That is interesting. Jesus seemed to believe that what they had already heard from Him had had its intended effect, at least to some extent.

But this is a bit baffling for me when I think about the state of mind that I assume these disciples might have given the descriptions of their infighting and pride and selfishness coming into the upper room. Has their attitude changed that dramatically over the past hour or two that Jesus has spent with them? Did His washing their feet, sharing bread and juice with them and talking about His plans and their future together really make that much difference in their mindset? According to this statement it appears something significant must have taken place adjusting their attitudes and affecting their spirit. Are they now capable of bearing more fruit than they were coming into this evening?

I move down to the next text I have referenced from the first one. Immediately I notice a buzz word that has caught my interest for years ever since I learned its true definition from Dr. Wilder. This is a word that for many years had little meaning to me and almost no connecting point in my heart. Joy. I used to wonder just what this might feel like. I was pretty certain I had never experienced it. Oh, I had been happy at times. But I sensed that this word joy was in another league and that it should not be cheapened to be defined as simply happiness like many have assumed. Because of this I held out for a better explanation of this word which was many years in coming.

I don't want to go into that in depth here, but I have unpacked that elsewhere at great length including a personal and very painful story of a day in my life that was one of the most traumatic days I have ever experienced. Burned deep into the memory of that horrific day and night is a riveting experience of joy that had nothing at all to do with happiness. That experience dramatically helped me to understand much more clearly what joy really is and how it can exist no matter what other intense emotions one may be feeling at the time.

Now I find myself pondering why Jesus is talking about Joy in connection with the things He has spoken. He expands my attention by talking both about His joy and our joy. He is saying that in some way His joy can be in me that will make my joy full. That sounds very tantalizing. No, that is too ineffective to express the intensity that I feel in these words. Full joy seems beyond my ability to even comprehend; yet at the same time it is something which I intuitively sense I was created to live in more than I am currently capable of appreciating.

Here Jesus is again talking about how His words can transform and improve me in some way. How might this be connected to pruning? And fruit? I remember that joy is one of the facets of fruit described in Galatians. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23) Notice that the word fruit is in the singular. That means that these are not fruits as in disconnected from each other but are different facets or descriptions of one thing. And according to this verse it is the Spirit that grows this fruit in me, not something I have to do. According to what Jesus said in the first part, I have to be connected to Him securely if I want to see this fruit appear in my life. It is not something He insists I have to produce but is simply a natural outgrowth of having a vital connection with Him.

This just keeps expanding as I ponder these words in their context. The next verse Jesus brings up that dreaded word commandment which for too many years had a lot of negativism for my heart. But the more I come to know the truth about God the less this word disturbs me now. Jesus and John seemed to have a strikingly different feeling about this word than I have had for much of my life. I want to resonate with this word more like I do with the word love. Here Jesus seems to think they are inextricably linked together. That is interesting – even compelling.

Pruning. Fruit. Abiding. Much fruit. My words abide in you. Abide in my love. Joy. Commandments. Love one another.

As I scan down through the page containing these verses I see the pattern emerging. I sense a new flavor from the gospel, the good news about what God is really like. I sense a further awakening of my heart again as it is slowly healing from the damage of my past.

My heart was designed for this. I was not made to live in fear but in joy, love and peace. I want this. I crave this. I long for this to be a description of my life. I want to be so filled with these things that others will become jealous and hungry and will feel compelled to ask how they can have it too.