Abiding In Christ part 2

In John 15 we read about the “husbandman” who makes this great practice of going about His vineyard both pruning and plucking.  Masterfully He makes His way along the vine in divine inspectory.  Amazingly this Master Gardener has never made a single mistake as He cuts His way along the vine with great precision. He has never pruned a branch that needed plucking nor has He ever plucked a branch that was to be pruned.

What is it that He is doing exactly?  What purpose does He have in this process of pruning and plucking?  John 15 tells us that He is preparing the vine for future growth.  He is making preparations for mass quantities of heavy fruit that will soon cause these newly wounded branches to bow down low to the ground- as if to worship the husbandman as He makes His way through the garden.

In the process of all this holy gardening, some branches rejoice that they have been wounded, knowing that the gardener has sovereign right to His vineyard and will do to His vineyard anything He chooses, as His good pleasure requires.  While other branches reject the care of the husbandman for His vineyard and protest His craft in fruitless disapproval.  However, their protesting comes with a great price.  According to verse 6 “…men gather them, and cast [them] into the fire, and they are burned.” 

The question must be asked, “What’s the difference between pruning and plucking?” In all actuality, the process is very much the same: in justice to the vineyard and in love to the Vine, the Gardener cuts back the foliage of all the branches. In other words, no branch is left uncut.  However, in response to the cutting by the husbandman, some branches bear even more fruit than before having been cut.  However, by the same cutting, some branches respond by bearing no fruit at all.  In short, all the branches will be cut by the Gardener… that’s what gardeners do.  The evidence of His love for the Vine is that He cuts the branches.  And the evidence of the branches love for the Gardener is their bearing of much fruit in the Vine.

Another question must be asked: How will you respond to the Gardener’s love for His Vine?  Will you rejoice or will you reject? Those who rejoice the cutting of themselves by the Gardener will do so by producing much fruit for His Vineyard.  And those who reject will do so by protesting both the vineyard and the Vine.