I’ve never been great at caring for plants. I can keep them alive, but I never expect them to flourish under my care. When my wife and I bought our first house, there were big bushes outside the back door and spread throughout the backyard. One of the first things I did was to remove those bushes.
I’ve been trying to do better since moving to North Dakota. I bought a hedge trimmer and have tried to keep the bushes in the front of our house looking nice. The flower beds in our back yard have actually been weeded a few times, and although I didn’t help much, we actually had a successful garden last year.
While maintaining a yard takes effort, for the most part the plants just grow. It’s more a task of keeping them at bay than of helping them to grow. I’d dare say that many of the crops that grow in this area don’t take a lot of focus and attention to get them to produce a crop, at least not when compared to other crops.
We have an apple tree on the side of our house. I didn’t plant it, and honestly I haven’t done a whole lot to care for it. Last year it produced quite a few apples, and we enjoyed using them to make applesauce. However, the quality of our apples are nowhere near that of those grown by professional farmers.
Our apple tree is quite short. I typically will end up knocking a few apples off the tree every time I mow the yard. Even before the fruit begins to grow, I’m having to carefully maneuver the lawnmower around the tree in order to not get the handle stuck in the branches.
In order to address this problem, I decided to remove some of the lower branches. I don’t want to remove many, just enough so that I can more easily mow the lawn. However, I’ve never pruned an apple tree before, so I began looking online to guides and tutorials. I found that apple tree pruning is much more intense than I would have thought. You can’t just go in and hack of branches with no rhyme or reason. There’s a science behind it.
First, there’s a proper season to prune the tree. You want to do it during the dormant season so that the you don’t stimulate new growth while the tree is getting ready for winter. Additionally, you want to remove dead branches every year while maintaining the scaffolding branches. These are the main branches coming from the trunk of the tree. They should be at about a 45° angle from the tree trunk. You then need to begin removing the small buds on the scaffolding branches. However, you must be careful to properly distinguish between fruiting buds and vegetative buds.
The more I read about pruning apple trees, the more I realized that this was something way beyond my expertise. It takes a skilled gardener to be able to bring this tree to its full fruit bearing potential. This is the image Jesus paints in John 15:1-2.
Grapes and vines were a cultural norm for those to whom Jesus was speaking. Much like with an apple tree, the pruning of branches wasn’t a hack job but a meticulously thought out plan. In fact, as involved as it is to pruning of apple trees, grape vines are ten times worse.
Much like with any pruning, the pruning of the grape-vine removes needless growth and allows the branch to focus its energy on growing more fruit. Branches that bear no fruit yet continue to grow suck the life out of the vine yet are worthless. It’s entirely possible to grow grapes on a grape-vine without proper pruning, much like my apple tree. However, the purpose of pruning is to allow the branch to focus its energy on doing what you want it to do, bear fruit.
Jesus later goes on to explain, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” (John 15:5). The whole point of this discourse is not to explain to them how grapes grow but to use something they were familiar with to explain to them a spiritual truth.
Each of us wants to be that kind of person. Each of us wants to grow and bear fruit. We may not like it when God prunes here or there, but we trust that he is doing it so that we might grow stronger. However, as much as we want to grow and bear fruit, there are many people in this world that would be considered dead branches.
To be clear, a dead branch does not mean that the branch is decaying and rotting on the tree. A dead branch may certainly still be alive in a technical sense, but it doesn’t bear any fruit. In this sense it is worthless, because bearing fruit is the sole purpose of the branch. There are many ways in which we can become dead, fruitless branches.
First of all, we can refuse to listen to Christ at all. We’ve all known people like this. These branches are the easiest to spot as they bear no fruit and make no attempt at growth. These would be those people who openly reject and refuse to listen to the gospel message.
Second, we can listen to Christ yet only honor him with our lips. We don’t like to admit it, but churches across the nation are filled with people like this (not this church of course). These branches may look good, but without fruit they are worthless.
James the brother of Jesus put it this way, “As the body without spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:26). Even Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21). Great emphasis is put on not only acknowledging Jesus with your lips but letting that manifest into action.
The church in America is hurting because we’ve become complacent in our salvation. We are content to sit in our churches and sing our worship songs without taking seriously the call to get out there and share the love of Jesus. We’ve become dead branches that fail to produce fruit.
Finally, we can claim him as our master yet fall away when difficult times arise. One of the greatest failures in the bible comes from a man who was completely on fire and sold out for Jesus. In Matthew 26:33 Peter declares, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” However, within the same chapter he has not only denied him but has done it three times.
It’s a given that difficult times will come. You will face trials of many kinds. The Father will prune you, and it will not feel good. During those times it is tempting to turn away and shy away. It can be tempting to throw in the towel or at least not do what you know you ought to do. But therein lies the danger. With these times of great difficulty also come the greatest potential for growth. We cannot allow our fear of being uncomfortable, mocked, or shamed keep us from producing the fruit we are meant to bear.
While it can be beneficial to look at these pitfalls of the fruitless branches, the truth remains that our goal is not to keep from being fruitless but to become fruitful. We must focus not on what keeps us from growing fruit but on how we can continue to grow and produce.
Amidst all this talk, it may be tempting to try making ourselves grow fruit. We may be tempted to take on more tasks and more responsibilities to prove that we are bearing fruit, but this idea of fruit is counter to Jesus’ message. While we are expected to bear fruit, that is not our job. The task of bearing fruit is not something that we must strive to do on our own. In fact it’s not something that we can do by our own power. Jesus declares, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John 15:4).
As any gardener or farmer can attest, we can’t make plants grow. We can provide the proper environment. We can provide water, fertilizer, and pesticides, but in the end a farmer has no control over whether a particular seed will grow and produce a crop. All he can do is to provide it with everything that it needs to do so.
The same is true in our spiritual lives. It’s true that our spiritual growth will lead to more good works and deeds for God’s Kingdom, but simply adding more items to our todo list won’t make you grow fruit. If we seek to bear fruit of our own accord, we are doing no better than hanging plastic fruit on living branches.
Instead, we must make the conditions right. The farmer knows that the seed will not grow unless it has first been planted in the ground. Likewise, Christ says that we must remain in him. Outside of that connection we cannot grow and produce fruit.
The farmer also knows that the seed will not grow unless it has received enough water and food. Likewise, we must daily be fed by the Father. Through prayer and the studying of God’s Word we receive the spiritual nutrients that we need.
If we are going to produce fruit, just like with any plant, we must be cultivated. We must cultivate a relationship with Jesus through prayer and studying God’s Word. Just as Jesus said, If we are to bear fruit, we must remain in the vine. This is our goal and our purpose, to stay connected to him, the source of all life. As we daily walk with him and remain plugged into him, he will produce the fruit in us that we could never do on our own. The gardener will prune and shape us, but it’s all in the name of producing fruit for him.