The Vine: March 24, 2025
“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing”
This is a weekly reflection on the previous week’s sermon text. Each week there will be a devotional related to the scripture for the week, along with questions for reflection/discussion, as well as prayer. Feel free to make this a part of your individual spiritual growth throughout the week or utilize in small group settings (growth groups, Sunday school, etc.)
“At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish just as they did.”
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the man working the vineyard, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.’”
These words are as challenging to us today as they were to those who first heard Jesus utter them. But in them are hidden a life-changing invitation that can transform us.
The passage begins with some people telling Jesus about some breaking news. Pilate, the governor of the Judea, had brutally murdered some Galilean Jews who had come to the Temple to offer their sacrifices in worship. Then Jesus reminds them about the collapse of the tower in Siloam that killed 18 people. Everyone was talking about it—today it would have been all over cable news and social media.
To everyone’s surprise Jesus asked the people if those who died were worse sinners than all the others who weren’t harmed. The people would have responded, “Of course!” This was the common belief of the day: bad things happen to bad people. But before they could answer, Jesus emphatically says, “No. But unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”
Jesus is clear that God does not use suffering, tragedy, or disaster to punish people for their sins. Instead, he wanted his listeners to realize how prideful and self-righteous they were because they judged everyone else for their sin while ignoring their own need for grace.
Jesus came into the world to show us that God’s disposition towards us is love and grace, not anger or retribution. He drives this point home by telling the story of a fig tree that was about to be cut down because it hadn’t produced fruit for three years. Fig trees are quite hardy, and they produce up to three crops every year, so this tree was practically dead. The owner was tired of messing with it and wanted to cut it down immediately.
Everyone was shocked to hear the gardener plea with the owner for more time. He promised to dig around it, fertilize it, and care for it for one more entire year. The story doesn’t tell us how this fig tree fared, but we know that the gardener saw promise in the tree no one else saw—goodness, fruit, and life.
We are all that fig tree. We often feel inadequate and unworthy. Jesus reminds us that he is our compassionate and patient God who comes alongside us to nurture our souls and care for the soil of our lives. It is God who awakens us in our barrenness and despair; he brings to life that which is dead within us. And it is God who sees in us great potential to flourish and thrive even when we can’t see it in ourselves.
Repentance is the life-changing invitation hidden in this story. The very first words Jesus ever preached were, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Repentance is Jesus’ invitation to lay aside our old ways of living and recover the beautiful and good like of his ways. In his book, Great Lent, Alexander Schmemann says that in this invitation we come “...to realize suddenly that I have defiled and lost my spiritual beauty, that I am far away from my real home, my real life....”
Repentance begins with God stirring in us a desire to come home to him and reclaim our spiritual beauty. It is much more than an act or transaction; it is a transformation and an awakening of our souls. Ultimately, it is the incredible work of God’s Spirit and the invitation of God’s Son ready to help us find our way back home.
Prayer:
God, thank you for pursuing me with your love. By your grace, help me to turn away from the things that rob me of your life for me. Awaken my soul with your love that I may turn to you and follow you with my whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. Amen.
Questions for Reflection:
1) In this passage, Jesus confronted the common but false teaching of the day that suffering, sickness, and suffering were the result of someone’s sin. In John 9 even the disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Do you think people still that believe that God punishes people with tragedy or disaster today? Explain.
2) Do you believe that repentance is something we do, God does, or both?
3) Think about Alexander Schmemann’s comment about how we come “...to realize suddenly that I have defiled and lost my spiritual beauty, that I am far away from my real home, my real life....” What does it mean to lose our spiritual beauty? What does it mean to be far away from home or our real life?
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