March 22, 2014: John Chapter 15

The Gospel According to John Chapter 15

Originally posted Wednesday, April 23, 2008

(This blog will take a week's break and will resume on Sunday, March 30, 2014.  I hope you are enjoying reading Charles' commentaries as much as I am!)

General Comment: John provides us with yet one more metaphor descriptive of Jesus' relationship with his disciples and all believers. "I am the true vine" has no direct corollary with any single Old Testament passage but its imagery and individual elements will be found there. John has drawn on several of the Major Prophets as well as non-canonical texts to fashion what is known as a "mashal," a literary mixture of parable, fable and allegory. We have seen this in John's combination of Jesus as the Good Shepherd with Jesus as the Sheep Gate in Jn. 10.

John Chapter 15:1-17 Jesus the True Vine

The initial relationships are self-evident with Jesus as the central character. Jesus as the true vine has branches (believers) in him. Branches that are unproductive are cut off while those that are productive are pruned so they can produce even more fruit. In John being productive means bearing fruit through the evangelistic mission, the fruit being added believers. Jesus says to "go and bear fruit. fruit that will last." The stark difference between being cut off and being pruned is indicative of whether or not one is committed to the commandment to love one another and, as the foot washing demonstrates, to go into the world and to offer a share of Jesus' heritage to others. For John there is no middle ground. Being fruitful is understood as the necessary outcome and validation of what it means to believe in Jesus. Any other outcome results in being cut off from God. John also insists that believers cannot be fruitful by themselves, disassociated from Jesus and the community. In the early church being a believer and not productively associated with the community was a contradiction in terms. One was either in or out.  As Paul pointed out in his defining of spiritual gifts, everyone has an active role in the life and work of the church. John describes this in terms of the branch continuing to abide in the vine. As the believer continues to abide in (relationship with) Jesus, so Jesus continues to abide in the believer (as the returned spirit/paraclete).

John returns to his previous emphasis on love. To abide in Jesus is to abide in his love as he has abided in God's love. We abide in Jesus' love by keeping his commandments (teachings) just as he has kept God's commandments. The mutuality of love is expressive of an important feature of John's understanding of spiritual relationships. The relationship of Father and Son is the same as that of Jesus and believer. This is at the heart of understanding the meaning of the triune spiritual bond: Father to Son; Son to believer; believer to Father. Of this bond which Jesus brings from God to the believer, Jesus says that it represents his love being in the believer so that the believer's joy may be complete.

This spiritual love is to be the pattern for the disciples love for one another. Jesus' love is most clearly demonstrated by his willingness to lay down his life for the disciples (and by extension, all believers) who he now calls his friends. They are no longer considered in the classic understanding of a disciple as a servant of the teacher, but as his chosen friends to whom Jesus has taught everything he has seen in and heard from the Father. They are now equipped to go into the world and to bear fruit, to give this teaching to others.

John Chapter 15:18-16:4a The World's Hatred For Jesus and the Disciples

"World" is referred to in John on two levels. In the first part of the Gospel the world (cosmos) is loved by God. Jesus comes to save the world from sin not to judge it. In this way the world represents humanity, specifically humanity capable of responding to God's overtures through Jesus. The world itself is not evil as it is in Gnostic literature, but by the second half or so of the Gospel, "world" takes on a darker visage. It is now that vast humanity that rejects Jesus and will reject anyone who believes in Jesus and witnesses on his behalf. This world of humanity is ruled by Satan. This is the arena in which the disciples will be sent. If the world had kept Jesus' words (teachings) it would have kept the disciples'. But the world did not. The world has hated Jesus. Therefore the disciples should not be surprised that the world will hate and persecute them because of their association with and belief in Jesus. The reason for the world's hatred and persecution is their not knowing God the Father (as the Father whom the Son has made known).

In an interesting understanding of sin, John writes that if Jesus had not been sent by God, the world of humanity would not have sin. But since Jesus has been sent and has brought God's words to them in his works, teaching and preaching, their rejection of Jesus has become their [life of] sin and their judgment. This is equivalent to Paul's understanding of the Law in his Epistle to the Romans. Before the Law there was no opportunity for sin. But with the Law, sin is unveiled in disobedience to the Law. So, in John, there is no excuse for sin. The parallel aspect to Jesus' being sent is that in the world's rejection of Jesus, judgment has now taken place where there was no judgment. In so many words John has repeated his view of the moment of crisis: Jesus being sent has brought eternal life and condemnation, two present outcomes of judgment and both contained within human choice. The hatred extends beyond Jesus and the disciples. Those who have hated Jesus, as evidence by their rejection, also have hated the Father (see Pss. 35:19; 69:4).

Even though hatred and persecution await them, the disciples are to testify to the world on Jesus' behalf just as the Paraclete will come and testify to the disciples on Jesus' behalf. He has been truthful in his assessment of their danger so they will not be unaware and stumble when it happens. The power of the world's hatred will result in their being put out of the Synagogue and some may even be killed by those who think they are doing God's will.

As we read these passages we are sharing not only in the disciples' experience, but also in that of John's community. Their time is one of rejection, hatred and persecution by the Romans and the Synagogue leadership. John writes for the believers' encouragement that they might stand fast in enduring the same rejection, as did Jesus. The power of love for one another and the mystical union of believer with Jesus and God as mediated by the Paraclete, the indwelling presence of Christ will sustain them.