A few weeks ago I was standing in a vineyard in the hot winter sunshine of the Holy Land. This vineyard was in Galilee, near Cana, where Jesus performed His first miracle. He turned water into wine at a wedding feast.
What a joyful way to start His ministry. And how appropriate, because He came to bring joy to the world!
This morning we are going to see what the Bible says about the fruit of the vine. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that its fruit makes life merry” and the book of Proverbs tells us that “it gladdens the heart”.
However, Paul warns us in his letter to the Ephesians “not to get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery”.
Some have even suggested that the tree whose fruit Adam ate was a vine, for “nothing brings as much woe to a man as wine.” Does that ring any bells this morning??
And if like me, you prefer Living Water to the fruit of the vine, and are feeling great this morning while others are holding their heads, lets remember what Jeremiah says about sour grapes!!
Pruning vines is a highly specialised art. Each season the dead wood has to be cut out and the good shoots painstakingly trained in the right direction.
The “Song of the Vineyard” in Isaiah covers every aspect of grape growing from the terracing to the planting and the guarding of the vines. Precisely because it takes so long to bear fruit, the first grapes appearing after five years and nothing drinkable being harvested for a decade, the vine has became a symbol of peaceful days. “Beating spears into pruning hooks” is a well known scriptural reference to an end to warfare.
Jesus used to teach by telling graphic stories. In John´s gospel He tells us He is the true vine, and his Father, God, is the gardener. We are the branches, and like the vines in the Holy Land, we must be trained to grow in the right direction.
When we´re wayward and grow away from the vine we find ourselves cut back for our own good. It hurts at the time, but in retrospect we can usually see that God had a new and better direction he wanted us to take.
Gently, through the seasons of our life, we grow, get pruned, are trained along the right lines, and bear fruit. John’s Gospel tells us that if we stay joined to Jesus, the Vine, we shall bear MUCH fruit.
As we next drink of the vine, why don´t we take a moment to consider the kind of fruit WE are bearing?
Have a God Day….
Felicity
