“I AM the True Vine”
John 15:1-8

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Palm Sunday—April 5, 2020

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

There is a story about a little girl in kindergarten who is busy drawing a picture.  “What are you drawing a picture of?” the teacher asks.  “I’m drawing a picture of God,” says the little girl.  “But,” says the teacher, “no one knows what God looks like.” “Well,” says the girl, “they will when I’m done!”

During Lent this year we have had a series of sermons on the “I AM” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Although these are some of the most familiar and beloved verses in the Bible, we may not be aware of the profound implications of the declaration “I AM” and the deeper significance of these verses.  Jesus is actually claiming for himself the name Jehovah or Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God in the Old Testament, which is translated simply, “I AM.”  As he declared in the passage which began our sermon series: “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was, I AM!”

Sometimes critics of Christianity say that Jesus was only a great teacher, that he never claimed to actually be God.  Such critics obviously haven’t read the Gospel of John, because that is exactly what Jesus is saying about himself with these “I AM” statements.  He is Jehovah, Yahweh, God in the flesh, the great “I AM,” God come down from heaven and made man.  As Paul says in today’s Epistle Reading, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death—even death on a cross!”

In Colossians, Paul declares, “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”  And the opening verses of John’s Gospel put it this way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . .  and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Like that kindergarten girl drawing a picture of God with her crayons, with the “I AM” declarations about himself, Jesus is actually drawing for us a picture of God, who God is, and what God is like.

“I AM the Light of the World.”  Darkness is used throughout the Bible, and indeed throughout human culture, as a universal symbol for evil, death, doom, and damnation.  As Jesus says earlier in the Gospel of John: “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”

All of humanity was plunged into spiritual and moral darkness by our fall into sin.  Because of our evil deeds, because of our spiritual darkness, we all deserve death, doom, and damnation.  But, throughout the Old Testament, the coming dawn is announced, the promised Messiah, who will be the great Light shattering the darkness of sin and death.   “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light,” Isaiah says. “On those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”  “The Sun of Righteousness will arise,” Malachi says, “with healing in his wings.” 

“I have come into the world as a light,” Jesus declares, “so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. . .  I AM the Light of the World.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

“I AM the Door.”  You may remember that after the fall into sin, the way to paradise was blocked by angels going back and forth with fiery swords.  Jesus came to open again for you the way to paradise.  “I AM the Door.  Whoever enters through me will be saved.”

“I AM the Good Shepherd.”  In this “I AM” statement, Jesus tells us HOW he opened for you the way to everlasting life. “I AM the Good Shepherd . . . and I lay down my life for the sheep.”  Your sins are all forgiven because your Good Shepherd sacrificed himself for you. As Hebrews says, “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. . .  we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

“I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life.”  Jesus is the only way to salvation, as Peter says in Acts, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”  “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

“I AM the Resurrection and the Life.”  Through faith in Jesus you receive eternal life, as he promised, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”  “I AM the Resurrection and the Life.  Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live.”

“I AM the Bread of Life.”  Just as the Lord rained down manna from heaven to sustain his people of old physically on their journey through the wilderness to the promised land, he sustains you spiritually on your journey through the wilderness of this world to the promised land of heaven with the Bread of Life.  “I AM the Bread of Life.  He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall not thirst.”

The last “I AM” statement of Jesus came at the very end of his ministry on the first Maundy Thursday, the night before he was crucified.  It was at the Last Supper, or perhaps as Jesus and his disciples were walking from there on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, that he declared: “I AM the True Vine.” 

History tells us that there were many false messiahs before and after Jesus.  Jesus knows that’s what even his disciples will think after he is after he is crucified, dead, and buried: Just another false messiah, whom they were mistaken to follow and believe in.  So, just hours before those events which will shatter their faith in him occur, he assures them, “I AM the True Vine.”

In flower gardening over the years, I’ve noticed that weeds tend to look like whatever plants they’re infiltrating.  Weeds pulled from the petunias look very much like petunias, weeds among the marigolds look like marigolds, and weedy grasses from the lawn look very close to real grass. It seems that weeds somehow mimic the surrounding plants.  Since Jesus describes himself as the “True Vine,” that means there are other vines, false vines, like those false messiahs of old, which we might mistakenly take for our true source of life.

Jesus warned, “Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.”  As in flower gardening, the false vines in the realm of religion, false prophets and false religions, often try to fool you by mimicking very closely the True Vine. That is why non-Christian cults and religions usually do not reject Christ outright.  In order to fool people, they still say nice things about him.  He was a great historical figure, a famous teacher, a fine example for us to follow.  They are trying to fool you by mimicking the True Vine.

Even more dangerous are false prophets within the Christian Church, as Jesus warned, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ferocious wolves.”  Listening to false teachers, being in a church with false teachings, is like a plant which is not only being deprived of healthy nutrients, but instead being fed poison.  We must test all teachers and their teachings and all denominations and churches against Word of God to see if they are rooted in True Vine—and flee from the poison of false teaching.

Outside the realm of religion, we may try to substitute something else for the True Vine, make something else the focus of our lives: money, possessions, success, work, pleasure.  Whatever you put above God in your life, that is your idol, that is the false vine you are substituting for the True Vine.

“I AM the True Vine. . .  you are the branches.  If man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

It is an old custom to dispose of the leftover Communion wine and the water used for washing the Communion vessels, as well as leftover Baptismal water, by pouring it outside on the ground.  I’ve told the story before how at one church I served in western Kansas in the 1980’s I was puzzled why, even in the midst of a severe drought, one shrub by the church was always green and flourishing.  I finally asked an elder, “Why is that one shrub thriving and growing while all the others are brown and dying?”  The elder replied, “Pastor, don’t you know?  That’s where we pour out the water and the wine.”  Be like that shrub, with the water and the wine poured out regularly on you, and you will thrive. 

Remember daily who you are through the waters of Baptism poured out upon you, the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, through which you are born again as a beloved child of God. As soon as we are able to hold Communion again,  the Lord’s Table receive from him his body and blood in the bread and wine of Holy Communion poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins, spiritual nutrients from the True Vine to strengthen you in the true faith unto life everlasting.  And as Psalm 1 says, “Blessed is the man [whose] . . .  delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water.” Be like that shrub, with the water, the wine, and the Word poured out on you regularly, and you will thrive. 

Hampton Court in England is one of the palaces of King Henry VIII.  In the garden of Hampton Court is a grape vine older than America, nearly 250 years old, the oldest and largest grape vine in the world.  The massive trunk of this plant is two feet in diameter.  But, even though it is so ancient and some of its branches are now over 250 feet from the trunk, every year it still produces hundreds of pounds of delicious fruit. 

Like the branches connected to that ancient vine, be connected to the True Vine, through the Word, the water of Baptism, the bread and wine of Communion, worship, devotion and prayer.  As Psalm 92 says: “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.”

“I AM the True Vine. . .  you are the branches.  If man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.”

Amen.