LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Fruit that Remains
"You did not choose me, but I chose you and ordained you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16).
These words of the Lord Jesus are inserted in his discourse on the true Vine. The allegory is beautiful, didactic, and the spiritual teaching about the indestructible union between Christ and his own flows simple and easy to understand.
The Lord Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. The Father has placed us on the true Vine so that we may bear fruit, much fruit. However, the most precious fruit of a branch is not the beautiful bunches of grapes, but the wine.
For this reason, in the Scriptures a vineyard without a winepress is not conceived; thus, for example, in Isaiah 5:2, when the Lord compares Israel to a vineyard. When the Lord says in this allegory of John 15: "Your fruit will remain", he probably does not refer to the grape – which is fleeting, not very durable – but to wine, because the older the wine, the better. Wine gladdens the heart; likewise, the fruit of a believer united to the Vine is a reason for joy in all who know him.
The branch is pruned annually, which will allow it to bear more and better fruit next year – better and more grapes, for better wine. When he is pruned, he suffers, and literally cries. Useless branches are removed from the branches, and the vine is thus allowed to focus its energies on what bears fruit, and the sun does its job better in ripening.
When the Lord said this allegory he must have also been thinking of the wine press – although he does not mention it. The winepress is the place where the grapes die and become the final product that the farmer desires. The farmer enjoys the day when his harvest is going through the press, because from there will come the greatest wealth that she can give him.
However, the branches have been left bare and their fruit has had to go through death. So it is also in the Christian life. Only what comes out of death is the product of resurrection. The beautiful bunch of grapes does not know death – therefore its value is limited. It can offer a pleasant appearance, and be sweet on the palate, but that is not the end expected by the Labrador. What truly cheers the heart is what comes out of the press. The winery is a place of silence and pain, where everything that is ours disappears.
The Lord had his own press: Gethsemane, which means "oil press," the place where olives are pressed to become oil. There he suffered the anguish of the soul at the moment of surrendering to the will of the Father. Then came the cross, where he drank, also in physical death, the bitter drink that the Father gave him to drink.
The fruit of the vine that remains is not the grape, but the wine. And the wine speaks to us of death and is an announcer of resurrection. Let's not despair when the pains of death are going through our souls. The dawn of the resurrection is already announced, and our Father will be glorified in the fruit that is to come.