The Vinedresser
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
When I was nine years old, my dad planted a small vineyard on his property in the Santa Cruz mountains of California. By the time the Lord saved me at the age of 18, I had helped expand the vineyard to 5 acres and learned the many tasks to be repeated each year in hopes of a good harvest. All agriculture is hard work but compared to most other crops, grape vines require a surprising amount of meticulous care to be kept at peak health and production. There are insect pests, drought, various animals that strip or destroy vines and the constant threat of lingering morning fog spreading mildew across the entire vineyard.
Those are just the external threats, however. The most critical task is the annual pruning.
Thanks to this time in my dad’s vineyard, when I first read through John 15 I saw through the lens of experience exactly what Jesus was talking about when he spoke of pruning us as branches. Every sensation and movement of wintertime pruning came back to me: the feel of smooth dry branches (or canes) in the hands, the rhythmic clip-clip as they are removed back to the buds nearest the main vine (or cordon) and armloads of canes carried to a pile that would eventually be set aflame in the cool dusk to warm hands sore from constant squeezing and grasping. When I realized that the Word of God uses this precise imagery to describe His working in our lives, it was both sobering and clarifying.
Vinedressers in the time of Christ didn’t have metal stakes supporting the vine and hardened steel clippers as we have today, but otherwise the process has changed very little. To the untrained eye, vinedressing (the act of pruning) looks like someone stripping a full vine back to a bare stub incapable of coming back. To the left of the pruning vinedresser are bushy vines covered in canes, in front of him is a vine undergoing transformation, and to the right are slightly prickly but otherwise bare cordons branching out from the knobby trunk of each vine. It is these remaining cordons and trunks that are the true vine, where all of the ultimate life and vibrancy of the plant awaits the onset of Spring. The canes that now lay at the vinedresser’s feet bore fruit the year before, not because they were full of life but because they were connected to the source of life found in the vine. Some are removed entirely, others are left as small spurs containing two buds that will form the canes for next season. It looks like drastic carnage but in reality is an artful exercise in balance and foresight.
Any misconception about the vines’ fate, however, is quickly dispelled in Spring as the seemingly bare vines rapidly sprout new canes. In contrast, if the vines had been left without pruning, Spring would bring fresh leaves and even a few flower clusters destined to become grapes, but the transformation would be minor and largely ineffective. Pruned vines produce not only more fruit but better fruit. To make things worse, it would be harder yet to efficiently prune the following year.
The explanation for this is simple. The farther that sap must travel from the cordons to a cane the less likely fruit will come to full maturity. There is something hard-wired in grapevines that tells them how much fruit they can sustain. The roots and trunk can only deliver so much. If the sap is spread over too many canes or must go too far then the vine focuses on survival, which means the vine will make lots of leaves for growth but minimal fruit, if any, for procreation. If the fluid can stay concentrated then fruit will be abundant. The life of the vine will stay focused.
The vinedresser is constantly balancing optimum spur count, bud direction (up is better than down) and a sharp eye for cane health. Thick canes close to the cordon remain as spurs; canes that look sickly, show signs of rot, or are starting to get too far down the cordon are cut off entirely. Ideally, there remain 15 spurs on a vine but that too is part of the ballet and the trained eye of the vinedresser will decide the ultimate count based on the aforementioned conditions. In rare cases of disease, an entire cordon will be cut back to the trunk and a particularly healthy cane from the other cordon or trunk will be trained to fill its place. This act appears particularly severe, but it may in fact save the life of the vine in the long run.
John 15 makes a clear binary distinction in the pruning of a vineyard. Those canes that bear fruit remain; those that do not are cut and end up on the burn pile. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15: 5-6)
Christ is the vine, the trunk and cordons from which all life proceeds. We are the branches, the canes that spring forth from the vine and bear leaves and fruit. The Father is the vinedresser that sees all and knows all, that makes His cuts with a vision toward both future fruit and culling disease. What are we to do then? How are we to bear fruit and not be burned with the season’s clippings? What does the cane on a grapevine do to bear fruit? The answer to all these questions is in maintaining a healthy connection to the Vine. We are to abide in Christ.
“Abide in Me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4)
And how do we ensure we are abiding in the Christ vine? By obeying His commands and in this case His specific command to love each other in the way that Christ loves us.
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love… This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:10,12)
But how will we have the strength to keep such an all-encompassing commandment? The Word points to our Helper and Comforter: the Spirit who leads us to lay our lives down:
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” (Romans 8: 13-14)
Our Father in Heaven, the great Vinedresser, does more than decide which canes stay and which ones are cut, however. Even the canes or branches that abide and remain on the vine from season to season are pruned. They are cut back to the bud or two closest to the vine. All else is removed and ends up in the fire. If you’ve ever experienced a season of intense loss when it seems like even the very good things in your life that did not seem to be sinful or contrary have been suddenly taken away, congratulations, you have experienced the level of pruning reserved for healthy canes. As always, the intent of such pruning is that you would “bear even more fruit,” though at the time it might feel like those branches will never grow back.
“If you’ve ever experienced a season of intense loss when it seems like even the very good things in your life that did not seem to be sinful or contrary have been suddenly taken away, congratulations, you have experienced the level of pruning reserved for healthy canes.”
Interestingly, the healthiest canes/branches on a vine after a period of many years begin to appear as their own sub-vine and can begin to sustain their own canes. They start to look like a cordon themselves: a smaller version of the original life giving vine. Every earthly vinedresser is well versed in this and the Word of God points this out as well.
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29, emphasis added)
Do you see the Father pruning you and your life? Are things cut out to the benefit of your walk with Him and your spiritual fruit? The Bible instructs us to recognize it for what it is, the correction of a loving father.
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction: for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.” (Proverbs 3:11-12)
John 15 fills me with sobriety because I know firsthand the difficult and sometimes heart wrenching decisions faced by vinedressers working on vines they raised from saplings. Cutting off entire cordons can feel more like an irreparable loss than a step toward fruit, but an experienced vinedresser sees beyond individual actions to years ahead in the life of a vine. It is for this reason that I am also filled with hope. The hands of a good vinedresser can sustain vines and make them fruitful in even the most challenging of circumstances. This intentional care is what separates a wild vine, good only for choking trees, from a tended vine that produces some of the most sophisticated fruit on the planet.
Just as grapevines don’t tend themselves, we don’t have the power to produce fruit in and of ourselves. But unlike completely deaf and dumb grape canes, we have been blessed by the Vinedresser with the ability to communicate with Him. Thanks to the sacrifice of Christ, the Vine that we are connected to, we have this promise: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens - Jesus the Son of God - let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
If we look at our lives and fear that we will be barren of fruit, we need to trust in the vibrancy of the Vine that we are connected to and call out to the Father, our great Vinedresser. His hand is steady and faithful. He has given us His Word and His Spirit and if we submit ourselves to them, we shall be faithfully pruned and bring forth fruit. The Word, like clippers, cuts our lives skillfully and the Helper that Christ faithfully has given us, that is the Spirit, is like the vibrant sap that brings life and swells clusters of fruit.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Hebrews 8:11)