Jesus’ teaching on the vine, the vine grower, and the branches (John 15, 1-8) is His encouragement to all disciples to “remain” in Him, “stay” with Him, and to never let themselves be separated from Him. His teaching is a powerful message of dependence and belonging. The grower needs the vine, and the vine needs the grower, and they both need the branches. There can be no fruit (Jesus says) if these relationships are not sustained.
Although fear ruled the day on Good Friday and most of the disciples fled from Jesus, the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament is an amazing testament to how “belonging” came to matter to them, how they learned that “relationships” are essential, and how they came to dedicate themselves to “making” the Church, “being” the Church, and creating family so that they could bear abundant fruit – that would last.
An important Easter lesson for us is this: remaining in Christ and having Christ remain in us is the plan we should be following. We’re not perfect – the Apostles weren’t either. We don’t do this well all the time – the early Church didn’t either. But we do our honest best to rely on Christ and each other. We stay close to what gives us life and love. We have dedicated ourselves to following Christ’s path – which is the only one that leads to lasting peace, real joy, and (eventually) eternal life. If you’ve got a better plan … please, let us know.
