Sunday/Vines, Branches, and Fruit

                     Sunday/Vines, Branches, and Fruit

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the vine,
so neither can you unless you remain in me."

Every so often, Christ sounds mystical, as if He expects a translator to step in and clarify everything. While He was speaking to many who were educated in the Old Testament, many were fishermen and most were illiterate.

There is the hint of the physical-spiritual dichotomy here, the pruning of the physical to promote spiritual growth. But this passage raises a real question: what is the fruit? Is it essential to the vine? Because if it is, it sounds as if the branches are integral parts of the vine and essential intermediaries to some larger scheme. Is it the Grower? Does His creation expand? Is there some endpoint here?