I AM the True Vine

It's the night before Jesus' crucifixion. The Last Supper has been eaten, bread blessed and broken, wine blessed and shared. The disciples can sense that something significant is about to happen, something weighty, but no one but Jesus knows the full extent of what's to come. It is in the face of this uncertainty that Jesus speaks these words: I am the True Vine. To us this may sound a strange thing to say. We do not deal with vines much today but for Jesus' audience, these words struck a strange resonance. The grape vine carried deep significance in their Jewish imagination. Not only did it adorn the frame of the doors into the temple, but the vine or the vineyard was a repeated image for the people of Israel used throughout the Old Testament scriptures. And yet here is Jesus, on the night before His death, not simply claiming to be a vine, or even the vine, but the True Vine. What does this mean and why should it matter to us today? What did Jesus mean when Jesus went on to say, "I am the vine and you are the branches?" Join us this Sunday as we continue to hear Jesus in his own words.