Monday after the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 9, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. John 15:1-17 (NKJV)
15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “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. 6 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. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 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.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
Devotion
In yesterday’s Gospel reading from Matthew 22 the Pharisees approached the Lord Jesus with a Law question: “Which is the great commandment?” The great commandment is to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. The Lord Jesus then returns the Pharisees Law question with a Gospel question: “Whose Son is the Christ?” Since we are unable to love the Lord God and our neighbors as we should on account of our manifold sins and trespasses, our Lord Jesus gives us Himself as the answer to our lawlessness.
He does the same thing in today’s reading from John 15. The Scriptures are filled with the imagery of vineyards and grapes. But as Isaiah 5 (and other places) points out, on account of sin dwelling in us we can produce only “wild grapes.” Our love for God and our neighbor is incomplete and insufficient; it produces not good fruit, but only “wild grapes.” Our loving Lord and Savior Jesus, the Christ, the Son of David, takes upon Himself our flesh. He joins Himself to us, connecting us to the true vine. Now all those grafted into Him, the true vine, bear good fruit. He credits us with His perfect fulfilling of the Law. Just like with the Pharisees in yesterday’s Gospel reading, He gives to us Himself, so that we may be free from the penalty of the Law and have eternal life in Him.
Prayer: O God, forasmuch as without Thee we are not able to please Thee: Mercifully grant, that Thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
