Reflections on the Lord’s Farewell Discourse - Part Three

Reflections on the Lord’s Farewell Discourse - Part Three

“I am the true vine.”

Prophet Isaiah describes the house of Israel as the vine and vineyard of the Lord: “For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel.” Along these lines, Prophet-King David says in Psalm LXXX: ‘Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparest the way before it, and didst cause it to take deep root and it filled the land.”  But, according to Isaiah, instead of grapes, it produced thorns: “...and I waited for it to bring forth grapes and it brought forth thorns…I expected it to bring forth judgment and it brought forth iniquity; and not righteousness but a cry.”  This false vine God uprooted and He planted in its place a new vine, genuine and grape-bearing, whose first branch is the Lord Jesus: “I am the true vine and My Father is the husbandman.”  Jesus as the true vine produces the finest grapes and the best wine which delights God and the hearts of men. The Father cultivates the vine in order to multiply its branches and fill the entire earth with its fruit. The first branches which grew from this true vine of God are the disciples and Apostles of Christ.

“Abide in Me and I in you.”

Christ exhorts His disciples to remain freely united with Him, so that He too may ever abide with them. As the vine is to the branches, Jesus is to His disciples. Saint John Chrysostom says:  “They can work nothing without His power and that they ought to be united with Him by faith as the branch with the vine.”  The protection and spiritual growth of the disciples - and all the faithful - lies in their union with and dependence upon the true vine, the God-man Christ. The faithful live by the immortal and life-giving powers of the true vine. Only in this organic union does man acquire the knowledge of the one Lord, the one faith and the one baptism. Without this organic union, Christians can neither live nor advance in the Gospel Law. Separation from the vine is the result of egotistic and selfish desires and leads to spiritual death. Those who abide with Jesus, from Whom they receive every divine blessing, rejoice because they are glorified by God and honored by the faithful as servants of God.

Jesus saves men acting through His disciples, that is, through His Church. Remaining united with Jesus, His disciples submit to Him as Lord and Master and, working in His name and according to His word, they bring forth abundant fruit.  As Apostles, they will enlighten and save many men and transform the Greco-Roman world. 

“As My Father has loved Me, so have I loved You; continue in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in my love.”

The disciples were regenerated by Jesus both bodily and spiritually, receiving His Body and His Spirit. As Jesus proved worthy of the Father’s perfect love so the disciples will prove worthy of Jesus’ love, loving Him in return and observing all His commandments; it is through the observance of the Gospel law that this mutual love is maintained. St. John Chrysostom writes: “Here He alludes to the manner of life, showing that without works it is not possible to be in Him.”

“These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy may be fulfilled.”

The joy of Jesus springs from His eternal consciousness that he is God’s only-begotten Son, that He is loved by the Father and He loves the Father in return with the same equal, and perfect love. This joy of perfect love Christ imparted to His beloved disciples, giving them the consciousness that they were born of Him, receiving from Him a body and a Spirit and that they are loved by Him as much as He is loved by the Father Who gave Him birth.

“This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.”

The distinguishing characteristic of the love with which the disciples are exhorted to love one another is the sacrifice of one’s own life in behalf of one’s brother or sister in Christ. “Greater love hath no man but this, that he lay down his life for a friend.” Greater love than this self-sacrificing love of Jesus no one has. The disciples love one another willingly, readily sacrificing themselves and all their possessions in behalf of their brethren, not seeking their own interests, but each one seeking the interests of every other; for love does not seek its own but the interests of the loved one. If the disciples observe this commandment to love with the selfless, philanthropic love of Jesus, He will fulfill all that He has promised them. 

All the Lord’s commands aim at nothing else but cultivating love for one another. Bound by indissoluble love and armed with the sword of the Spirit, His disciples take a stand against the world. The divine Chrysostom writes: 

“Since then love is a thing mighty and irresistible, not a bare word, let us manifest it by our actions. 

He reconciled us when we were His enemies, let us at least follow; 

He loves us not for His own advantage, let us at least love Him for our profit; 

He loved us being His enemies, let us at least love Him being our friend. 

At present we do the contrary; for every day God is blasphemed through us, through our plunderings, through our covetousness…

For this malady has seized upon all the world and occupies the souls of all, and great is the tyranny of Mammon. We have been ransomed by Christ, and we are the slaves of gold.”

“Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you.”

Those between whom there is mutual love are called friends. From servants the disciples are raised to friends because they are loved by the Lord as much as their Lord is loved by the Father. Friends know each other intimately, trust one another, identify in understanding and will and share in joy and sorrow. Friends rejoice and grieve over the same causes, they desire and believe in the same things and they struggle and gladly die for one another. And this unity of wills and love between the Lord and His disciples is maintained through adherence to the Gospel Law.

“…I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit…that whatever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it to you.”

Jesus selected the twelve and set them to the work of building up the Church.

The glory of the Father is the true knowledge about Him, received from Jesus, the Son of God, and preached to all nations.The Father has been glorified among the nations by the Holy Apostles, through whom the prevailing polytheism and idolatry were abolished and the true faith and worship established. In this work, everything they sought from God in the name of Jesus they received immediately. Because they are His friends through the keeping of His commandments, Jesus reveals to His disciples all the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.

.“Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”“If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me first.”

“The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. “

Jesus was hated by the rulers of the Jews, that is, the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees. They imparted their hatred to the people, who then wildly cried out against Jesus before Pilate - Crucify him!  Why such malice, such murderous hatred? Because He testified that the works of the world are wicked, that they sprang from satan and not from God. The reason for this hatred in the world is satan, who hates Christ and is hated by Christ. All of history is in a very real sense the hatred and implacable enmity and bitter war between Christ’s Church and satan. This hatred, enmity and war pass on to Christ’s disciples and to the forces of sin and evil. . “”The branch that bears fruit, the Lord renders more fruitful by pruning…”

 Following the witness of the Apostles and early Christians, the faithful today must set themselves against a hostile Western society through the all- powerful love of Jesus, by loving one another as Jesus loved them, by placing their trust in the Lord and by being fearless toward those who hate them. 

“...the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father, the same will bear witness of me.” 

Jesus is the Truth whereby the true God is revealed to men, along with every truth which enlightens and saves men from the delusion of satan, the man-destroyer. Satan hates and misrepresents and slanders this Truth.

This same truth is loved and testified to by the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, which proceeds from the Father and came to the world to bear witness of the Son. The Spirit of Truth testifies truthfully about Jesus and dispels the sophistries and slanders of satan.

Christ’s death and the disciples’ separation from Him are ultimately beneficial to them; through His death, resurrection and ascension, they will be united with the Paraclete through whom they derive eternal delight and perfection and deification. The Paraclete will come to them and perfect them and deify them and make them useful in His work. Jesus had to die, resurrect from the tomb, and ascend to heaven, so that the Paraclete might come to the disciples and that through Him, they might know all that they were ignorant of, that they might work with Him toward the building up of the Church and that Truth might be declared with divine power.

“…when the Spirit of Truth is come, he shall guide you into all truth.”

The Son of God is Himself the Truth, the faithful and exact image of the Father.  The words of Jesus Who is eternal Truth were to be understood by virtue of the Paraclete, Who is Jesus’ successor in the teaching and guidance of the disciples and the entire Orthodox Church. When the Spirit is united with our souls, he  guides the faithful into all truth. The faithful disciples receive the words of Christ and abide in His  Spirit. St. Nikolai Velimirovich writes: “Belief in the Holy Spirit of God is not based on supposition, on mental hypothesis, but on revealed, experienced and witnessed reality. Whoever wishes to become a living witness of this reality, must make an effort to cleanse his heart of sin and cense it with prayer, before any probing of the heavenly mysteries.  And the Holy Spirit will reveal Himself to him, the Spirit of truth and life, the Spirit of wisdom and joy, the Spirit of freedom and adoption. And this Holy Spirit will bear witness to his spirit, concerning the truthfulness of all Christ’s revelation about God, about the soul, about the way of salvation, about the eternal kingdom of God. He will bear witness to it all, just as he did to the spirit of the Apostles and the Holy Fathers who composed the Creed.”

“…the hour comes when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but shall tell you plainly of the Father.”

Until now, Jesus’ teaching took the form of parables because only through this manner could they be trained and introduced into the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. The revelation of the Father is now effected through the sending of the Paraclete to the disciples. Illumined in their hearts and minds, the disciples now see the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, and themselves existing in the Son and the Father and living the life of God in the Spirit. Only through the union of the soul with the Holy Spirit can the vision of God and the deification of the soul be effected. And this union of the soul with the Spirit is promised to the disciples and all the faithful throughout the historical life of the Church.

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world, ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

These last words strengthened the disciples’ faith and love in the Master, Who loved them with perfect love. They were to be persecuted by the world and subjected to great tribulations. But they were not afraid, for Jesus was the first to conquer the world through His sufferings and enter His eternal glory, and so His disciples, finding divine strength in union with Christ, would conquer the afflictions of the world and be glorified with Jesus.

To be continued