“I am the true vine and my Father is the vine-dresser.  Every branch of mine that bears no fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He makes pure, that it may bear more fruit.  You have already been purified by the power of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in me and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you unless you stay united with me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He that remains united with me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  If a man does not remain united with my being, he withers like a branch that is cut off – such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you abide in me and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you.  By this my Father is revealed, that you bear much fruit and become ever more my disciples. (John 15: 1-8)

The evangelist John is known for his exquisite, concise vocabulary.  In seeming monotony, well-known themes come back again and again in similar expressions. How often does the word “abide” sound in the parable of the vine!  Time and again we hear the appeal: “Abide in me – and I in you.”  Sometimes it is a plea, then again a promise for the far future.

On second thought, when you read and read again, when you take these words to heart, it turns out that such key words sound in a perfect composition throughout the Gospel of John.  They bear you as on eagle’s wings up out of everyday existence.

How do you do that—abide in His love in a world where we have lost the ground under our feet and where people doubt everything?

Not without reason does the call to abide in Him sound when Christ speaks about bread and wine, about His body and His blood.  Here it is the branch that can bear no fruit on its own, if it does not remain on the vine.  Earlier in the Gospel it is expressed still more drastically: “Whoever truly eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” (John 6:56) Again, how do you do that, remain in Him?

Something of that comes to realization when we eat and drink at the altar.  As earthly and disillusioned as it sounds, in the communion Christ is incorporated.  We can then literally and bodily experience: Christ is in us.  But when we have eaten and drunk Him, something is still lacking.  At the Last Supper this was voiced with the words: “Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)  He says:

I have given myself to you.

Reflect on what you have received.

Contemplate who it is that you have received.

Bring this thought to life for as long as it takes for the thought to think itself in you and

to accompany you in silence on your path through life.

Then, when you willingly and knowingly walk with me, I shall change you.

Then I abide in you and you in me.

 

–Rev. Bastiaan Baan, April 26, 2026