(Please read the Scripture passage before reading the homily.)
When I take my car in for service, I see big signs advertising the use of certified genuine auto parts on my car? In our passage today, John has assured us that Jesus is the genuine and certified agent of God. Every time John recorded Jesus using the word true, he is talking about genuine things, even of replacement parts.
The image of a vine is used frequently in the Hebrew Scriptures as a symbol for Israel. In this passage, Jesus calls himself the true vine. In him the whole history of God’s Chosen People is recapitulated and brought to fulfilment. No more shall the vine of God’s people produce anything less than perfect grapes. All who remain on this vine shall bear fruit. Some of these may need pruning so that they also bear fruit. Anyone who does remain on the vine will wither and die.
The vine of ancient Israel is the important ancestor of Jesus, the true vine. Ancient Israel still remains part of the true vine because in it lies the foundation of the life and mission of Jesus. All the hopes and aspirations of creation find its fulfilment in the true vine. The life and mission of Jesus rests on the foundation of God’s creative and merciful revealed to us in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The disciples have become genuine grapes on the vine. Their growth and fertility glorifies God who owns the vine. All who remain on the vine become the choicest grapes to make the choicest wine.
This is our calling, to remain on the authentic vine, to become authentic grapes for the authentic God and Father of the authentic Lord Jesus Christ. This is all genuine and certified by John when he reports Jesus as saying, “I AM the true vine.”
Please be careful only to have genuine auto parts used on your car, but be even more careful that you remain on the only genuine and authentic vine that is Jesus Christ. We want your fruit to glorify the Father as disciples of Jesus, God’s Son.