Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
A few years back a tree died in my front yard. The yard seemed like it was missing something, so the hunt for new tree began. Although I liked the Silver Maple that was there before I really wanted to get a tree that flowered. In my search I came across the Bartlett Pair, crabapple and apple trees. But what really captured my attention was this combination Cherry tree. I had never heard of such a tree, but I thought it was worth try.
One year later, the growth has been interesting to watch. There are five different types of Cherry species grafted to this one tree. Each set of branches has progressed in its own unique ways. The first thing that caught me off guard was how each flowered at different times. Also, the diversity of each branch’s flowers made me wonder if I had chosen wisely. Still, the more I contemplated this tree, the more I realized it is a great symbol of the body of Christ.
The early church community was grafted to Christ in part through their lived experience of Jesus. The discipleship was formed and informed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The first disciples were Jewish and they were grafted to the Body of Christ through both their Jewish faith and through their baptism. In some early church circles the believers thought you needed to become Jewish in order to follow Christ. As time went on the Holy Spirit made clear to Paul, Barnabas and even Peter that it was Christ himself ‘The True Vine’ to whom everyone must be grafted.
While care of vineyards would have been familiar to the people to whom Jesus preached, this knowledge is less common today. Consider the process of grafting. What is it? What is necessary for a graft to take hold a bear fruit? A graft starts with pruning. This process of “trimming clean” allows for a branch to properly be attached to the main vine. For each of us, the process of pruning and grafting was accomplished through our baptism. In Baptism we were made clean to become a new creation connected to Christ.
Staying connected to the vine and the vine grower is not as simple as being baptized or claiming Christ as your Lord and Savior. Jesus reminds us that the point of being grafted to vine is that we must bear fruit. How is it that we bear fruit? How do people recognize Christ through us?
Through baptism we ‘put on Christ’. As disciples, who are baptized, we have been grafted to Christ. Therefore our lives must model Christ. Consider how you are being called to model Christ today. Perhaps you are being called to be a healer, or to be a teacher. Maybe there is someone who is not aware of the gospel and you are being called to witness to your faith.
Lord every day you challenge us to remain in You, for without you something is missing. Grow our discipleship so that our lives actively reflect that we are grafted to You the ‘True Vine’ who lives and reigns one God forever. Amen! Alleluia!
-Michael Montgomery