Day 30: For everything I have learned from my Father I have made known to you
Jesus turns back to the group, and the chuckles die down as he thoughtfully weighs his next words. He has spent these last years trying to help them understand that he is one with the Father…that he obeys the Father… that he only does what the Father tells him to do. It’s complicated to communicate his relationship with the Father and the Spirit inside the limits of human understanding. Jesus has lived within human limits, telling stories that begin to illuminate the truth, and he knows the Spirit will continue that work when he is gone.
Perhaps, in the interlude, Jesus turns to John and his brother, James, and asks them how they learned to fish. “Well,” they might have responded, “our father and our uncles taught us from the time we were kids. It was a family business.” Jesus smiles. “Yes,” he thinks, remembering that he had invited them to become fishers of men. “You, my friends, will be part of my ‘family business’.” Nodding, Jesus raises his hand to heaven.
“Everything I have learned from my Father,”
he says sweeping his hand around the group,
“I have made known to you.”
His gaze lingers on Nathanael’s face, then Phillip’s. Around the circle, Jesus hears affirming sounds.
Vineyard Metaphor
Three things are necessary for bountiful and beautiful fruit to make wine:
A healthy vine on which the fruit will grow
The correct terroir for the vine (soil, climate, topography)
Loving, attentive care of the vine by a skilled vineyard worker or gardener.
Absent any one of these things, there would either not be fruit at all or the fruit would be compromised enough to not produce the best fruit for good wine. On the other hand, given the right mix of these three components, some vines can live to be 150 years old and still produce fruit that makes great wine. Imagine a vineyard that was planted in the late 1800’s still producing fruit. One of the key reasons a vineyard can grow to that venerable age is the longevity and generational care of the vineyard workers. In other words, if the same crew takes loving care of a vineyard for a few decades, and the children of that crew continue the care, and their children continue to love and care for the vineyard, then the vineyard will be well-loved and well-cared for. It will be as if each of the vines is part of the “family.”
The symbiotic integration of the three factors for great wine is a beautiful (albeit incomplete) metaphor of the Trinity. Jesus describes himself as the vine and his father as the gardener. We can imagine the Spirit as the influence of sun, soil, and water, energizing the production of fruit. Isn’t it amazing that we are invited to participate as the branch; to abide in this threefold “connectedness?” This invitation is none other than the invitation to be joined to the Trinity!
The inextricably linked, co-inherent, or perichoretic, relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit describes the fullness of God, into which Jesus invites the disciples. Later, speaking to the Father, Jesus will pray for all believers “that they may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may know that you have sent me.” The invitation to abide in the Vine is an invitation to become one, not just with the Vine (Jesus), but also to become part of the long, grand dance with the Trinity.
Reflection and Meditation
Think of it! Jesus has invited you into the middle of his relationship with the Father and the Spirit…to become one with him, to become one with the Trinity! The invitation to abide is an invitation to join the Trinity.
How does this invitation make you feel?
Imagine the most beautiful, engraved invitation with three words on the front:
Abide in me.
When you open the invitation, a whole swirling universe opens up and you fall into the midst of pure, solid, and yet, dynamic love. You discover you are in the middle of Trinitarian love.
Sit with that image for a while. Does it make you laugh out loud? Weep in wonder? Dance with joy? Fall on your knees in awe?
Spend a few minutes letting the Trinitarian love wash over you and fill you today.
“And here is the Gospel: The God who is love draws near to me, a sinful, mere mortal, to draw me near to himself, in order to draw me within the circle of Lover, Beloved and Love itself. I become a co-lover with God! It is the very reason for my existence. And for yours.”