The Messiah’s Secret – Jesus the Vine

The Psalmist referred to the people of Israel as a vine. 

The nation of Israel described as a vine when they left Egypt for the Promised Land. God tended, cared for and pruned the vine as they made their journey towards the Promised Land. God’s tangible and visible presence led them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He provided water from the rock, Moses was instructed by God to strike the rock with his rod as he did water spewed out from it. God provided “manna” bread and “meat” quail (birds). The bread appeared like dew in the morning and quails descended on the camp providing meat. 

 “Thou didst bring out of Egypt a vine, thou didst drive out the nations and plant it. “                     Psalm 80: 8-19  RSV Bible

When they arrived in the Promised Land the vine was planted, the nation took root in the land of Canaan. 

God watching over his people was described as sitting under the vine.

“And Judah and Israel dwelt in safety, from Dan to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon.” 
1 Kings 4: 25

“ But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Micah 4: 4.

“In that day, says the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbour under his vine and under his fig tree.” Zechariah 3: 10. 

The Messiah’s Secret 

Isaiah wrote of God identifying his vineyard with Israel. “For the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel.” Isaiah 5: 7.

Alfred Edersheim describes the symbolic importance of the vine. “Two doors with gold plating, covered by a rich Babylonian curtain made up of the four colours of the Temple (fine linen, blue, scarlet, and purple), formed the entrance into the Holy Place. (Not the Most Holy Place.) Above it hung that symbol of Israel, a gigantic vine of pure gold, made of votive offerings each cluster the height of a man.” 

Edershiem “The Temple” page 58

Jesus the Vine.

John the Apostle recorded Jesus’ words in referring to himself as the vine.”I am the true vine.” Therefore if Jesus is the vine then Jesus is embodied in the people of Israel.    

The beloved vine Jesus embodied Israel 

Embodied meaning - be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to.

God identifying himself as the vine, the people of Israel, and gave his tangible and visible form to them when God’s Son Jesus was born the descendant of King David. 

                                                      

Isaiah prophesied Israel’s vineyard would produce wild grapes this was fulfilled in Jesus’ day.    

”When he looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yielded wild grapes?” Isaiah 5: 4.

The Pharisees and Lawyers neglected justice they had taken away the key of knowledge; they added extra laws to the Laws of Moses these laws laid a heavy burden on the people, as they earned their righteousness under law. Luke 11: 42-52    

Justice.  

Jesus the true vine looked for justice; he taught that it was right to do good on the Sabbath Day. He acted on compassionate love very often going the extra mile to heal a sick person. The Pharisees, Sadducee, Layers and scribes their hearts were hardened, for them it was more important to keep the Sabbath day laws than for a person to be healed.  

Love.  

Jesus taught that the commandments were fulfilled in love: firstly to love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and secondly to love your neighbour as yourself. Loving the Lord with all your heart involves all the love we are capable of; with all the soul means giving the whole of our life to the Lord; with all our strength means doing everything to show love to him and with all our mind involves getting to know God especially through his word, for increased knowledge of him brings increased love.   

The Parable of the Vineyard  
Luke 20: 9-16 

The owner sent his servant to collect some fruit from the vineyard, but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty handed. Another servant was sent but they wounded him and treated him shamefully. He sent another whom they killed him. Many others were sent some they beat and some they killed.  

Jesus here has changed Israel position from being the vine to the tenants of God’s vineyard. He explains why through the servants who he sent to collect the fruit, Jesus’ referring to the prophets sent by God like: Elijah, Jeremiah and Isaiah to the leaders of Israel the vines of his vineyard to convict them and the people of their need to turn back to God and repent. 

Finally God the owner of the vineyard sent his son, surely he thought that they would respect his son, but they treated him the same as the prophets. 

An example of the battle for Israel’s vineyard that took place in the days of Elijah.  

Elijah spoke out against Israel’s King Ahab and Queen Jezebel’s dishonesty. King Ahab and Queen Jezebel desired Naboth’s vineyard, but Naboth would not give or sell his inheritance to them. Jezebel plotted against Naboth, she wrote a letter in King Ahab’s name to the elders and nobles who lived with Naboth in his city, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people; and set two base fellows opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death.” The elders and nobles of Naboth’s city did as Jezebel had requested in the letter. Naboth an innocent man was killed by being stoned to death. As soon as Ahab heard from Jezebel that Naboth was dead, she encouraged him to go and take possession of the vineyard so King Ahab went and took possession of it. 1 Kings 21: 1-16.  

Jesus prophesied his death, “This is the heir, let us kill him and the inheritance is ours.”

The unseen principalities and powers of darkness were hoping that by killing Jesus the devil had a claim on Israel’s vineyard.   

The devil, who knew that Jesus was the Christ, but he did not know God’s plan of redemption through Jesus’ death and resurrection, which secured the victory over the devil’s power over death, sin and causes of sin. Mark 1: 24, 34.  

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power over death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to life long bondage. Hebrews 2: 14, 15    

In the parable of the Vineyard the tenants took the son they had killed and cast him out of the vineyard.   

This prophecy in the parable, was fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross outside Jerusalem’s city walls, the Jews made a sin offering of a red heifer outside the city walls.  This sacrifice had the highest significance to atone for “death” itself. Page 349 Alfred Edersheim, “The Temple”.   

The red heifer’s ashes were used for purification rituals for the removal of sin and were kept at the gates outside the walls of the city for the people to use. Numbers 19: 3, 9. Hebrews 9: 11-17.   

Death has no more dominion over us. 

The sin that leads to death has been dealt with by Jesus when he bore our sin on the cross and paid the price for it by lying down his innocent life and in his risen life. we see the victory over death.  

Through God given faith, hearing or reading, the living words of Jesus are received into the heart, the center of our being. The Holy Spirit dwelling within us acts upon the words and by a miracle we are changed, our hardened hearts are transformed, made new, we know that death has lost its capacity to reign over us. I noticed when this happened to me the fear of death had gone.

The Gentiles are an integral part of the vine    

Jesus concluded his parable when he spoke of the vineyard being given to another nation to bear the fruit of it. When we read Luke’s account of this parable, the other nation being the Gentiles from whom many would come to faith in Jesus, this nation comprised of both Jew and Gentile. The cross breaking down the barrier between Jew and Gentile. Ephesians 2: 11-22. 

Jesus speaking to his disciples paralleled the functions of the vine with Discipleship   

Jesus said, “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 prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by 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 abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  John 15: 1-5 

Jesus described himself as the true vine and said that his disciples are branches of the vine drawing and receiving their life and strength from the root and stem of the vine. The branches are tended, cared for and pruned by the Father and are called to abide in the vine.  Jesus said, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.”  John 15: 7. 

This word “if” speaks of making a choice to either make Jesus the Lord of our lives or to put ourselves as Lord of our life.  With Jesus the Lord of our lives we are called to abide in his words: to read, and study/meditate on the words of Jesus, also of putting his words into practice, prayer is an important integral part of it.   

We make these choices daily when we decide how to spend our time. Some days are busier than others, how we are feeling etc. To get through any day, it is best to bring all that we are hopefully going to do and hope to say before the Lord in prayer. Very often the word of scripture that we have read will give guidance, assurance and a blessing as the Lord walks with us.  

Our prayers often lead us to bring Jesus’ promises into focus, “ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you,” Love (Jesus) intercedes and contends on our behalf to fulfil his promises to us.  God given promises to us can be like Christmas presents that are given to us, but for some reason are left unopened. When in response to hearing the Lord's call we take that step of faith to share the good news of God’s love with another person. In doing so we are opening the gift of the promise of salvation and afterwards share in the joy of their entrance into God’s kingdom.  

Last week’s visit to the opticians opened up an opportunity to make Jesus known. In conversation with the optician I explained that I had been studying and reading a great deal. He asked me what I had been studying; I explained that I had been studying the Bible, Jesus being the Messiah and the book that I was updating. By his reaction he was surprised, but listened.   

The True Vine - Christ in You   

The Jews sat under the vine as they kept the Law of Moses. Jesus calls us to abide in the vine as we are part of the vine, its branches.   

Under grace the branch (disciple) is called to bear the fruit of Jesus’ word abiding in love and faith working through love, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  John 6: 63. 15 v 16, 17. Colossians 1 v 4.    

The branches are totally dependent upon its life’s source from the main stem and roots and we need the care and attention of the vine dresser to help the vine to produce good fruit.    

I knew a lady whose family owned a vineyard in Guernsey; she told me that they pruned the vine removing the suckers so that the branches could bear more fruit. God the Vine dresser takes from us the things in our life that take up our time and energy, by doing so he releases us to further his kingdom.  

A branch is complete, all that is required of it, is to grow and bear the fruit of its own harvest and it is equal to all the other branches in its composition and description. The fruit of the vine the grape is widely used to make wine as it has more spirit content when fermented than other fruits.  

The Spirit of God’s love is the sap that rises from the root of the vine to the branches. The Holy Spirit fills each believer with the love of God.  

The abundance of fruit does vary. Working with the Lord a Christian male or female has the potential to be Christ-like using the gifts of the Spirit and is responsible for the working out of our calling in Christ’s body, the church. We take responsibility for our commitment to the Lord’s work.                                                                                                                                                              

The Messiah’s Secret  – The  Samaritan  Woman at the Well 

Over Christmas we celebrated the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus. Isaiah prophesied the Incarnation in Chapter 49. God called Jesus, the second person of the Trinity to be born into this world, to be born of a woman into a Jewish family who were descendants of King David. The angel giving his parents the knowledge of his identity ‘the Son of God’ and his name ‘Jesus’ revealing that he was the Messiah. Jesus meaning Saviour, the ‘Redeemer of Israel’and the world.

Today we celebrate the Epiphany of Jesus ‘Epiphany’ means ‘showing’. Isaiah prophesied the light showing the good news of the Saviour reaching out to the nations of the world.

Jesus’ ministry reflected the healing of nations. We see this when he sought to heal the division between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritan portrait by Jesus in his parable as the good Samaritan who helped the injured man whereas the pious Jews wouldn't help. The Samaritan village that turned him away as he reached out with the good news of the coming kingdom of God and the Samaritan man that was healed of his leprosy who came back to thank Jesus. 

Tom Wright in his book ‘Paul for Everyone’ writes about getting the true perspective on a situation by this illustration. ”When I was a first year physics teacher the question was asked in an examination: What was the advantage of having two eyes?

The correct answer, of course, was that with two eyes you can see things in three dimensions, and learn to judge distances, speeds and so on. One boy, however, wrote as his answer: ‘Having two eyes means that you can twice as far; and if one eye stops working you’ve always got the other one to fall back on!’

The teacher enjoyed this so much that he read it out to the class as a fine example of ingenuity for what you lack in information. But of course the true answer remains important: with only one eye you don’t get things in their proper perspective. You need two if you’re to see them with all three dimensions.”

Looking at our Gospel reading John’s account of Jesus in conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well through this three dimensional view of Jesus  : the height, the depth and the width.

a)The height of Jesus being the Messiah.

b) The depth his suffering and death on the cross.

c) The width he heals in his embrace of the nations of the world.

The woman like the boy showed her ingenuity, in regard to the water from Jacob’s well.

Jesus went from Judea to Galilee, but John wrote that he had to through Samaria where he came to a city of the Samaritans, Sychar. The division between Jews and Samaritans was so acute that the Jews would not set foot into the region of the Samaritans, but instead would take a roundabout route going east of the Jordan.

Just outside Sychar he rested at Jacob’s Well, his disciples had left him to go and buy some food in the city.

While Jesus stood at the well he did the unthinkable he spoke to the Samaritan woman. He was reaching out breaking down the barriers of division between them by asking her to give him a drink of water to satisfy his need.

Her guard was up, disturbed by his request she pointed out that she was a Samaritan and the Jews had no dealings with them. Maybe she considered that he had no bucket so would a Jewish man want to drink from her bucket, which she knew he would have considered unclean.

Then Jesus spoke of giving to her ‘living water’. Jesus said that those who drink the water from this well would thirst again, but the water that he would give would become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

As his words resonated with her spirit, she inquired in her ingenuity as to where he would get this living water from? She thought in a logical way, not wanting to keep going to the well for water to quench her thirst.

Jesus continued the conversation by showing her that he had the gift of knowledge, he shed his light and revealed her personal life revealing her 5 marriages and her current relationship. This knowledge she associated with a prophet. 

This lady was beginning to see the three dimensional view of Jesus as she was aware of the expectation of the coming of the Messiah and she declared that he would explain everything.

The words from Jesus  the height  of understanding and knowledge that identified him as the Messiah as well as Jesus telling her that he was the Messiah. This news opening up to her a new true perspective the living waters of salvation coming from  him.

The division between Jew and Samaritans was brought out by the discussion between Jesus and the woman over the site of the temple.

“The Samaritans were the descendants of the pagans that settled in the land of Judea during the time of the Babylonian captivity, along with the few Jews who remained in the land. (2 Kings 17: 24-34.)They formed their own religion, a mixture of Judaism and paganism. They adopted the Pentateuch as the sole sacred book and erected a temple on Mt Gerizim near Shechem. 331 BC. The returning Jews from exiles rejected their help in rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple situated there. (Ezra 4. Nehmiah 1. 4. 6.) The breach between the returning Jews became permanent and so acute that the Jews would not pass through Samaria to go into Galilee, but had a circuitous(round about) route east of Jordan.”(John 4: 9. 8: 48) Dake’s  Annotated Reference Bible.

History also records that the Samaritan Temple was destroyed by John Hyrcanus in 128 BC and was never rebuilt. At the time of Jesus, the Samaritans worshipped at the base of Mt Gerizim except for the annual Passover which took place near the ruins of their Temple.

By Jesus bringing to light the cause of the division, he also revealed the means by which the healing could be brought about through Jesus making the temple at Jerusalem obsolete. Salvation coming from the Jews, but from Jesus by him being the final sacrifice for sin and God presence leaving the temple at Jerusalem.

We have seen history repeating itself the conflict between Jew and Palestinian for over almost 100 years since the return of the Jews to their homeland 

But with one difference the cross.

The cross that was driven into the ground at Calvary where the King of Peace wore a crown of thorns, each thorn pressing against his flesh representing a nation in conflict, the bigger the thorn the deeper the wound.

The nails that had been driven into his hands and feet, each hammer crushing blow bearing the pain of disputes and arguments the fighting and the killing blows of hatred.             

His body beaten and hung disjointed and twisted representing the devastation of war. He bore all of man’s inhumanity to man.

The depth of God’s love Jesus life’s blood shed for all the sins of the world and the land. 

Where would Jesus the risen Lord be standing in this conflict between Palestinian and Israel? I believe he would be saying to both people, "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons and daughters of your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5: 44, 46.  

The Messiah’s Secret Revealed.          

Luke records Jesus wept over Jerusalem. “And as he drew near and saw the city he wept over it saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that made for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19: 41 – 44.

Did Jesus' tears reflect the pain of the cross that he knew he was to endure?

He knew that his death was hidden from the eyes of understanding of the Sanhedrin so that the prophesies would be fulfilled concerning his death and resurrection, and did he fore see his rejection by the nation’s leaders at and after Pentecost when the disciples were proclaiming for the first time that Jesus was the Messiah, and as a result  of their not knowing the time of his visitation they had left themselves open to the devils devices, he foresaw Jerusalem surrounded with armies and its destruction. Jesus foresaw it all and he wept.

The width of God’s love revealed when Jesus informed her of God’s love for the Samaritans and many of the Samaritans came to Jesus from that region and were healed and brought to faith in him

The Samaritan woman heard the truth from Jesus, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” Verses 23, 24

Jesus was to make the temple obsolete through his death and resurrection.

                                                 

Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. The heavenly Jerusalem. People from all of the nations living together in peace under the King of Kings and Lord of Lords worshipping God his Spirit and word dwelling in the temple of our hearts.

These religious squabbles affect people who are seeking God

On Christmas Day in conversation with James a University student I was asked about my faith and in that conversation that followed the young man pointed out how he was put off by the squabbling and divisions between people and their religions and that all religions are the same.

I witnessed to him that my faith is real to me as I have been healed through faith in Jesus and one experience is worth a thousand arguments. I pointed out that in the Bible in the Old Testament there are prophesies that have fulfilled in the New Testament by Jesus and he reveals the way to find God. 

I have met a number of young people like James who hold a similar view and I realize that  in the majority of our schools religious education is taught by paralleling stories across the faiths, secularizing all faiths. In doing so regrettably the prophesies that are in the Bible and their fulfillment are left out by many teachers, and future prophesies are not touched upon.  

The church has this ministry of telling people about the prophesies that Jesus fulfilled, and the future prophesies that concern all of humanity. (Blog 'Isaiah's Prophesies Fulfilled' over 30 prophesies fulfilled in one day) and www.messiahs-secret-revealed.co.uk Part 7 for future prophesies)

Young people who are seeking the truth about the way to find God, when they hear about prophesies regarding Jesus being the Messiah and future events of his return, by God’s grace they will respond and accept Jesus as their personal Saviour.

The ministry of reconciliation as we are aware starts with us in our churches, many of our inner city churches are learning to welcome people from all over the world as they integrate into our society. Our new Bishop of Manchester Bishop David Walker at his enthronement service said, "It is the Churches job to facilitate belonging to God. Our Churches should be a place where people can grow in their sense of belonging. When people who start to come to Church should not be confronted with ‘this is how we do things here.’ They should expect, to be asked to share with us what they have and we should share with them. The Church is a place of welcome with hospitality at its core." 
May the love, the height and the depth of Jesus shine out from our hearts over this coming year.  Happy New Year! Dorothy