Repeatedly Pruned

As I was preparing for a teaching recently, two words in John 15:2 caught my attention and, quite frankly, made me wince a bit. It was almost as if I could feel the effects of it. John 15:1-2 says, “I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.”

 Notice the words ‘repeatedly prunes.’ My first thought was that it would make perfect sense if a branch needed repeated pruning because it did not bear sufficient fruit, but verse two refers to the repeated pruning of a branch that is in fact bearing fruit continuously. It goes on to explain that the reason for this is to improve the quality of the fruit – to make it ‘richer’ and ‘more excellent.’

We have a wonderful gardener who comes once a week to tend our garden. He is so good at his trade, and knows just when to prune the rose bush that is outside my front door. After he is done pruning, that poor rose bush looks awful! It looks stark and bare, and I have wondered many times if our gardener had not gone a bit too far with his pruning shears. But I read somewhere that it is almost impossible to kill a rose bush by over-pruning.

Jesus was using the grape vine to illustrate how essential it was for us to remain vitally united to Him for our spiritual growth and well-being. But even when we are connected to Jesus as the True Vine, and even when we are bearing fruit, Jesus was saying that the Vinedresser, our Heavenly Father, takes special care to continue with the process of cleansing and pruning the things that saps life from us, and slows down, and compromises, the quality of our fruit bearing.

Paul echoes this when he says in Hebrews 12:1, ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.’

I cannot say that the pruning process is always pleasant, but I am encouraged that the Vinedresser cares enough about me to discipline me, mould me, and tend me, just as a good Vinedresser would do to bring ‘richer and more excellent fruit’ from his vineyard. Is that not what we should all desire?