Just a Branch

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” — John 15:5 (KJV)

Murray finishes with one of Jesus’ most beautiful pictures: “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” And he asks us to think about how simple it is to be a branch.

A branch grows out of the vine and bears fruit. Murray says it “has no responsibility except just to receive from the root and stem sap and nourishment.” The vine does the hard work, sending roots deep into the soil to find water and food. The branch just receives what flows through it, and the fruit appears.

He tells about a famous vine at Hampton Court, near London, that sometimes produced a couple of thousand bunches of grapes. People were amazed until they found out why. Its roots had stretched hundreds of yards underground, all the way to the River Thames, and drank from the rich riverbed. The branches didn’t strain. They were connected to a vine that was connected to the river.

That is the first lesson of the branch: absolute dependence. Murray says, “The branch has nothing but what it gets from the vine, and you and I can have nothing but what we get from Jesus.” He also says, “learn to be nothing, learn to be helpless.” That doesn’t mean you are worthless. It means you stop pretending to be the source. You are a branch, loved and fruitful, but only because you are joined to the vine.

The second lesson is rest. Murray imagines a little branch speaking to a busy, stressed Christian worker:

“With all your hurry and effort in Christ’s work you never prosper. The first thing you need is to come and rest in your Lord Jesus. That is what I do.”

Rest doesn’t mean being lazy. Branches bear a lot of fruit. It means not carrying the weight that belongs to the vine. When you serve, help, study or share your faith, the responsibility for the results is Christ’s. Your part is to stay connected to him.

And that brings us back to where the book began. Absolute surrender is not a grim, white-knuckled effort to be holy. It is a branch saying to the vine: I am yours, and all that I have. Flow through me.

Jesus said that without him we can do nothing, and that whoever remains in him will bear much fruit. That is the promise at the end of surrender. Not less life, but more. Not strain, but fruit.

One thing to do this week: each morning this week, before you check your phone, say to Jesus: “You are the vine, I am a branch. I’m yours today. Flow through me.” At the end of each day, notice one bit of fruit, a kind word, patience, an act of help, and thank him for it.