Jesus Produced Joy-filled Fruit

What Did Jesus Do?

“Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit...
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be full.”
John 15.5, 11

You gotta love Greek philosophers. No, I don't mean Plato or Socrates, I'm talking about Gus Portokalos, the sage, and funny, font of wisdom in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Gus was always informing the world how it owed pretty much everything to the Greeks, and it was all but impossible to argue with him. For instance, there was his speech at his daughter Toula's wedding to Ian Miller. After noting that the root of Miller is the Greek melo (apple), and that Portokalos derived from the Greek word for orange, Gus declared that, though we are all different, “in the end we are all fruit.” Watch, you'll love it!



Now, a lot of people may be inclined to dismiss old Gus Portokalos as a proud and foolish old man, but I'm not one of them. Gus knew what he was talking about. I mean, the Portokalos family, and their myriad relatives, were all Greek Orthodox believers, and as such, as Gus so correctly declared, though not in the exact words, in Christ we are all fruit!

You see, Jesus is the true vine,and his Father is the vinedresser (John 15.1). Together, Father and Son preside over the world's most vast, fruitful, and joy-filled vineyard—the body of believers at all times in all places. True, Jesus did not call us fruit, but rather fruitful branches, if we abide in him. But it's hard to make a sharp distinction between branch and fruit, even as separating a vine and its branches must only be done with care and consideration. A vine with no branches is little better than a branch with no fruit. I mean, without the evidence of the fruit attached to the branch, how can anyone know that the branch is fruitful? And without branches just how productive could any vine be? There is an organic unity, an essential abiding of one in the other, that makes vine, branch, and fruit all one in the end. Clearly, it is the Father's will that the true vine and its branches be fruitful (John 15.2), and this fruitfulness accrues to the Father's glory (John 15.8).

And, what fruit! Why, each “grape” that is produced by each branch of the true vine is filled with joy (John 15.11). This is one way you can tell one congregation from another. Those churches that are just a bunch of sour grapes, as it were, bear little fruit, and even less evidence of being connected to the vine. But where the Spirit of joy, the Spirit of the Lord, is, well there you see much fruit, sweet and joy-filled, abiding and abounding in Jesus. Seemingly, day by day, the Father adds to the number of “grapes” on these branches.

Now, there may be fruitful Orthodox churches, and fruitful Roman churches, and fruitful Pentecostal churches—there may even be fruitful Presbyterian churches—all different, but in the end, all fruitful, all joy-filled. The one essential is the connection to the true vine. Here's the thing, if there's not evidence of a church, or an individual Christian, bearing fruit, there's only so much time before the Father will prune. And the one place to begin to be fruitful, is to know the joy of the Lord, for it is only the filling of the true joy of the true vine that produces true fruit. That's what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4