They had left the Upper Room and were making their way to the Kidron, then across to the Garden of Gethsemane. On the way, Jesus continued to unload a lot of truth in parables. You would be forgiven for thinking He struggled to find the words to say what was on His heart.
Jesus quotes Isaiah more than any other source. In his fifth chapter, the prophet proposes the image of Israel as God’s vineyard. The fruit is not merely bodies; Israel’s purpose was to draw attention to Jehovah’s divine glory. Obedience to His Covenant and harvesting His blessings is all one package. This was to be their fruit, their testimony of God’s glory. Because they refused that mission, Jesus came to fulfill that purpose in Himself. At the same time, He clarified and vivified the will of the Father and gave it as a gift to His disciples. He became the One Vine from which all future fruit would grow to the Father’s glory.
The whole point is the fruit, not the lush growth of greenery. It’s not about us, but about His glory. Jesus sprouts the branches, but the Father prunes them to maximize the fruit of His glory. Refusing to bear fruit guarantees removal from the Covenant, but bearing the fruit of the Covenant is His glory. That’s the context for Jesus’ promise that anything we ask from within the Covenant will be granted. That’s what it means to ask in Jesus’ name. More fruit of glory is precisely what the Father wants.
The sap running within the vine is that glorious sacrificial love of God. The only way we can draw on that love is by obedience to the Covenant. The relationship of Master and Disciples was about to change. From here on out, they would all be friends and brothers (as the Greek word philos implies) of Jesus. A servant was not taken into the Lord’s confidence, but friends and brothers had a vested interest in the Lord’s business.
Jesus chose them and ordained them as close confidants, men who were allowed to become acquainted with God Himself. Whatever they dared to ask was guaranteed. Thus, their new Law of the Covenant was the sacrificial love of Jesus. It’s nothing like the law of human kingdoms. Naturally, any worldly system would detest the Messiah and His teachings, because it left nothing under their control. Thus, the persecution of the worldly system was their native element. But anyone capable of hearing from God would hear Jesus, and whoever hears Jesus will hear His disciples.
Jesus came from the Father as the Divine Voice to the Covenant Nation. His miracles were His badge of authority. They saw and heard, but they had already rejected the Father, so it’s no surprise the rejected the Messiah. This is what Isaiah had warned about way back in his prophecy. The seeds of rejection had been planted that far back. Indeed, Jesus quotes David’s Psalm 69 as a prophecy to point out how ancient this rejection stood. The leadership of Israel had no excuse, having been warned about this repeatedly.
It was essential for Jesus to die. As long as He was in the flesh, His Spirit was confined to that body. Once He took up His eternal form, His Spirit could come and dwell in the members His New Body, making it all One. He has been the same Spirit of the Father and of the Son from Eternity.
