Fifth Sunday of Easter [b] May 2, 2021
John 15:1-8
[Jesus said,] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 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. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”
In the Name of Jesus.
To live a clean life, wouldn’t it be nice? A life minus all the pressures and anxiety of a busy life.
A clean, simple life, that would be nice. Especially for our consciences! To go to bed at night with no worry, no lingering doubt about shortcomings, even about malice in the heart, to be done with all of that, wouldn’t it be nice?
How do you get to the point of a clean, simple life? Especially of a conscience at peace?
This desire for cleanness and simplicity is nothing new. Four hundred years before Christ there was a school of Greek philosophers who taught to reject all desire for wealth and fame; they rejected all power; they would live a life free of possessions. This is the ascetic life. One of them, Diogenes, didn’t even have a house. He lived in a barrel on the street.
The simple, clean life, devoid of possessions, worries, pressures, and entanglements, wouldn’t it be nice?
The church has been tempted with it, too, at different times. Be done with all your possessions. Live a life free of worldly entanglements. If you’re a man, it’s the monastery. If a woman, the nun’s convent. Or, just go out and live the simple life in the desert. Some three hundred years after Jesus ascended, a Christian monk in Egypt named Anthony made himself famous by selling the property he inherited from his family; he left his sister with a group of virgins and headed off to be a hermit, living on only bread, salt, and water. He would touch no meat or wine.
He ended up holed up in an abandoned desert fort where people would throw food to him over the wall. But at least Anthony saved himself the trouble of worrying about farming or fishing or paying bills or attending to children or getting along with his neighbor!
Asceticism, a life devoid of sensual pleasures, a life pursuing spiritual cleanness. Fasting, celibacy, poverty, hunger, scratchy clothing, strict schedules, but at least you’re living a clean life.
How does our Lord give us to live a clean life?
Our society strives for this too. To live a clean life, you eat the right foods. Eat only vegetables and turn away from meat. When people want you to live a clean life, there is no end to the rules and controls they will put you under. Eat the right food, drink the approved drink, wear clothing made by the right company, listen to only approved voices, use only permitted speech and have only permitted thoughts, then you’ll be living the clean, accepted life.
People around us do listen to this, so obviously there’s some sort of desire to live a clean life.
How does our Lord give us to live a clean life?
All these attempts to live cleanly, is it perhaps nonsense? The Greek philosophers teaching simplicity, did they not have the same sinful thoughts as everyone else? The ascetic hermits, did they not have the same lusts and troubled consciences as everyone else? If not, then why flog themselves every night and rob their bodies of sensual pleasures, even of marriage itself? And those stone walls Anthony hid behind in the Egyptian desert, they protected him from approach by his neighbor, but did Anthony really think stone walls would stop the demons from getting to his conscience?
We know something here makes sense. No conscience will be cleansed by a diet out of the blender. No conscience troubled with guilt is brought into peace by eating no meat or drinking no wine. No Christian will be protected from the demons by hiding behind a wall and refusing to talk with neighbor.
How does our Lord give us to live a clean life?
Our Lord cleanses with a word. He wants no one left with an unclean conscience, no one troubled in their heart.
In the Old Testament, when the Lord gave Israel to build the Tabernacle, he told them how he would gather them to the Tabernacle to be cleansed of all sin. He gave instructions to the priests to give sacrifice and sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice to cleanse the people. Leviticus 16:19:
[The priest] shall sprinkle some of the blood on [the altar] with his finger seven times, and he shall declare it clean and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the people of Israel.
When someone was unclean with leprosy, the Lord said he could go to the priest to be cleansed. Leviticus 14:7:
[The priest] shall sprinkle [the blood] seven times on him who is to be cleansed … Then [the priest] will declare him clean.
How does our Lord make a person clean? By having the priest give the blood of the sacrifice to forgive sin and declare the person clean.
A sinner is made clean by the Lord speaking a word. Not by diet or regimen or soap for that matter, not by ascetism or denial of pleasure or refusal of marriage, not by hiding from other people behind a brick wall.
A sinner is made clean by the Lord speaking a word. If the Lord says you are clean, you are clean. John 15:3:
[Jesus said,] already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Jesus is our priest. Those priests of the Old Testament? They were the Lord’s servants to deliver the cleansing word of the cross to those who lived before the cross.
Now Jesus, here in John 15, is on his way to the cross. After speaking to his disciples of cleansing them with his Word and giving them to abide in him, he will then pray to his Father for the Church, and then he will be betrayed and and taken before Caiaphas and then Pilate, where he is sent to the cross.
But on his way to the cross to shed his blood of sacrifice, he tells his disciples how he cleanses them:
You are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
How does our Lord give us a clean life?
Our Lord is no Greek philosopher rejecting possessions and worldly entanglements with your neighbor, no ascetic hermit hiding behind a brick wall, and no modern man eating only the approved diet and spouting only the permitted platitudes.
Our Lord drank wine, he even supplied it for a wedding party. He enjoyed meat, he loved getting together with his neighbors, he gathered large crowds, he was known as friend to tax-collectors and sinners.
How did Jesus live a clean life? By living from the gifts of his Father, by giving gifts to his neighbor, by forgiving sinners and releasing sins, by speaking grace to those who were unclean.
He gives us a clean life. By the Word he speaks to you, you are already clean.
How to remain clean?
By abiding in his Word. By holding on to his Word of grace. By daily hearing his Word of forgiveness, by commending yourself to him, especially when you are stung in your conscience by uncleanness, by knowing that there is no sin not forgiven, no guilt not pardoned, no shame not covered, for he is our Great High Priest standing before the Father to declare us clean.
How do we remain clean? By abiding in him, receiving every good gift from him, as a branch receiving life from the vine.
John 15:4:
[Jesus said,] already you are clean because of the word that 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; you are the branches.
In the Name of Jesus.