There Is Removal

On this second day of Holy Week, as we manoeuvre our uphill climb, facing the coming place of the Skull, the reach of our eyes is on the scene of removals. To remove speaks of taking away, a literally visual space made. It is to create a clear space, to give room where once there was no space or room. We glean through our text, with keener eye, the reality of removal.

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. Romans 11: 17 – 18.

Here is the image before us. It is of a pure olive vine. As most of us, if not all of us, believe, the Olive Vine or Tree, is Jesus, Son of the Living God. I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. John 15: 1. It’s interesting to note how Jesus describes Himself here. Note carefully, Jesus has not said that He is the vine, but that He is the True Vine. Be ever aware that there are many vines, but He alone is the Truth, the True One.

It’s no different from His use of shepherd, in describing Himself. Jesus has taken the time to be very specific and most pointed in announcing to all, that He is not just a shepherd, but that He is the Good Shepherd. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10: 11. Always be alert and fully aware that there are many shepherds, but He alone is Good, the Good One.

It is with this mindset of Jesus being True and Good, for such is His Nature, that we are made to appreciate, with great respect for and deference to, our Lord’s removing works. If some of the branches have been broken off. Let’s reason a bit here. Branches that have been broken off, have been broken off from somewhere. The only place they can be broken off from is the tree or vine. We are the branches of Jesus, the True Vine. No vine lives unto itself, minus any branches. Understand then, that it is in the branches of the vine that its beauty is seen, its bounty is materialized and its benefits are derived.

Just look at the mango tree for example. The beauty of that tree is marked, when it is resplendent with branches, all lush and healthy. However, that beauty of the tree, and its branches, continues in wholesomeness, when there is bounty on its branches. In other words, there is no more beautiful sight, than when the branches of your mango tree are laden with mangoes, young and full, green and ripe. That is not all! Note how its beauty and bounty provide benefits for all who will receive and eat the mangoes. It is in the eating of the mangoes that the benefits are guaranteed to be in you and show on you.

If we believe that Jesus is indeed the True Vine, then we can boldly state that the Beauty, Bounty and Benefits of Vine Jesus are evidenced in His branches, all who are in Him, believers. This is what He is bold and proud to announce. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15: 5. It is clear then that branches, were not living up to the truth of who the True Vine was, hence they had to be removed. Whatever we think, feel or speak, there is no argument whatsoever, against the fact that branches can be broken off from Jesus, the True Vine. Remember, Jesus has told us that He is the True Vine, but He has also told us that God is the Husbandman or the Gardener. I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. John 15: 1. It stands to reason then, that as the Husbandman, Father God is the Person, who breaks off or removes branches from being in Jesus, the Vine.

This exact kind of removal is seen as we look at Jesus’ actions in the Temple, the House of His Heavenly Father, a short while before His Blood was shed on the cross, at Golgotha, the Skull. Jesus has come to Jerusalem, He and His faithful disciples, as it’s almost time to celebrate Passover. To His obvious disdain, He finds untruth, hypocrisy, desecration and more in the temple courts. Everything else but true worship was taking place. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area. John 2: 15a. Jesus is not about to stand by and see worshippers, many a believer for whom greed, involving money, was their god, telling lies about His Father’s Good Place. They were bearing no good fruit, only the fruit of the evil one. Without hesitation Jesus literally clears the place and leaves room for true worship.

Will you ask yourself, as I have asked myself, with deeply sincere heart, this question? Am I a branch who has been broken off, who is being chased out of the place of God, by an angry Master, because I am bearing everyone else’s fruit but His?

You and I are Jesus’ branches, to bear and show His truth in all we do and say, as the Spirit enables everyone who will accept all of Him.