1. Jesus is alive now

Today is the fifth Lord’s day after Easter. We celebrate Easter not only for the Resurrection but also for perpetual presence of living Jesus beside us. It is the very time when we must remind us that we owe our life to him.

Jesus said;- Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.(John 15:13)
But in reality, it is too difficult for us, ordinary humans, to be ready to die for others. Almost all of us are ego-cnetered creatures. As a result, personal interests might generate conflicts and disputes among us. Nonetheless John points out the possibility that, by remaining in Jesus, our nature can be changed. Today we read the Gospel according to John, chapter 15 to reflect on the theme referring to the meaning of everlasting attendance of Jesus in our present life.

In John’s Gospel the scene of the Last Supper commences in chapter 13, where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. In the following chapter he promises disciples the Holy Spirit who will play role of their counselor after departure of Jesus himself. That chapter ends with this phrase;- “Come now; let us leave.(John 14:13)

Then we see that the development of the story leads on directly to chapter 18 which opens the scene of the garden of Gethsemane, on the other side of the Kidron Valley. (see john 18:1)

John seemingly inserted chapters 15,16,17 apart from the bibliographical records of Jesus. Dr. Mastunaga, a professor of Tokyo Union Theological Seminary, pointed out that double-structure is one of characteristics of the New testament. It means gospel writers merged their own messages with the description of Jesus’ life and ministries. We will read John’s particular appeal in those chapters in accordance with Mastunaga’s theory .

At John’s time, aroud 90s C.E.*, the church was menaced by Jewish oppressions. After the failure of the revolt and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. by Roman forces, Jewish people moved their center of governmental and religious to Jamnia.*** Besides worships of Judaism, which had been based on observance of rites in the Temple, needed to be reformed due to its demolition. Jewish religious authorities compelled the people to respect the law far more strictly than before because they thought the reason of defeat of Israel was lack of obedience to God. In consequence, they became eager to persecute heretics. So much so They declared expulsion and oppression on those who seemed to them heretical, especially believers in Jesus Christ. John 16:2 suggests one of the cases;- They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.

Then numerous christians were arrested, expelled from communities or even killed. In such circumstances many members of John’s church abandoned the faith. Therefore John appeals for courage and persistence to those who remained in belief, destabilized, though. The call begins in chapter 15 ;- “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. (John 15:1-2)

“I am the true vine” implies other teachings are not authentic. With that expression John tried to dissuade believers from turning back to the belief in Judaism. John emphasizes the importance of staying in the church. Because if we quit we will get apart from Jesus, then be thrown away and wither. Furthermore John use the term “pruning work” as an allusion to sufferings under persecution. He tells God “prunes” branches which might become fruitless because of severe trials. And it is also necessary to cut and thrown out earthy concerns and desires to be fruitful.

2. Real existential threat

By witnessing Jesus acts and ministries, plenty of people received baptism and converted to christianity, so did members of John’s church. Nonetheless under the threat of oppression by traditional Jewish authorities as heretics some of them dropped out of the faith. We might say they had not remained genuinely in Jesus .
In contrast, those who continue to follow Jesus’ teaching “will be even more fruitful” And, John says through Jesus’ mouth ;- “you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. “(John 15:2)

The word “to remain” is ¦Ìέ¦Í¦Ø (men’-o) in Greek, which means otherwise ” not to depart.” Afterwards disciples arrived to give plenty of spiritual fruits by remaining in Jesus, without departing from the faith. But sometimes humans might betray Jesus and split off from relationship with him. Therefore John alerts the congregation to the risk ;-If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.(John 15:6)

We can find the passage which reports one of examples; - Yet at the same time many even among the leaders ( Jewish religious authorities) believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God. (John 12:42-43)

In addition, John wrote down several expressions which implies possibilities of menace, for instance ;- “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.(John 15:18)

“The world which hates you” should generate physical and social attacks. But John encourages believers by taking Jesus’ words;- “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."(John 16:33)

You see now clearly those 3 chapters above consist of John’s personal messages in form of Jesus’ talking.

In that era , for Jewish people being thrown out of communities was being exposed to real dangers. Their situation seems similar to Japanese christians during world war II. They were forced to worship the emperor as a god. If they refused it they were arrested and sent to prison. Nonetheless, despite the threat, few faithful believers persisted in the faith openly, notably pastors of Holiness Church.

The denomination is charactrized with the belief in the Second Coming of Christ and realization of God’s kingdom on the earth.
Therefore the authentic believers could not accept the emperors as gods and definitive rulers of Japan. Some of pastors bravely rejected the order to worship the Emperor then were imprisoned. Church members, without shepherd, were dispersed. I read a book of which author is a son of a pastor in kind. He wrote that when he asked one of former members of the church for humble food, the person refuses to give. Though the family could survived by depending on scraps collected in a Japanese military base the pastor himself died in a jail in north of Japan.***

The son lost the faith in Chrust when he knew his father’s death. He could not understand why Jesus accorded such a harsh destiny to a faithful man like his farther. But a certain marvelous event occurred to him, which led him to get back again the belief in Christ. He too became a pastor. The story shows one of excellent results of God’s pruning work, which produced after all a branch more fruitful than before. He preached in some places in Japan to grow up people ” who should persevere by remaining in Jesus.

3. In faith, hope and love

Today’s invocation verse is 1 Corinthians 13:13 ;- And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Mr. Ichikawa, a Japanese theologian, is posting his exegeses on his website. He analyzes the passage of John 15 this way:
- Fruit growers prune bad branches which sould hinder growth of other branches. They trim also seemingly useless buds in order to make good branches more fruitful. Pruning and trimming are basic works of their activities. Jesus’ teaching in john 15 is referring to those agricultural procedures concerning vinicultures. With the allusion John tells us to remain in Jesus and church to be spiritually fruitful. However we must admit some believers, despite their baptizement and confession of the faith, do not so. Paul too distinguishes authentic believers from others ;- if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.(Romans 8:9) -

Whether a person is belonging to Jesus or not will be shown through her or his way of making efforts to produce spiritual
fruits.

Whereas Paul wrote “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,(Garatians 5:22) I personally understand the word “fruit” as ” faith, love and hope.”

When the Holy Spirit commence to work inside us our new life is born. The fact is represented in 3 dimensions, horizontally, vertically and temporally. The direction horizontal represents our attitude towards God, in other word, faith. Vertical one is relationship between each human being, among neighbors, which symbolized bondary-free love. The third one goes beyond human historical time, hope in the future after earthy life, which is shown and promised by the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus.

Once those three factors were given to us we are already new existences. Those faith, love and hope make us anew alive. We don’t need anything to live on as Jesus taught ;If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."(John 15:7)

However it doesn’t signify we can obtain whatever we want. Instead, we will be capable to accept whatever happens to us as blessing of God. We sing today a Baptist hymn, of which lyric sings “Take thou my cup, and it with joy or sorrow fill, as best to thee may seem; choose thou my good and ill.” The verses tell real christian stance towards God. We must accept all with total obedience by believing in God, who changes joy and even sorrow into blessings as Jesus promised ;- This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.(John 15:8) All of us are invited to live such a life.
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* author ship and date of the Gospel according to John
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_John#Authorship_and_date

**Council of Jamnia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Jamnia

*** [ Pastors under the storm ( in Japanese)] by Stuji Nobumichi ISBN-10: 4400412334