Understanding the Word

By Br. John R. Barker, OFM

The reading from Acts this week takes place after the baptism of  Saul, who has begun to preach the gospel, to the astonishment of  those who had known him as a persecutor of Christians and to the  consternation of some of the Jews, who conspire to kill him (9:1–25). Given his past, it is understandable that when Saul arrives in  Jerusalem the disciples are leery of him. Barnabas, whose reputation  among them must have been good, vouches for him, and Saul gives  further evidence of his sincerity by his “bold” proclamation of Jesus  as the Son of God (9:20) and his debates with the Greek-speaking  Jews. Now that Saul has stopped persecuting the church, it can enjoy  a period of peace, consolidation, and growth. 

John has continued to exhort his audience to love God and one  another, even to the point of laying down their lives for each other  in imitation of Jesus (1 John 3:16). Those in whom God’s love  abides show that love through their actions; love expressed in words  alone cannot be true love. When one acts in love, however, then one  “belongs to the truth,” and may stand with confidence before God.  This confidence in God’s good will toward those who belong to the  truth is grounded in the knowledge that they are obedient to God,  which itself is a sign that they “remain in him, and he in them,” a  mutual indwelling that is attested by the Spirit. 

Like that of the Good Shepherd, the image of Jesus as “the true  vine” is drawn from the Old Testament. In Sirach 24:16–17, Wisdom  says that “I spread out my branches . . . I bud forth delights like a  vine.” And Isaiah 5:1–7 is just one of several passages that refer to  Israel as the vineyard of the Lord. Jesus as the true vine is both tended  by the Father (making him the embodiment of God’s people) and the  source of life for Christians. Just as God tends the vineyard of Israel,  so God “prunes” the church through the “word” of Christ, whose  teachings and actions form God’s people. Just as Jesus remains in  the Father and the Father remains in him, so it is for Jesus’ disciples,  whose very lives are truly dependent on remaining in Jesus.

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