THE CLEANSING
Every Branch That Beareth Fruit, He Cleanseth It, That It May Bear More
Fruit--John 15:2
There are two remarkable things about the vine.
There is not a plant of which the fruit has so much spirit in it, of which
spirit can be so abundantly distilled as the vine. And there is not a plant
which so soon runs into wild wood, that hinders its fruit, and therefore needs
the most merciless pruning. I look out of my window here on large vineyards:
the chief care of the vinedresser is the pruning. You may have a trellis vine
rooting so deep in good soil that it needs neither digging, nor manuring, nor
watering: pruning it cannot dispense with, if it is to bear good fruit. Some
tree needs occasional pruning; others bear perfect fruit without any: the vine
must have it. And so our Lord tells us, here at the very outset of the parable,
that the one work the Father does to the branch that bears fruit is: He
cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.
Consider a moment what this pruning or cleansing
is. It is not the removal of weeds or thorns, or anything from without that may
hinder the growth. No; it is the cutting off of the long shoots of the previous
year, the removal of something that comes from within, that has been produced
by the life of the vine itself. It is the removal of something that is a proof
of the vigor of its life; the more vigorous the growth has been, the greater
the need for the pruning. It is the honest, healthy wood of the vine that has
to be cut away. And why? Because it would consume too much of the sap to fill
all the long shoots of last year's growth: the sap must be saved up and used
for fruit alone. The branches, sometimes eight and ten feet long, are cut down
close to the stem, and nothing is left but just one or two inches of wood,
enough to bear the grapes. It is when everything that is not needful for
fruit-bearing has been relentlessly cut down, and just as little of the
branches as possible has been left, that full, rich fruit may be expected.
What a solemn, precious lesson! It is not to sin
only that the cleansing of the Husbandman here refers. It is to our own
religious activity, as it is developed in the very act of bearing fruit. It is
this that must be cut down and cleansed away. We have, in working for God, to
use our natural gifts of wisdom, or eloquence, or influence, or zeal. And yet
they are ever in danger of being unduly developed, and then trusted in. And so,
after each season of work, God has to bring us to the end of ourselves, to the
consciousness of the helplessness and the danger of all that is of man, to feel
that we are nothing. All that is to be left of us is just enough to receive the
power of the life-giving sap of the Holy Spirit. What is of man must be reduced
to its very lowest measure. All that is inconsistent with the most entire
devotion to Christ's service must be removed. The more perfect the cleansing
and cutting away of all that is of self, the less of surface over which the
Holy Spirit is to be spread, so much the more intense can be the concentration
of our whole being, to be entirely at the disposal of the Spirit. This is the
true circumcision of the heart, the circumcision of Christ. This is the true
crucifixion with Christ, bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus in the
body.
Blessed cleansing, God's own cleansing! How we
may rejoice in the assurance that we shall bring forth more fruit.
O our holy Husbandman, cleanse and cut away all
that there is in us that would make a fair show, or could become a source of
self-confidence and glorying. Lord, keep us very low, that no flesh may glory
in Thy presence. We do trust Thee to do Thy work.