Man's Eternal Lifeline

𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝟔, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔: 𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐇 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝐀𝐜 𝟏𝟓:𝟏-𝟔

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟏𝟐𝟐:𝟏-𝟒𝐚𝐛, 𝟒𝐜𝐝-𝟓 “𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐬 𝐠𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐉𝐍 𝟏𝟓:𝟏-𝟖

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞: “..𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠.” (𝐯.𝟓) 

            I am sure many of you are familiar with the long-running TV reality show called “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.” On that reality show there are three kinds of tools dubbed as lifelines which are designed to help contestants in answering difficult questions to be able to advance towards the top prize.

            In real life whenever we stand at the crossroads, we also depend on certain lifelines that help us extricate ourselves from the predicament we are in. These lifelines may be our closest friends and or our closest relatives.

            But what if I tell you that there is only one lifeline that we can surely depend on when we find ourselves in a bind.

            Today, Jesus speaks of the need for people to establish and maintain their connectivity with the source of power that fuels life in the universe. In other words, this source of power that enlivens our lives and energizes us is our ultimate lifeline from which we can draw the power for us to sustain our lives.

            As we read in today’s Gospel passage Jesus makes it clear that if life were to be seen as a vine it will only bear fruit if its branches are to remain attached to the vine.

            In like manner, the Jews may not have realized it at that time, but this passage may have been the platform from which the principle of networking and of the digital age all began.

            When we reflect on the message of the Gospel, we cannot help but see its relevance to the advent of computer networks which play an important role in the world of business today which is marked with fierce competition.

These computers provide workers even those operating in different sites around the world with connectivity that help them perform their tasks that would prove difficult to carry out if they are not joined together by their network that makes use of a central computer system that manages the primary programming systems, storage, communications functions with remote workstations.

The central computer systems become the hub that gives life to the workstations, and such inseparability ensures the flow of information to and from the hub.

            This idea of connectivity in today’s digital world is like the situation that Jesus used in reference to Him being the vine as our lifeline and the people as the branches. When Jesus drew a picture of the vine, he knew what he was talking about as the vine was grown in all of Palestine at that time and it still is today. 

            The grapevine is a prolific plant as a single vine can produce many grapes which symbolizes Israel’s fruitfulness in relation to their doing God’s work on earth (𝐈𝐬𝐚 𝟓:𝟏-𝟕; 𝐄𝐳𝐞𝐤 𝟏𝟗:𝟏𝟎-𝟏𝟒).

And in today’s Gospel, Jesus presents Himself as the vine and God as the gardener who takes care of the branches to make them fruitful. The branches are the true believers of Christ who by their being inseparably linked to Him who is the vine will produce much fruit.

            Jesus, however, said that we who are the branches must remain attached to Him: “𝐀𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐢𝐭𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟, 𝐮𝐧𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐮𝐧𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐞.” (𝐯.𝟒)

This simply means that we must listen to Him and we must obey Him if we want to see our lives bear fruit for “𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐦𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠.” (𝐯.𝟓) These are not only strong words, but it establishes the premise that Jesus is our one and only lifeline who will lead us towards a blessed life for those who will heed His words.          

To abide in Him means that we must die to ourselves and it pains me to see those professing to have accepted Christ as their Savior have turned instead into spiritual self-righteous demigods.

And we see them in our Church or Community where they at times have become a dominant force not because they have a positive influence on others but because they simply are the loudest. To them, no reason nor rationale would ever satisfy them for they feed on their own mindsets galvanized by their titles and positions.

            What those who are full of themselves may not be aware of is that they may be turning into an unproductive branch and Jesus makes a distinction between two kinds of pruning that was widely used then. One was cutting off and, the other is cutting back the branches.

            Fruitful branches are cut back to promote growth, and God disciplines us to strengthen our character and faith. But branches that don’t bear fruit are cut off from the trunk not only because they are worthless but also because they often infect the rest of the tree. People who don’t bear fruit for God or who block the efforts of God’s followers will be cut-off from his life-giving power.

            There are many who try to be good, honest and do what is right or what they believe is right. But what Jesus is saying is that the only way for us to live a truly good life is to abide in Him as those of us who will do so will bear much fruit because Jesus will abide in us (𝐯.𝟓).

            The very simple truth that we all need to see from this Gospel today is that we can be a fruit-bearing branch by aligning our priorities, our attitude and our character with the character of Christ who humbled Himself and accepted death on the cross. Or we can be non-fruit bearing by persisting in our self-righteousness and pride.

            Jesus is the key (𝐯.𝟏) or the CPU of a computer system as He provides us life, direction and the commands for us on how to live a fruitful life. To be effective, we must maintain this relationship with Jesus (𝐯.𝟒) to become fruit-bearing because if sign out we lost our access to the network.

In similar fashion, when we allow sin into our lives, it disrupts our connectivity with the network and other believers (𝟏 𝐉𝐧 𝟏:𝟔-𝟕).

            Jesus wants us to become productive and as the workstations that He has established we cannot allow ourselves to become underutilized which means that as Christ established this connectivity at a great cost to Him we should take care of our connectivity to the network of life.

            There will be times when we will receive an error message in our computer screen meaning that we didn’t follow the instruction of the program. Similarly, we need to follow the commands of Christ who should be our lifeline for this is the only way we can live an error-free life and become fruit-bearing as had designed us to be.

            So, the question now is, are we “on-line” with Jesus? Do we look at ourselves as productive branches by the way we respond to our calling as disciples? Remember too that fruit-bearing is not limited to soul-winning that is equated with the number of people that you have brought to the Church or Community.

            In addition to the fruit that St. Paul described in 𝐆𝐚𝐥 𝟓:𝟐𝟐-𝟐𝟒, it would be worth our while to digest what St. Peter said in 𝟐 𝐏𝐞𝐭 𝟏:𝟓-𝟖 and use as our additional guide. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘔𝘢𝘺 6, 2026)