Midweek Advent Three – Pr. Anderson sermon
John 15:5-6, Revelation 22:1-5 “The Grafted Tree and the Tree of Life”
December 18, 2024 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Heavenly Father and God of all grace and mercy, we thank you for your boundless mercy. As we strive for goodness to please you, we know how difficult and impossible of a task it is. You are our righteous judge. As we continue to come in our confession and with penitent hearts, we ask that you are merciful to us. We plead that you would see us grafted into the vine of Jesus Christ, our Lord. As we have faith in your mercy and the life and death of Christ, help us to find and see the joy this season brings. Joy that only comes through the vine and through it, we may eat the healing fruit of eternal life. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
In one week from today, we will finally be celebrating the first major holiday of the church year. This first holiday is celebrated as the festival service for God the Father. Here, the Father fulfills His promise to Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, providing for His people. The promised Messiah came into the world, putting on the very form of a servant, the form of Man. This is truly one of the most incredible things. Often, we picture gods as having mighty strength and unnatural powers. Here lies the baby in the manger. Now, while we know the life of this baby in the manger, the question that many have is, how the life of the baby in the manger could count as ours? For us to see the blessings of this baby we will rejoice about next week, we will take under consideration our last two trees as they play off our two readings from two weeks ago. The righteous branch grows into a grafted tree and vine, to bring us in, and the other tree we may have thought disappeared, has now reappeared and that is the tree of life.
To find ourselves standing and eating from the tree of life, something Adam, Eve, and all people couldn’t do after the fall, we first must be grafted into the tree. While there will be many in the world who will fight this claim, it truly is a must because Jesus says it is. He first explains how He is there for the growth. He says to His disciples, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” For a branch to stay alive, the branch has to be tied into the vine. We know this to be true by taking a look in our yard after a wind storm. When a wind storm comes through, out in the lawn will be leaves and branches. What do you notice when you walk around picking up the branches out of your yard? You will find that they are dead. There is no way to bring them back to life. Without the life of the vine, this will be the fate of the branches.
Now this message is being taught to the disciples. Jesus is instructing them once more about how they will rely on Him. They need to hear this, especially now. It is a message about what happens when they fall away from the vine they are grafted into. “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” As all of the disciples would turn and run away that same evening when Jesus was arrested, these Words hit much deeper when we realize who was sitting at the table with Jesus that night. Judas Iscariot was sitting there and hearing this warning. The branch that is not abiding in the Savior will be picked up and burned with all of the rest of the branches. Now we know how they all react to this. Judas wasn’t the only one who didn’t hold on and stayed grafted into the vine.
As we go back and forth from being grafted into Jesus to the path of dying with our trespasses and sins, Jesus makes a point as to why this will always happen. “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” The only way for us to be grafted into the tree is, for God to be the One who grafts us in. The moment we are apart from Him, we can do nothing. The world will try to convince us there is plenty we can do without this branch. “Who needs to do good by the branch when we can just do good by ourselves?” This is a false saying. Scripture does not teach this message. Already in the first book of Scripture we hear what God says concerning the creation He had made. The LORD saw that the wickedness of Man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). There is only evil that dwells in us. There is nothing for us to do to get rid of it. This even means when we face challenges as Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). This is such a powerful statement and it does not contradict what was previously said. We can’t even take up our own crosses and we can’t deny ourselves. As we fail often with these two tasks, the only comfort we have, is found in the branch we are grafted into.
It is hard for our conscience to accept that we can’t do anything on our own because of our sinful nature. It really wants to be the one who can do it. While we are so imperfect, it takes the grafted tree to come to us and graft us in to Him. We pray we don’t reject His help when He comes to us. The disciples would later understand how they were grafted into the vine. Jesus was the righteous branch who grew out of the stump of Jesse. In His growth, He brought the world into Himself as He was raised up on the cross. As the world is grafted into Him, in His vine He brings new life. This new life and great tree are found in their heavenly home. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of the fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” The tree of life which had occupied the Garden grows and is eaten by all of Heaven’s inhabitance. It is able to be eaten because of the properties it now has.
“The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” The tree brings perfect healing that only God can bring. As we face our trials and crosses in this life, we can struggle and wonder if God is even going to help us. As we pray that things would get better for us, the best help from God will be through the cross and with death destroyed, He brings us to our heavenly home. It is there we see all of our pains and trials cease. We will see the Lamb who has taken away our sins. The lamb once slain will be worshiped and the mark that was placed on His people will be noticeable. We have been marked by the waters of our baptism, and it is in our baptism we see how we have grafted into the vine and have new life. We die and rise with Christ.
As we are marked and made new through Christ’s death and resurrection, it is with great joy we will rest with an eternal gift. It is because of this gift, we will be able to see God with our very eyes as Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). The throne room of Heaven will be such a glorious place. We will see all of our loved ones who have gone before us, waiting for our arrival and the last day. On that day, there we will be among God and the Lamb. As we heard about the two important trees of the manger and the cross last week, these trees also can’t be unaccounted for. If Christ would not have done the work that we celebrate in this season, then we wouldn’t be grafted into Him. We would be lost and have no good in us. As the Lamb of God who was slain is raised again and takes His place of power and authority, because of His gracious work we will see Him as we see each other. We won’t see the wicked things we have done in darkness, because with the light of God and the Lamb, “night will be no more.”
This tree that was withheld has grown into a tree in paradise for all nations. As the world waits to eat from this tree, it can be hard to endure and wait so long for the day. What you might think as long, is very short in the eyes or your God as Jesus says He is coming soon. Coming soon in His second coming. You celebrate this with joy because of His gracious and merciful first coming. The light of the world has come and burns in your hearts, and as you are grafted into Him, you taste the fruit of eternal life in the Means of Grace. Soon the darkness of this world will fade and when you see God, the Lamb, and the tree of life, you “will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” Thus, we see our redemption and our coming Lord as we rejoice this holiday season that is fulfilled and kept with the trees of Christmas. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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