John 15:1-17 contains one of my favorite teachings of Jesus. It is the metaphor of the vine and the branches that Jesus gives to his disciples during the Farewell Discourse. I have been captivated by this image since I was a child. 

In this post I want to pay tribute to this text by compiling all of the images I’ve made about it to date. Meditating on art is one of the many ways that we can abide in the vine, as Jesus invites us to do. Enjoy.

The metaphor really begins in the beginning. The Garden of Eden had two trees. Our connection to the tree of life was severed, but God’s promise is to restore us to it.

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Psalm 1:1-3 speaks of a tree planted by streams of water. The person who abides in the Torah bears fruit. Jesus is definitely drawing on this metaphor.

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The prophet Isaiah calls Israel a beautiful vineyard that God has planted in the world. The vineyard has not produced good grapes, though, and it must be severely pruned. Flip through the slides below to watch the progression of the metaphor.

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[slideshare id=239101747&doc=acartoonistsguidetoisaiah5and11-201105141341&w=600h=250]

This illustration comes from The Life of Jesus study I wrote in 2004. It attempts to summarize the Upper Room scene in John 15-17, and combines it with the Last Supper scenes from the other Gospels. It puts the vine passage in context.

Jesus picks up on Isaiah’s metaphor in John 15:1-17. Here are a couple rough sketches I did of John 15 many years ago.

Here is the passage in the context of A Cartoonist’s Guide to John, page 16. 

This image imagines a metaphor Jesus may have used if he was speaking to our culture. God is the generator. Jesus is the power grid. The Spirit is the energy. If we stay plugged in we will be a conduit of God’s love to the world. The power of God is the renewable energy of the Spirit.

I made this video in 2013. It continues to be my #1 top viewed video on YouTube. Go figure.

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