The gospel lectionary* reading this week follows directly on from that of last week, now the writer has Jesus continue with his ‘vine’ symbolism, but move from an emphasis on ‘remain’ or ‘abide’ to an emphasis on ‘love’. Here the virtue of love is presented as the primary ethic in the Jesus movement, the thing on which everything else depends and relies.
The crucial thing about love, of course, is that it is relational. To love means to be, in some way, in relation with an ‘other’. In John’s gospel the importance of relationship has already been emphasised by Jesus’ symbolic foot-washing action, he demonstrates that he relates to them, he loves them, as a servant. Now he calls them to love and serve the world. Love here is a divine action, ‘John’ insists that it stems first from God, which puts God in the position not of king, or emperor, but of the ultimate servant.
The John community may, it is thought, have been based in Ephesus - certainly that would synchronise John’s prologue nicely with the emphasis on ‘Logos’ that can still be found in the work of Heraclitus, a native of Ephesus from some centuries before. It would also be helpful for an approach to this passage.
The main thing that Ephesus was famous for was the temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Artemis was a fertility deity and Ephesus related symbology depict her with oval shapes covering her torso. Some have speculated that she was, therefore, a ‘many breasted god’ - a concept which would put her alongside ‘El Shaddai’ which can be translated as the ‘god with breasts’ but somehow ended up translated as ‘God almighty’. Other fertility related options for the ovals include eggs, or even bull scrotums… if this email has ended up in your spam folder I suppose this sentence is to blame.
The great theatre of Ephesus, another massive building was dedicated to both Artemis and Dionysus - the latter being the Greek god with whom ‘the vine’ was most strongly associated. Also a fertility god, by the way, and - of course - closely linked with wine.
But the point is that in a place which has such a strong tradition of fertility symbolism, the idea that Jesus as the vine (rather than Dionysius) tells his listeners that they are appointed, as the branches, to “go and bear fruit, fruit that will last” would, of course be very familiar - home ground territory. Now, though, they learn what they must do in order to be fruitful which is to say they must love - and in order to love they must serve. This is the model that Jesus sets up.
God’s ultimate power, after all, is God’s ultimate nature. Which is love. And for this love, this power, to have effect, for it to make a difference in the world, then those who believe in it must enact it. “ I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another,” says Jesus at the end of the passage. The point is clear - God is love. God’s nature is love. Love loves and therefore leads, always, towards love.
Artemis was not just a fertility goddess, but more broadly the goddess of ‘wild nature’ - the unpredictable, uncontrollable, natural world. The God whom Jesus calls ‘father’ is also the creator God, the one from whom all nature flows. Now John has Jesus assure his disciples that behind all of this, underlying or underpinning all of this natural world is love, and to take their place in the natural order they too must learn to love, and the way to do this is clear - they must learn to serve.
*If you’re not familiar with the term ‘lectionary’ it simply refers to a set pattern of pre-selected bible readings used by churches and preachers - the main one works on a three year cycle.
Progressive Reflections On the Lectionary are intended to be useful to people who preach, or are interested in why on earth anyone still reads the Bible.