What Now?
Text: John 15:1-8
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What now? It’s the question that’s natural to ask after a big event. What do we do now that the thing we’ve been waiting for, planning for, excited about is now over. Where do we go from here? It’s never as simple as the fairy tales made it out to be, living happily ever after. No, we have this instinct that there has to be some direction, some next thing to move toward. So, now that we’ve made it to Easter, now that we’ve walked with our Lord through His life and death these past seasons of the Church year, now that our faith has reawakened in the light of our own resurrections promised by Jesus’ resurrection, we find ourselves asking, “What now?”
And, as we fallen mortals are prone to do, we often get ourselves into trouble by trying to answer this question out of our own thoughts or feelings. Some have gone the route of saying that now we have to start pulling our own weight. We have to do something to prove ourselves to God—we have to do this or that, whether it’s exotic mission work or having the picture perfect Christian life, whether it’s committing to some grand vision we’ve conceived of how to make this life more glorious or becoming some sort of spiritual warrior. It’s even been said—incorrectly, I must say, just to be sure that no one walks away from here with the wrong impression—it’s even been said that when Jesus says on the cross, “It is finished,” He meant that His work was finished and now it’s time for our work to start.
But these are all wrong. They’re borne out of our own resources, the limited scope of our own minds, the ever-changing attitudes and feelings of our own hearts. So then, what now? If we cannot put faith in ourselves to find the way now that everything has been fulfilled, everything has been finished by Jesus, where then do we look?
Blessedly, Jesus tells us exactly what to do now. But His answer may be surprising. “Abide in me, and I in you.” What now? Abide, stay put, remain. Don’t wander away from Him, thinking that you must move on to bigger and better things. Don’t imagine that you can move to some greater level of holiness than what He’s already given you. “Abide in me,” He says, “Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you.”
This is surprising for us, we who live in a culture that seems to determine worth, especially self-worth, by our busyness. Ask someone how they’re doing and what’s the most common answer you’ll hear back from them? “Busy.” And why this worship of busyness? Because we have been taught by this world that chews people up, devours all it can of them, and then spits them out, that our worth is in our work, or our works. Through the eyes of the world, through our own eyes dimmed by sin, our value is found in how much we accomplish by our own reason and strength, what our hands and calendars have achieved.
But this is not how your worth is determined by the Lord. That’s never how He’s done things. Remember, this is the same Lord who gives the Sabbath for mankind to rest. This is the same God who Himself rested on the seventh day of creation, not because He was tired, but because He was creating a sacred, holy time for rest and refreshment, to simply be with Him. This is the same God who again rested on the seventh day in the tomb on Holy Saturday, the day in between His crucifixion and resurrection. So it’s quite in keeping with His ways that now, after His resurrection, His answer to our question of “Now what? What do we do now that we’ve come to faith, now that we’re Christians, now that we’re on this side of salvation being won?”—His answer is “Abide, stay put, remain in Me.”
How? How do we do this? How do we abide in Him? He’s already given us the answer, if we were listening. “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you…If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” It’s His Word that’s the key to abiding in Him. His Word is what gives us cleanness, holiness, peace, life. To demonstrate this, Jesus uses the image of a vine and branches. If a branch were to somehow move away from the vine, attempting to find something better, more impressive, more meaningful, or whatever—if it were to move away from the vine, it would wither and die. But stay connected to vine, to the sap, the energy, the nutrients and water that flow from the vine, and that branch thrives. So you, abide in Jesus, draw from the sap of His Word, and you will be filled with His life. Carve out that time to rest in His words, not distracted by the world and all its notifications and demands, far away from your worldly mundane calendar. Find a Sabbath in His Word, learning and drawing from His Word, praying, talking with Him. Find your refreshment in Him, your sustenance in His Supper and the replenishing of the waters of your Baptism, and see if it doesn’t fill you with joy and peace in His promises that rise over every trouble of this world.
And then, only then, after you’ve been restored and made alive by the promises of all that He’s already completely accomplished for you in His cross and resurrection, then look at the result: bearing fruit. This is simply another way of saying that you’ll do those things that are pleasing to Him. You’ll do things that He delights in simply because you know that He delights in them. You’ll serve your neighbor because you believe that He’s already done everything to lock your eternity with Him into place, so now it’s not in your hands. Now you’re free to give, free to serve, because that fruit is for your neighbor’s benefit, not because your eternal life depends on it. So you, the branch, do not bear fruit in order to impress the vine, Jesus. We don’t bear these good fruits in order to cleanse ourselves or atone for sins on our own, or to show our value to the vinedresser, our heavenly Father. It’s certainly not done for the approval of the other branches. Rather, it’s the natural result of being connected to that source and all that He sends your way. It’s what happens when the Word of Jesus flows to you. That means that the fruit, those good works, they all come from Him. That’s why Jesus says, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” These things are done out of love, because this is who we are now. It’s what a branch that’s connected to the vine naturally and freely does.
So it doesn’t matter if the fruit you’re bearing is some grand work that gets a newspaper article written about it, or if it’s the simple acts of service you do in your own household. It doesn’t matter if it takes you to places you never imagined or if your fruit is mostly for the benefit of your hometown. If you’re a parent who takes care of their children, who raises them in the faith and feeds them and loves them; if you’re a faithful employee who does what’s honest and helpful to your neighbors; if you’re a student who diligently sticks to your studies; or if you’re a millionaire who creates funds to feed countless hungry around the world simply because you’ve received more than you need from your Lord—those are all equally beautiful fruits before your God.
Our fruit, our good works, serve our neighbor. We do that in the places we live, or as Jesus says, where we abide. So when we remain in Him, we receive all the life and energy, all the grace to do those things. We do not worship at the altar of busyness, thinking that a hectic life is good and holy simply because it’s hectic. Rather, we rest in our Lord. So, what now? We abide, we remain, we find a Sabbath in His Word. We live, we breathe, we eat and drink His Word. Find your rest in Him. Already you are clean because of the Word He’s spoken to you. Abide in Him. In the name of Jesus, the Vine who gives us life, Amen.
