[Real Life] Struggles StrengthenSample

The Struggle

In preparation for this series, I spoke to a winemaker about how he grows grapes. I asked, “Can you tell me what I need to know about grapes?” He said, “A vine has to struggle to get the best fruit.” 

Jesus is the Vine, we are the branches. Just as the Vine has to struggle, we are going to struggle in persecution, so that the Vine renders the best fruit. 

Vineyards are found in places where there is great heat in the day and great coolness at night. In America, most of the wine comes from the West Coast. The weather is hot during the day, and then in the evenings, it cools down. That is how the grapes rest, and that is how they struggle. If it is hot all the time, or cool all the time, the fruit will ripen or die too quickly. A vine has to struggle to get the best fruit. 

Jesus is saying here, “I’m going to struggle,” in the sense that He is going to be beaten, whipped, falsely accused, and nailed to the cross. He adds, “Don’t think that you, servant, are going to be greater.” We are going to go through the same things. He calls us a ‘servant’ here because friendship and servanthood go hand-in-hand. The greater the friendship I have with Christ, the more I want to serve Christ. 

We have to abide to please God rather than people. Yet, all of us have varying desires to please other people. Most of us can identify the person we most want to please. But if we are going to really walk with Christ, we need to let go of the need to please others. If you belong to the group that wants to please the world, the world will love you as its own. But, Jesus says, “You do not belong to the world, for I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” 

The world likes a pattern. It likes to label a person and classify her and put her in a pigeon hole. Anyone who does not conform to the pattern will certainly meet trouble. So when you and I declare, “No, we won’t conform. We’re going to follow Jesus, abide in Christ, and make decisions differently,” we are surely going to be met with trouble. 

Abide in Christ to please God, not people.