Readings: Psalm 80:7-15, John 15:1-12, Galatians 6:7-10

‘Spring, the sweete spring, is the yeres pleasant King,’ began Thomas Nashe in his ‘Spring’ song from Summers Last Will and Testament.

We began Holy week with a joyful celebration, a beginning rather like the spring heralding the summer; our liturgical calendar moved us similarly through the seasons, from a spring-like beginning to the last blast of a cold winter, and three days later to the warm summer of resurrection and His eternal light shining in our souls.

Our worship gave shape to the humanity and warmth of a personal God who knows us intimately because He created us, suffered with us and for us.

Many Palm Sunday celebrations had the guest everyone, or at least every child, wanted to meet, not the bishop, but a donkey. Jesus was not riding triumphantly upon a warrior’s horse like an emperor ready to defeat transgressors with weapons and bloodshed, no. Jesus came among the people riding on a donkey – personal, humble, and accessible, entering the capital city – the heart and soul of a nation, and entering into our hearts and our souls through the liturgy, hearing His word and contemplating these mysteries.

Some in the crowds cut branches from the surrounding trees and spread them on the road before Him, (Matthew 21:8). “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory to God.” (Luke 19:38).

Jesus the descendent of Judah is fulfilling the prophetic blessing of Jacob to his son. ‘Judah, your brothers will praise you;’ and ‘he will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch’. (Genesis 49:8,11).

The life of a vine comes from above, its branches stretching from the fresh waters of heaven to the mysteries of the deeps in the earth. And God gave humans every plant for food, because like plants we are consuming the sun, the light nourishing our heart and soul from above.

Why is the vine tethered to a donkey? Donkeys in Hebrew scripture were considered unclean animals therefore could not be sacrificed in the holy temple. However, it is the only unclean animal of which the firstborn are considered to be holy, therefore to use the donkey for service, God told Moses it must be redeemed with a lamb, a lamb which can be sacrificed in the temple.

Just as a donkey carried Jesus into Jerusalem, a donkey carried Moses and his family into Egypt before the Exodus (Exodus 4:20). The people were then freed after being redeemed by the blood of the lamb during the Passover.

God for our sakes, made Himself of no reputation, taking upon Him the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:7). Jesus became the lamb of God sacrificing Himself once and for all, and in doing so has become the firstborn of all creation. This matters because it is a sign to show us that God fulfils all His promises including the first covenant with Noah and his descendants, an everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.’ (Genesis 9:1-17).

Jesus without sin, depending only on the Father, being obedient unto death, restores all of creation from the corruption of sin. In Himself, Jesus fulfils the command of God to mankind on the sixth day, to fill the earth and subdue it, to be fruitful and multiply – not sowing to please the flesh, but sowing to please the Spirit, so that from the fruits of the Spirit we will reap eternal life. The donkey is tethered to the vine, so we now, like the donkey, have been redeemed by the lamb of God for service. We are tethered to Jesus, the true vine, but we do not drink the blood of an animal, but the transcendent life, love, and wisdom of Jesus Christ our saviour.

In order to fulfil all righteousness, Jesus shows us through His dependence on what comes from above, that we too are also to depend on Him. Not through a law of force, for though the word of the Law remains true, Jesus has put the law in our hearts so that our eyes are freed to look up, we no longer look down to lines drawn in the sand, to words written on stone. We eat them to be holy as He is holy.

Our being is tied to laws of nature, we cannot see around corners or behind us, therefore lines or words before our eyes draw our gaze to a focal point that narrows our view of the whole. Reduced vision builds walls using knowledge as bricks and this knowing addresses our need for safety and certainty that fixes our minds to smaller spaces, to live behind walls that block our view of the whole landscape of life and the unknown around us and beyond us. The walls that turn us away from each other, walls that foster separation and division.

St Gregory the Great said, “We make idols of our concepts, but Wisdom is born of wonder.”

Love is the wonder, the mystery to which we belong. That tiny word that extends beyond itself, like an unending fountain, the living waters flowing from the rock that never ceases to give us a drink.

By the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, though we are dust and to dust our flesh shall return, we now have the fire which is the Holy Spirit that cleanses us from within, guiding our hearts and minds to love as He loves us.

We are taught not to look at outward appearances, not to simply see surfaces and miss the depths in the soul like the mountains covered in shade, in our humanity is His very breath. And ‘if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin’, (1 John 1:7).

Our awareness, our being, our own light given to us by the Spirit resides in an embodied and immortal soul. Who we are now will be who we are forever, now is the bridge to eternity – therefore whatever we do, we sow seeds to the soul, our own and our neighbours, in every thought, word, and deed.

When we see our souls and bodies as one, when we look out to the world and see others as souls, that’s the kingdom come in our hearts of flesh, for it is then that we realise what we do to others is done to ourselves, that our brothers hand is our hand, our sisters foot is our foot, their eye is our eye. (Gospel of Thomas 22).

Though our scriptures are ancient, we see throughout them references to branches and trees, because as we know now, trees are fractal in nature, which means the branch is an exact copy of the whole, so that in Jesus we have the perfect image of the Father, by our looking to Him and becoming His child our souls become a reflection of His soul. By His truth we are separated from our earthly mothers and fathers, no longer their image but His – so that in Him we are all one, as He is one.

Under the care of the vinedresser we are trained and cultivated to make us ready for harvest. But just as Moses was saved from Egypt and went back to lead out a nation, so we who are saved by Jesus, are called now to show Him to others. We only have one saviour, but by our flourishing in Him we all gather ready for the harvest.

Abiding in Christ is to live in harmony with Him, to confess Him, to witness to Him. This harmony is our obedience through our freedom to choose Him, through directing our gaze from the grave to the sky. How we see, and how we enable others to see, shows them Christ. And we remember that it was through the obedience of the servants that all who came to the wedding feast at Cana were blessed with the best wine at the last. So may we always have our doors open, ready to see and invite others to the table.

Amen.