​John 15: 1 – 11
 
The apt metaphor of ‘vine dressing’ used by Jesus to describe His Father’s responsibility in stimulating Christian growth implies a clear-cut goal that life in Christ is not one that stagnates. The natural grapevine pruning process commences within weeks of it being planted and progresses through the year as the vinedresser relentlessly pursues the pruning process till the vine bears its choicest fruit (with at least two major pruning seasons: one in late winter and another in late spring). And in the event a branch bears no indication of being able to bear fruit, it will normally be severed, so it does not compete for the plant’s precious nutrients. The metaphoric configuration identifies Christ to be the plant and believers as branches (John 15:1-3), and the rendering seems severe, but clear. The critical focus here is the Father’s desire and expectation for ‘fruit.’ Biblical ‘fruit’ is commonly referenced to one’s character in terms of changes to one’s dispositional traits (Gal 5:22-23).
 
The logical prerequisite, however, is that the branch in order to bare good fruit must organically be part of the stem; implying that on one’s own, spiritual character growth is well-nigh impossible when an ongoing relationship with Jesus is not in place (John 15:4-5). And it is based on this bond that two very essential ‘fruits’ mentioned here are developed: love and obedience (John 15:9-10). Both are divinely appointed qualities that are at the opposite end of the spectrum to man’s innate self-centeredness and willfulness. The acid test for love is its near fatal addictive component with the love object, where one’s entire energy, time, and focus is devoted to another. And when it is mutual, as we abide in His love, there are no limits to what one can achieve. 
Divine obedience, a core lifestyle, and unlike anything we may have learnt, only proceeds out of a growing love and honour relationship with God; an inner dynamic as we delight and embrace His laws’ demands (John 15:10; Ps 1:2-3). Obedience in this sense, arises from a way of life in Christ, certainly never a matter of normal compliance that is usually temporal and a response to our fears and pride. So, by implication, to not seek to obey God (i.e., including His laws) is to disobey Him. 
 
As in any vineyard pruning exercise, the Father’s focal perspective is always towards productive growth, and He skillfully axes anything in us that stands in His way to reach His goals in our lifetime (John 15:6-8). This can be rather disconcerting and painful, but the key to understanding this inevitable process is the heart of God - that He has always our best interest in view. Let us have eyes to see that He is patiently conforming us to His Son (Rom 8:29). It is crucial to realize that our perception of what is important may differ from God’s, and by stubbornly holding on to our preferences, we would certainly not learn to trust Him. An inability to distrust one’s own capabilities is a dangerous signal that one invariably cannot trust God, and in turn, His pruning process. There are no other ways for us, except Jesus’ own exemplary obedience when He obeyed His Father and gave Himself up for our sins (Rom 5:19) and laid the foundation of Christian living for us. And it is only through obeying that one discovers growth. Therefore, accepting willingly the Father’s sustained purifying process in our lives, as this passage reminds us, is to embrace the friendship, love, and joy of God (John 15: 7, 9, 11).

Genesis 28: 10 – 22
 
The story of Jacob is fraught with mishaps and crafty ingenuity that plays out like a tragicomedy, interspersed with morsels of God’s gracious interventions. With the discovery of Rebecca’s nefarious plot stealing Esau’s blessing from Isaac, Jacob's mother immediately sent him to her brother’s homestead, away from the murderous intent of Esau. The speed with which Jacob was dispatched indicated that he left literally empty-handed, arriving at a deserted nameless terrain at sunset, tired and possibly with little to eat, he lay down with a rock as his headrest for the night (Gen 28:11). 
 
Despite divine prophetic preferment over Esau (Gen 25:23), the intra-family parental dysfunction of favouring one child above another over the years, with Isaac unswervingly esteeming Esau over Jacob, it created inadvertently a deep-seated desperation by the latter to be accepted by his father, thereby entrenching sibling rivalry. Further, with a conspiratorial mother who modelled a dubious ethics of defrauding her husband of Esau’s birthright, it did not aid in Jacob’s attachment bonding with his parents. The bottom line illustrated the human capacity to distrust God notwithstanding the circumstances. Now destitute, Jacob finds himself alone, seemingly bereft of family and God, and his destiny of prophetic fulfillment in shreds. It is unlikely that he knew God personally now, with all the shenanigans he was involved in. 
 
Jacob’s dream was the first recorded incident of God’s direct contact with him, at his emotional lowest. Its content was bizarre: innumerable angels traversing an interminable stairway into and out of God’s Presence to Earth, and in a moment, God Himself descended and stood before him (cf., Gen 18:1-2, standing opposite or beside him). No doubt, the scene of an open heaven caught Jacob’s attention, but the fact that God’s angels do His bidding among men was not the most important thing that struck him. Apart from the blessing of his inheritance, the Lord addressed his profound insecurities; “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go… for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Gen 28:14-15). In an instant, his encounter with his heavenly Father’s embrace of his personhood, which he was frantically expecting from his own earthly father but never received, Jacob’s spiritual journey began. Possibly for the first time in his life, God was no longer inaccessible and His power not illusionary. 
 
When Jesus Christ came, He reinterpreted Jacob’s dream with Himself as the stairway, the Person who reconciled man back to his Father (cf., John 1:51) by His death. The unconditional love of God formed the basis of Jacob’s acceptance, and although he had much to learn, which is reflected by his presumptuous and conditional reply (Gen 28:20-21), this was etched permanently in his heart as this new relationship with God developed. Our lack of spiritual insight must never lead us to assume that heaven’s gates are shut to the needs of our fallen world, as our gracious God invariably takes the redemptive initiative to draw near to us. But what instigated God to take this initiative in Jacob’s case? As God sees what is in Jacob’s heart, He is drawn to his brokenness, with its outlook in weakness (i.e., lacking in skill or capability, or knowing one’s limitations before God) and humility (1 Sam 16:7; Ps 51:17; cf., Phil 2:5-9). No relationship subsists on a one-sided track; it's a misnomer! However, contrary to all human interactions, we amazingly presume that our association with God can survive a dysfunctional one-sided relationship.  Therefore, we need to be realistic in our interrelationship with God: like Jacob, it has to be a two-way relational exchange in thoughts, words and deeds. Jesus had given up His life for us, surely there cannot be anything that would hold us back in relating with and following Him as our Lord!