I do not know how Jesus did it. Hundreds, He performed hundreds, maybe thousands of miracles while He walked the earth. Yet His Word in John 15:1 is the most Miraculous. “I Am The True Vine and My Father Is The Vine Dresser.” A short sentence. An Eternity of meaning. Thousands of years earlier in Exodus 3:14 God told Moses His Name. “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Thousands of years later, stirring up dust as He walked with His disciples, Jesus Christ, our Burning Bush, not only reveals Himself but also Names The Holy Trinity.

And

“I Am The True Vine and My Father Is The Vinedresser.” In the same breath, in the same sentence, immediately after declaring Himself to be The True Vine, He declares His Father. Not only this. Jesus says “and” My Father Is The Vinedresser. This “and” couples and interrelates the two sides of the sentence. You cannot separate Him from His Father. You cannot separate The True Vine from The Vinedresser. You cannot separate I AM from My Father IS. What is a wife without her husband? What is a farmer without the land? What is man without the earth? But these analogies all fail to describe how intricately this “and” intertwines Jesus The Son and God The Father.

And yet, even while using a single “and” to declare that He has the same nature as God The Father, His feet are busy mortifying His Words. With every step, with every puff of arid dust, Jesus lays down equality and takes up humility. He is walking to the cross. By obeying His Father John 14:31, He is letting go of equality with God Philippians 2:6-8. He humbles Himself to death, even death on the cross. And even by this Jesus Proves Himself to be God. Only God Is Humble. Though humble in heart, Moses, David, Elijah were all prideful sinful men. Only God The Son can deny Himself, take up His Cross and follow The Father Matthew 16:24.

My Father

“I Am The True Vine and My Father Is The Vinedresser.” Joseph is dead. Jesus begins the sentence talking about Himself. Then He proceeds immediately to introducing His Father, God in Heaven. Let us notice a few things Jesus does NOT do. He does NOT introduce God as The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He does not introduce God by His great deeds or by His wonderful creation. He doesn’t say, “The Vinedresser is My Father.” He doesn’t say, “The God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob also happens to be My Father.” No. He says, “My Father … Is The Vinedresser”. He declares His Relationship to God first. It is analogical to a boy saying, “You may know him as CEO of your company. But he is my daddy first.” If God were a man, it would be as if Jesus was saying to His friends, “He’s My Father First and He Is Almighty, Creator, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Greater than the double blessing on Elisha who saw Elijah ascend is the blessing that falls upon the one who can hear Jesus saying “My Father”. Anyone who hears Him experiences a spiritual and religious earthquake of eternal magnitude. A lesser tectonic shift occurred when God Named Himself Jehovah in Exodus 6:3. “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty_(El Shaddai)_ but by my name the LORD_(Jehovah), I did not make myself known to them.” [_parentheses added] As we continue reading the chapter, we discover that He Named Himself for the purpose of establishing a covenant, claiming Israel as His Own and convincing them that He Would Free them from Pharaoh.

In John 15:1, Jesus Names God, “My Father”.

There are many who know God as Judge, as Creator or as God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There are many who only know God as The God of their mother or father. Jesus Names God, “My Father”. Even if you think you already know God, Jesus introduces God to us through His Relationship with God. He declares Himself again to be The Way, between us and God, His Father. No one meets His Father unless Jesus does the Introduction. All who thought they knew God only truly meet Him through Jesus Christ.

And as before, the Revelation of God’s Name comes with a new covenant. When Israel met Jehovah God, they became His people ransomed from Pharaoh. Only those whom Jesus introduces to His Father become His Father’s sons ransomed from sin and death. That is the secret of Christianity. That is the secret of John 14:6. Today many are fond of saying, “There are many ways to God.” They are lying. However, even those pious in their self-deception would never dream of what Jesus is saying here. When Jesus Names God “My Father”, He is revealing that no matter how religious you are, you are NOT His son. Go on. Try to find another way to God. But by none of them will you become His son. It is only through the Son that we meet His Father. It is from the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we become and learn to be sons of God The Father John 1:12.

The Widow’s Oil

But what about the old covenant by which Israel was freed from Egypt? What about all the other names God had revealed? They are not obsolete. Instead, they have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Who Names God “My Father”. Like the widow’s small jar of oil from which many many jars were miraculously filled 1 Kings 17:16, 2 Kings 4:2-5, it is from His Name Father that all His Other Names are fulfilled. By knowing God The Father through Jesus Christ, you will know that He Is Almighty. You will finally understand His Covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Have you ever noticed in the Bible just how many names people give God and God Gives Himself? Come to Jesus. Let Jesus introduce you to God His Father. Very quickly, like Moses or Hagar or Anna, you will find yourself giving God another true name. For like the widow’s jar of oil, His Name Father never runs dry.

But you can only know God through Jesus Christ. He Is The Way. Not a way among many. By Naming God, “My Father,” Jesus claims an Exclusive Relationship with God. And this makes, even earthly, sense. What earthly father will love you if you ignore or hate his son? God in Heaven will refuse all who refuse Jesus Christ, His Son. However, if Jesus Knows and Befriends you, He Will Introduce you to God His Father. He Who introduces you to His Father is teaching you how to be God’s son. Therefore, Jesus says to you today, “Come to Me. Let Me introduce you to God, My Father.”