What Bartholomew heard, and Thaddaeus and James son of Alphaeus and Judas brother of James

May 1, 2015
What Bartholomew heard 

I am told that one of the ways the Gospel of John differs from the rest is that it has no parables. This is not, I suspect, because John didn’t know any of Jesus’ parables; rather he didn’t trust them, whoever told them: they were too bold, too solid; there was not enough sacred, airy spirit in them.

          Here is an example of what happens when John finds one of these odd little stories: he begins to think,” I could do something with this.” By that he does not mean he wants to do some thing; he means he can squeeze the blood out of it and replace it with gas.

          So, in John 15:1-8, his Jesus once more gives up rabbi-ing for cosmopneumosophy. Here is the passage in question from the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version). Jesus says:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

And, here is the same passage from the TRV (Ted Riich Version).

Bartholomew by Matteo di Giovanni

The parable of the vine and grain grower comes as Jesus and his disciples are leaving the room in which he washed their feet (another parable). The other disciples having rushed ahead to see what Judas Iscariot might be doing, Jesus finds himself with only James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Bartholomew, and Judas the brother of James.

          And Jesus said to the four: “The kingdom of God is like a man that owned a wheat field and a small vineyard. Both he tended with great care, ridding his field of stones and sowing and hoeing, clearing briars and thorns from around his vines, digging about them, and as they grew pruning the live branches that they might bear more fruit and cutting the dead branches away.

          “At the harvest, he gathered the grain into his granary. He gathered the fruit and made a fine wine. And the branches that were cut out he also had gathered. And from them the man built a fire he could sit by on cold days and enjoy the wine from the fruit of his vineyard and the bread from the grain of his fields.

          “Do you have ears? Then, listen.”

If you have ears, come back tomorrow and listen to the parable here.

 

Tomorrow.