Pruning a tree isn't easy...
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Pruning a tree isn't easy. It's an acquired skill. Cut off too little, and nothing happens; too much, and you risk killing the tree.
More than the horticultural skill involved, pruning is difficult because it seems so unnatural. The nature of trees is to grow, right? Wouldn't it stand to reason that in order to produce the most fruit, you ought to let the tree grow as tall as it wants to? The bigger the tree, the more fruit -- right?
Not so. It is only a carefully pruned plant that delivers the maximum yield.
It's hard to know exactly what Jesus means by this saying, in all its poetry and passion -- although, judging from the fact that he speaks it at the Last Supper, the very night of his arrest, he's probably thinking about his own suffering. Jesus' own vine would be pruned the very next day on Calvary.
More than the horticultural skill involved, pruning is difficult because it seems so unnatural. The nature of trees is to grow, right? Wouldn't it stand to reason that in order to produce the most fruit, you ought to let the tree grow as tall as it wants to? The bigger the tree, the more fruit -- right?
Not so. It is only a carefully pruned plant that delivers the maximum yield.
It's hard to know exactly what Jesus means by this saying, in all its poetry and passion -- although, judging from the fact that he speaks it at the Last Supper, the very night of his arrest, he's probably thinking about his own suffering. Jesus' own vine would be pruned the very next day on Calvary.
