ACC ~ John 15 v2a

JERUSALEM FORSAKEN FOR LACK OF FRUIT

IRENAEUS: Concerning Jerusalem and the Lord, they [1] venture to assert that if it had been “the city of the great King,” [2] it would not have been deserted. This is like someone saying that if the stalk were a creation of God, it would never part company with the wheat. And that the vine twigs, if made by God, never would be lopped away and deprived of the clusters. But these [vine twigs] were not originally made for their own sake but for that of the fruit growing on them. When that fruit comes to maturity and is taken away, the twigs are left behind, and those that are not fruitful are lopped off altogether. It was the same way with Jerusalem, which had in itself borne the yoke of bondage … when the fruit of liberty had come, and reached maturity, and been reaped and stored in the barn, and when those which had the power to produce fruit had been carried away from it [i.e., from Jerusalem] and scattered throughout all the world. … Once the fruit, therefore, had been sown throughout all the world, it [Jerusalem] was deservedly forsaken, and those things that had formerly brought forth fruit abundantly were taken away. For from these, according to the flesh, were Christ and the apostles enabled to bring forth fruit. AGAINST HERESIES 4.4.1. [3]

[1] i.e., the Gnostics.

[2] Mt 5:35.

[3] ANF 1:465-66; SC 100:416-18.

SPIRITUAL FRUIT REALIZED IN CONCRETE ACTION

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: If we demonstrate what kind of union we have by only a mere barren confession of faith—without sealing the bond of our union by the good works that proceed from love—we will be branches indeed, but still dead and without fruit. Faith without works is dead, as the saint says. [1] Accordingly, if the branch hangs fruitlessly, so to speak, from the trunk of the vine, know that such a person will encounter the pruning knife of the husbandman. He will entirely cut it off and burn it as worthless rubbish. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 10.2. [2]

WIND TESTS THE GRAPES OF THE CHURCH

EPHREM THE SYRIAN:

The sons of truth grow large on this Branch of Truth; [3] they have been perfected and have become fruits fit for the kingdom.

But, although the Branch is living, on it are also dead fruits that only seem to blossom.

The wind [4] tested them and shook down the wild grapes. Blessed is he who crowned by [the Spirit] those who held fast in him! …

Jesus, bend down to us your love that we may grasp this Branch that bent down her fruits for the ungrateful;

they ate and were satisfied, yet they demeaned her who had bent down as far as Adam in Sheol.

She ascended and lifted him up and with him returned to Eden.

Blessed is he who bent her down toward us that we might seize her and ascend on her.

Who indeed will not weep that although the Branch is great, the weakness of one unwilling to seize her greatness maintains that she is a feeble branch—

she who has conquered all kings and cast a shadow upon the entire world! By suffering her power has increased.

Blessed is he who made her greater than that vine from Egypt! [5]

Who will not hold fast to this Branch of Truth.

She bore the true ones; she shed the false.

Not because they were too heavy for her did she shed them.

For our sake she tested them in the breeze;

it shook down the shriveled; it ripened the firm.

HYMN AGAINST JULIAN: ON THE CHURCH 5, 8-10. [6]

[1] See Jas 2:20.

[2] LF 48:375**.

[3] McVey notes that the Branch of Truth is grammatically feminine, representing the church but also Christ in this passage.

[4] Or “spirit.”

[5] Ps 80:8 (79:9 LXX).

[6] ESH 222-23.

Jn