DEATH (some thoughts)

Death frustrates hopes, dreams, loves, friendships, happiness. We are not going to see anymore some known smiles, voices, ways of being, ways of living, and some expressions because those who possessed them are gone.
Only memories, frustration, and the feeling that we lost something are left. Death frustrates, because who really wants to die? (There are some disillusioned of living who would not like to be born). I understand that we were born to live.

This feeling of living, of wanting to live was plainly expressed within us when we were children. Children do not know what death is. If we stop and look at children’s simplicity, we are going to notice that for them life is eternal. When they grow up they come across with the reality that death exists, something that frustrates, hurts, causes pain; then there is the feeling that life ends.

Why this feeling of frustration? Because God created us for living, for expansion, for a continuous blooming, for knowing, enterprising, doing. In God’s creation, we do not find another living being that entrepreneurs as we, who thinks about the past, lives the present and plans the future.

We are the only beings to record history and pass it on from generation to generation, to pile up knowledge and with it solve problems. If human beings died or not when yet they were in the paradise, it doesn’t matter (this discussion would be very long with many saying yes, and many saying no). What matters is that in the paradise the human beings used to live next to God and didn’t know what contradiction to God was.

Thus, living or dying did not matter, because we would be always living in him or not, dying would be as to be absorbed by Him. Death causes frustration because we are totally conscious that we broke off relations with God and consequently our years of living shortened.
In a distant past, according to the Bible, we used to live nine hundred, eight hundred, seven hundred years, but this was shortening that today to be eighty years old is a great victory.
But if we wait in Him, who is the life, to have the answer for our questions about why we don’t stay here forever along with our beloved ones and the things we love, we will understand that dying is not the end, it is much more the beginning.
Jesus came from eternity to give us hope, to tell us that there is continuity and to show us the way to get it. He himself is the way. Jesus said: I am the way, the truth and the life [...] (John 14:16); I am the light of the world, who follows me is not in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12).

If there were a time that we didn’t know the right direction and lived in darkness, without seeing ahead, now with Him, we see enough to know where we are going to, to be sure that our life doesn’t end here. Jesus is the comfort for the bad feeling of losing someone.
In Him our soul is linked to what is eternal, in Him we know what victory over ourselves and over our doubts is. In Him hope gets wings and we imagine how is to be there in heaven, how those we lost here are living there. In Him we anticipate the future in constant prayer.
Thus, if we see death through the perspective how Jesus taught us, death’s frustration power gives way to the power of hope, because it will be through death that we will see Him face to face, that we will be reunited with those beloved ones who have already gone, that we will leave behind all weakness of this our body and will clothe ourselves with the best thing God has prepared for us, as Paul said: “of incorruptibility”.

No, death cannot stop us because we were created for living. As it is true that death will come one day, for some very soon, for others after many years, it is also true that what it will reveal will be very real, and death will mean just a fragment of time of the transition to life.

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10), said Jesus. That’s it, life will prevail to those who believe in the life that is Jesus. Apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5), He said.

José Martins

I Am the True Vine

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15: 1,2), said Jesus.



Jesus used the metaphor of growing grapes to pass on the kind of relationship he wanted between us, him, and the father. Also, teaching this way, he would trigger in the mind of those listening to him the process of analogy between the cares one has to have in growing a vineyard (in order that it can be fruitful) and life according to the gospel.

Departing from this point, there is a question: How is a vineyard pruned to bear good and abundant fruit crop after crop – bear much more fruit – sort of characteristic Jesus points out as being what the father looks for?
Several answers can be given to this question, leading us to think about how we should live as servant's of the Lord.

If you want to have a good vineyard, you have to choose a proper place to plant it, which involves a good reception of sunlight, that is, sunlight in the morning and in the afternoon. Sunlight is fundamental for a vineyard development and maintenance, it influences its metabolism.

If you want to have a good vineyard, a good soil is also necessary. A mixture of clay and sand is appointed as preferable by technicians, but if the soil is not so good as it should be, it is possible to improve it; it can be done using different know-hows.

If you want to have a good vineyard, you have to choose a grape variety that fits the region you intend to cultivate it. There are grape varieties that do not adapt themselves to certain places. It can determine the success of your vineyard.

If you want to have a good vineyard, you need to prune and train it properly.

Of the four items mentioned above, Jesus concerned himself only with the fourth one, pruning.
Being so, we are going to take that the other three items for having a good vineyard had already been fitted, mainly when the grape grower is the one Jesus refers to in his story.

Take note that two prunings are presented in John’s text. One refers to cutting off the branch in the base, detaching it totally from de vineyard: he cuts off (another version says he takes it out). The other kind of pruning is a pruning with reminiscent: he cleanses, prunes, clips.

Before we go into the process of pruning a grape vine, I’d like to call your attention to the way Jesus approached the matter in those verses. The verbs cut off or take out along with cleanse are incisive words. These words do not express possibility, hypothesis, probability, but they are saying that it is what in fact happens, they have a factual connotation.

Thus, in deed, God cuts off, God prunes, God cleanses, independently of what one can think about it or argue. The pruning process is for everything (for everyone), even the healthiest branches, the most perfect branches will go under it, because it keeps the vineyard healthy. The church that is going to heaven, says the Word, is clean, unspotted, irreprehensible, and shows in its face the brightness of the zeal of the great vine grower (Ephesians 5.25).

Another interesting point in Jesus’ words is that he did not mention anybody else who has the power to cut off branches, but only the father. Only the father can cut off and only he can declare who is cut off. We do not have this authority. And also he alone can attach again, graft in; and in fact this is possible in a vineyard.

Well, said that, we move on to the process or processes of pruning. My emphasis here will be on pruning for fructification which is called (in Brazil) pruning by clipping. My emphasis will not be on mere extirpation (even that sometimes extirpation is also a kind of cut that can improve the quality of the fruit). Therefore, I am going to deal with three kinds of pruning: formation pruning, production pruning, and green pruning.

Formation pruning is performed when the new grape vine is one year old. During the first year, the vineyard has to grow free any-which-way, extracting as most as it can from the soil, strengthening its roots. And here there is a lesson for us believers who sometimes easily criticize those who have recently received Jesus.

Production pruning is done right after the grapevine bears its first fruit. It is done when its branches are ready for another crop.
In the formation pruning, branch excess, flat branches, sick branches, branches not well disposed in the grapevine, creating problems to the vine grower to direct them as he wants, are cut off. May the vine grower of our souls cleanse everything preventing the fructification of his presence in us and that he may find in us the humbleness to allow him to direct us to activities that better please him in his work.

Production pruning can be performed in a mixed way, that is, interrelating a branch pruned very short (a spur) with a longer branch, trimmed only in its extremity. This kind of cut eases the renewal of aerial parts of the vineyard, otherwise the quality of fruit production will decay rapidly.

What is a spur? It is a branch from which grape bunches had come out in the last crop and now it needs to renew for the next crop. From the spur a new branch will come out which will be a long branch giving fruit in the next crop.

Production pruning, therefore, teaches us that not all of us can occupy the same position at the same time in the work of the Lord. There is a time for everything. All in good time. In the vineyard of the Lord, there is a time to sprout again; it’s just let him prune us and prepare us for this. The problem is that few of us want to turn back and then later go ahead strengthened, in favor of the vineyard, in favor of everybody. Many of us are only concerned with our personal ministry.

For some, the ministry is their all in all. They are from the ministry, for the ministry, all is about the ministry, ministry … ministry … ministry of themselves, and get out of the way you if you are seen as a threat to their ministry. They are like branches that only want to stretch out, stretch out (sucking to themselves only the strength that should go to other branches, to the fruit).

A vineyard that is not pruned grows excessively, becomes too strong, wild, transferring all its energy to branches and leaves instead of the grapes.

Wish we were like Daniel who was able to be in the spotlight in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom and in the underground in Belshazzar’s up to be brought up from his apparent abandonment to deliver a word of God to Belshazzar, revealing to everyone the fruit of one submitted to the will of God, to God’s paths.

The spur in the vineyard gives me the lesson that I am not the unique branch in the vineyard. Others also have to have opportunity; and the vine grower wants things this way and will make them happen.

Now, let us deal with green pruning and some lessons it can gives us. The green pruning normally is performed in the summer. In the green pruning, breaking shoots, trimming shoots, trimming leaves, clipping tendrils and sucker-shoots, eliminating and or thinning bunches, and twisting branches are some technical procedures that help to improve the grape vine.

Now, let’s see each of these procedures of the green pruning I mentioned:

When the grape grower breaks shoots, he cuts off exceeding shoots (called sucker-shoots), which block the proper flow and direction of the sap, draining the grape vine. Spiritually speaking, it is not different in our lives; lots of things want to sprout in our lives hindering God’s Spirit to flow within us. These things can be the manifestation of sadness towards a fellow, individualism, self-interest, hierarchical quarrels … all of them shoots the grape grower has to trim away, otherwise they will become canes taking up place where they should not, draining fruit quality.

When the shoot trimming is performed, the grape grower clips the extremities of the shoots, procedure that helps the buds (bulges from which the bunches appear) to come out. Shoot trimming helps to balance the vegetation, increasing the weight and the quality of the grapes.

Another benefit of this procedure is the improvement of air flow and sunlight within the vineyard, which prevents it from healthy problems.
He is the Sun of Justice, who wants to take up place in our lives, right there in the inner parts of our souls, so that the healthiness caused by our communion with him appears in us through what we reflect, that is, through our fruit.

When the leaf trimming is performed, the grape grower removes “the leaves covering the bunches, eliminating at most two leaves per shoot, aiming to balance the foliage and the number of fruit. It aims at improving the flow of air and sunlight within the vineyard. It will provide a better efficiency in the control of fungal diseases, especially in a large vineyard. The leaf trimming must be done carefully because if more leaves than necessary are trimmed the vine grape can be damaged, resulting in less sugar in the grapes, in immature branches, as well as in sun-burned berries” (text from EMBRAPA).

The leaf trimming teaches us about the necessary balance leaf-fruit. It also teaches us that appearance in the Lord’s vineyard has its importance when it is proportional to the fruit and in behalf of the fruit. Appearance has to give room for life so that life can be manifested, be improved, be enlightened (which is the airflow within the vineyard – the good wind of the Holly Spirit and the light of the Sun of Justice and his effects). Some people see legalism in almost everything in Christian life, but a small pinch of modesty, in my point of view, is indispensable for a good testimony.

Removing tendrils and sucker-shoots – tendrils are natural thin strings that climbing plants have to grab to what is close to them. They are responsible for tying the canes and maintaining the plant spreading.
Sucker-shoots are “secondary shoots coming out to the cave of the leaves”. They work as sap suckers, hindering the proper growth of good shoots, and bunches. They also cause excess of shadow within the vineyard” (Text from EMBRAPA).




What could we say about tendrils? When they are not removed, they spread strangling leaves, the whole grapevine. They have to be maintained when they are necessary to fix some canes, if not, they will drain sap and will weaken the plant.

The tendrils remind us those people who characteristically go on without measuring consequences, without judging whether they are causing damage to others or not. Ahab and Gehazi of The Old Testament were such a kind of believers, people interested in themselves only.

God cleanses the branches so that they can give more fruit; so, the possessive characteristics of tendrils do not find room in the Lord’s vineyard.

Concerning the sucker-shoots, called sap suckers, they are unnecessary sprouts appearing in the canes, obstructing the sunlight to come in properly. Along our spiritual life, we build up our own theologies to protect ourselves and maintain our spiritual vices, developed along the time such as: little lies, evangelical manias (sayings, determinations without biblical support), self-defense (spiritual comfort in using the name of Jesus). All of them are vices that merely make us identifiable as christians, but that at the same time reveal our lack of understanding of the Gospel. God desires to take away these shoots that have much more to do with religion only than with the Truth.

Removing or thinning bunches is necessary to “balance productivity and avoid overload. This procedure enhances more uniform and more tasteful bunches” (text form EMBRAPA). Some bunches come out before due time without proper formation; others come out after the grapevine is already loaded, had produced as much as fruit the grape grower intended. These two situations cause quality decay to the vineyard and ought to be treated. Also in this procedure bunches with delayed development in comparison to others are removed.

It is from us believers, branches of the vineyard, that the fruit has to come out, but sometimes we don’t show what the Lord is waiting from us. We don’t do our best. Love is not present, sincerity is lacking, and so the value of our fruit goes down. Each grape vine is potentially able to produce a certain amount of good fruit. Quantity can not surpass quality.

Thus, quantity is justifiable as much as quality exists. It is quality that has to constraint quantity. The wine Jesus provided in the Cana of Galilee’s wedding was of quality, he didn’t provide a poor wine like the one the guests had drank before. If Jesus’ wine was fruit of a real grapevine, without doubt, it was a grapevine of quality. That teaches us that he is concerned with quality.

Some churches intend to grow as some ministries that are booming and then start imitating and consequently they go astray, bearing fabricated fruit, fruit of marketing production, things that are not from a genuine Gospel. Growth is valid and authentic when it is balanced by quality; it is what Jesus’ vineyard makes us understand.

We've got to ask ourselves what is the sign of quality in the fruit of the true vineyard, of which kind of fibers it is constituted, spiritually speaking.
Let’s discuss one sign and constitution: truth. What does not come out of truth, can be men’s interest, can proceed from men, but cannot be from God. Many pursue a sort of growth that jeopardizes their fruit quality and authenticity. They pursue a fruit of odd constitution, where truth doesn't play its role.

Branch twisting is a technique that aims to wake up a dormant grapevine (when the foliage is developing) after the winter pruning, when the foliage is irregular, delays or when the grape grower intends to advance the foliage. How many of us do not need to be awakened by the Lord and rise again to bring out a good fruit?

I could say much more about the pruning process for a good grape vine, but it only would strengthen the fact that when Jesus taught through the vineyard pruning metaphor, he showed us that God’s church is a church free from impediments (he walks through it without any obstacle), in which the disguise of denominational interests, ministerial interests, financial interests, domination interests do not find room. And if they do, they do only in the mimic of Jesus’ church that some have built up, never in the church which goes to heaven.

Still, to conclude: when a vineyard is pruned, it drops sap from the cuts, taking time to the sap stops. Nobody likes to be cut, pruned, corrected, and questioned. That’s hurt. We like to be in a comfortable position, but God sees his church as a unit with common goals, and as a unit he takes care of it and guides it in his will.
Even if the branch is sound, it will be pruned at the proper time. Pruning is the maintenance of health both of the branches and of the whole vineyard.

Jesus being the vineyard gave himself over to be pruned so that we could bear fruit.


Concluding texts:


I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful (John 15: 1,2).

Hebrew 12:11 - No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Romans 8:28 – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Let’s think about this!