⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
                                                                                    -John 15:5
 
Many Christians are eager (at least in theory) to bear good fruit. It sounds like it could be really nice to experience! More joy and more peace and all kinds of good stuff in our lives and maybe even to make a positive difference on other people and in our world—who wouldn’t want that?
 
So we go to work.  That is, after all, the American way. If you want joy and peace, it’s not just going to come to you. You gotta’ go get it!
 
But Jesus tells us that we won’t bear fruit by thinking about bearing fruit or working hard and straining to bear fruit. He uses this metaphor intentionally to help us to re-imagine the road to a genuinely fruitful life.
 
A branch bears fruit just by remaining rooted in the vine. The source of fruit-bearing energy doesn’t reside in us.  The energy for fruit that lasts our whole life and into eternity is only found in Christ.
 
That’s why he’s emphatic that apart from Christ we can do nothing.  “Nothing” doesn’t mean literally nothing. People who don’t know Christ make great art, build tremendous companies, have beautiful families. But if we’re wanting to bear fruit that leaves a mark that echoes into eternity, it will have to be sourced in Jesus Christ. Everything else will pass away.
 
Remaining rooted in Christ is both active and quiet. It is both labor-intensive and it’s surrendered. We’re actively engaged all the while recognizing that the real work is being done by powers we cannot control, at levels in our lives that we might not be fully cognizant of.
 
The good news about this passage: Jesus is telling us that God wants to bear fruit in us—much fruit!  God wants good fruit in your life more than you want good fruit in your life.
 
The hard news? There’s no easy 3-step formula for getting that fruit (I once had a pastor who encouraged us to never purchase any Christian book that had a number in the title such as “Three Easy Steps to A Better Prayer Life with God”). It’s both simpler and more complicated than that. It can’t be reduced to a formula, humans are too sophisticated and unique for that.
 
We cling to Jesus, root ourselves in Jesus, and then repeat, day in day out for weeks, months, years, decades. Fruit comes as we keep doing it. It’s as simple and complex and challenging and accessible as that.
 
See if you can practice remaining in Jesus all day today. How many times per hour could you remember that Jesus is present with you and ask for his fruit in your life? How many times in a half-hour?