Day 1

John 15:1

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

If you’re not careful you may miss it.  This is one of Jesus’ most important statements.  Jesus refers to Himself as the true vine.  He is taking an image for Israel and applying it to Himself. Jesus Himself is true Israel.  Jesus fulfills everything the Jews could/would not. This claim fits with His break with the temple at the end of Chapter 8 and His forming a cleansed people that began in Chapter 9. 

Israel's place as the people of God is now clearly seen in Jesus and His disciples, the vine and its branches. This is not a rejection of anything God has ordained, as such, but its fulfillment through Christ. The identification of the people of God with a particular nation is now replaced with a particular man who incorporates in Himself the new people of God, composed of Jews and Gentiles. Jesus, the True Vine, now replaces Israel as the vine of God planted in the Promised Land and thus the people of God are no longer associated with a territory (Burge 1994).  

Jesus' corporate significance has been included throughout the Gospel in His use of the term Son of Man, so it is perhaps significant that the image of the vine and that of the Son of Man are identified together in Psalm 80:14b-16. (IVP)