“You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.”
— John 15:3
Why would Jesus change metaphors here? First, He speaks about pruning then cleaning then returns to the vine image.
In this passage, pruning the vine means removing the portions that aren’t producing fruit either because it’s dying because it’s not connected to its original source or because that portion of the vine (the branch) is producing bitter fruit not sweet.
Jesus, when He said, “You are already clean,” means two things and they are both the same. The first obvious sense of the metaphor is that He meant, “Because of your faith in Me, you are cleansed from your sins.” That is the easy, obvious understanding. Each Gospel writer uses this analogy. And here, Jesus still means that, but why mix the metaphors?
So why did Jesus seem to mix His metaphors in this passage. The vine is pruned to remove that which isn’t producing or growing like the vine. When Jesus used the “clean” analogy, He referred to the same process of salvation. Just as removing the dead, non-producing, or bitter producing branches removes any negative admixture to the produce, cleansing a person through salvation removes any admixture in a person of his/her old way of life. That old way of living would taint the spiritual fruit of his/her life from his/her past bitter, sinful way of living. It would cause the fruit of the person’s new saved life not to reflect the sweetness of Jesus.
The pruning and cleansing metaphors both were very understandable to the people of Jesus’ time. The people could relate, reflect, and then react to Jesus’ message because it made sense to their first century Middle eastern lives. Pruning and cleansing are about removing from the believer any admixture from their old life that would taint, make bitter, or dirty his/her new life, which should show only the fruits that come from living a Christlike life indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
Does your life reflect only Jesus? Are there shoots or fruit in your life that are bitter, tainted, or dead that don’t produce sweet and pure fruit that reflect the new life Jesus gave you? Of what do you need to confess to God and repent? Each of us have shoots and fruit that need pruning because we each sin. You are not alone.
