Maundy Thursday: God Chose You

Dear fellow redeemed and fellow chosen:

Do you remember back in grade school? Remember physical education and you lined up with your classmates? Remember, as two of you classmates would choose teams, picking one person at a time until everyone was chosen? When were you selected? Were you one of the first selected or were you one of the last?

Believe it or not, I was rarely the first one chosen on any team in physical education. In fact, the only time I was chosen first was when I was chosen as a captain and got to pick others. Otherwise, I was chosen last. Almost without fail. There I'd stand, waiting and hoping, then at the end one captain would say, "We'll take so-and-so; you can have John."

Now, if you also suffered such humiliation, I'm sure that you would agree that you didn't feel wanted; in fact, they probably wished you came down with the flu just so that you wouldn't have to participate and thus be a part of their team.

Well, guess what? There's no need to feel that way anymore! Not only that, but we have been chosen by God himself! God chose us to be on His team! God chose us to be part of His family! God chose us to live eternally with Him! God chose to dwell with us here on earth! Tonight we hear Jesus tell us:

I Chose You.
He chose us because we were unable to do anything on our own.
And He chose us to bear fruit that will last.

Tonight's text comes from one of Jesus' "I Am" statements that we find in John's Gospel. There are 11 such statements found in John's Gospel, three of them uttered on Maundy Thursday. This is the third "I Am" statement that Jesus speaks on Maundy Thursday-"I Am the Vine, you are the branches."

The verses that form our text this evening show us another façade in the dynamics of the vine and its branches-the branches need the vine to survive, while the vine can live without the branches. Obviously it is the vine that even gives life to the branches. And while branches can be grafted onto a vine, the branch cannot graft itself.

"I Chose You" Jesus says. Just what does that mean? What did it mean when Jesus said it to his disciples? Did that mean that the disciples were such good, Law-abiding Jews that they deserved to be followers? Were they from good families and thus entitled to be Jesus' followers?

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