SEEDS, PLANTS and SOULS

18 CUTTING, CLIPPING AND GRAFTING

I am always amazed
how plants can put up with the most brutal treatment
and yet survive.
Take for instance the trees
used for fodder or fuel in Nepal
 - they are often completely stripped
of branches and leaves
 and look entirely lifeless.
But come the spring,
they bravely sprout again.

Teak trees are usually planted out as so- called stumps
 - inert looking sticks made from saplings
which have been so severely pruned
that no roots or leaves are left.
You could plant them upside down and not realise it.
But they survive best like this
and soon shoot out roots and leaves when planted.

This ability to regenerate parts
is not so obviously found in the animal kingdom,
although certain damage can be repaired.
A plant's innate ability to sprout forth
is mentioned in many parts of the Bible.
Job makes reference to it,
lamenting the fact that our days are numbered,
to die only once,
whereas:

"At least there is hope for a tree:

If it is cut down,
it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail.
Its roots may grow old in the ground

and its stump die in the soil,
yet at the scent of water

it will bud and put forth shoot like a plant."
(Job 14:7-9)

King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about a huge tree
which was cut down
and had to be bound in metal to prevent it sprouting.
Here is the prophet Daniel explaining the dream to him:

"The tree you saw,
which grew large and strong,
with its top touching the sky,
visible to the whole earth,
with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit,
providing fruit for all,
giving shelter to the beasts of the field,
and having nesting places in its branches f
or the birds of the air
 - you, O king, are that tree!
You have become great and strong;
your greatness has grown until it reaches to the sky,
and dominion extends to the distant parts of the earth".
"You, O king, saw a messenger, a holy one,
coming down from heaven and saying,
`Cut down the tree and destroy it,
but leave the stump,
bound with iron and bronze,
in the grass of the field,
while its roots remain in the ground.
Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven;
let him live like the wild animals,
until seven times pass by for him.'"
(Daniel 4:20-23)

And so it was.
Nebuchadnezzar's wicked empire collapsed
(remember he wanted everyone
to worship him on pain of the fiery furnace?),
and he went mad for a length of time
until he would acknowledge
that God was sovereign over the kingdoms of men.
When he did that,
his sanity was restored
and by God's grace his kindom sprouted again.

It is possible that the olive leaf
that was brought back by Noah as the flood subsided
originated from a broken-off branch of an olive tree
that had managed to survive and take root
- an ability the olive is noted for.

The Israelites wanderings
comes up with another intriguing incident
that demonstrates how sticks can bud.
Moses was having problems
making the Jews tow the line
and accept Aaron's tribe - the Levites - as the leaders.
So God told Moses
that each leader of the twelve tribes should get a staff,
and stick them in the ground.

The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony
and saw that Aaron's staff,
which represented the house of Levi,
had not only sprouted
but had blossomed and produced almonds.
(Numbers 17:8)
 

None of the other leaders' staffs had done a thing,
much to their surprise,
and so they accepted Moses and Aaron's command
and stopped grumbling.

Today foresters plant freshly cut staves in the ground
to form live fence posts,
which do not rot
and can put up with having staples and wire
knocked into them.
One species commonly used
in the Caribbean and Central American
- the rainfall tree or Madre de Cacao -
is amazingly quick to sprout and take root,
and has a blossom much like almond.

Were it not for this ability of plants to regenerate,
pruning and grafting would not be feasible.
Jesus uses it in his parable of the vine.
Here there is a slightly different analogy
to the one of the sower.
Jesus likens his disciples
(and those of us who believe)
 to the individual branches of the vine.
He is the main stem and the roots,
and God the Father is the gardener.
Those who accept Christ remain in the vine and bear fruit –
those who do not are pruned out.

"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.
You are already clean
because of the word I have spoken to you.
Remain in me,
and I will remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself;
it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine; you are the branches.
If a man remains in me and I in him,
he will bear much fruit;
apart from me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not remain in me,
he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers;
such branches are picked up,
thrown into the fire and burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask whatever you wish,
and it will be given you.
This is to my Father's glory,
that you bear much fruit,
showing yourselves to be my disciples.
(John 15:1-8)

In Ezekiel,
the prophet records how God
likens the fate of an eastern civilisation
conquered by an enemy
to an eagle breaking off the top of a cedar tree
and planting it elsewhere.
Later the same simile is used
to liken the coming of Jesus from the house of David,
but in this case
God does the plucking and transplanting:

"`This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
 I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar
 and plant it;
I will break off a tender sprig
 from its topmost shoots
and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it;
it will produce branches and bear fruit
and become a splendid cedar.
Birds of every kind will nest in it;
they will find shelter in the shade of its branches.
All the trees of the field will know
that I the Lord bring down the tall tree
and make the low tree grow tall.
I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.
"`I the Lord have spoken,
and I will do it`".
(Ezekiel 17:22-24)

When discussing faith,
Jesus used a similar idea
of the mustard seed growing into a tree.
In both allegories
the trees can also represent the Christian church,
in which we the birds find our home.

What about grafting?
Using another slightly different analogy to the vine,
Paul uses this idea of grafting into a tree
while writing to the Roman Christians.
He was trying to show how
the Jews could not expect to be part of Christ
if they didn't accept him.
Horror of horrors, the Gentiles
(representing us pagans who are not Jews)
 could also be!

... if the root is holy, so are the branches.
If some of the branches have been broken off,
and you,
though a wild olive shoot,
have been grafted in among the others
and now share in the nourishing sap of the olive root,
do not boast over those branches.
If you do, consider this:
You do not support the root,
but the root supports you.
You will then say,
"Branches were broken off because of unbelief,
and you stand by faith.
Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.
For if God did not spare the natural branches,
he will not spare you either.
Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God:
sternness to those who fell,
but kindness to you,
provided that you continue in his kindness.
Otherwise you also will be cut off.
And if they do not persist in unbelief,
they will be grafted in,
for God is able to graft them in again.
After all,
if you were cut out of an olive tree
that is wild by nature,
and contrary to nature
were grafted into a cultivated olive tree,
how much more readily will these,
the natural branches,
be grafted into their own olive tree!
(Romans 11:16-24)

Let us remember the admonition not to boast!
It is only by God's grace
that we are where we are in God's family tree.

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