Section 150a
The vine and the branches
Jerusalem, in the upper room → The Mount of Olives
John 15:1-17
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it may bear more fruit. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me, and I will abide in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown out like a branch and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so you will be my disciples. 9Just as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11I have spoken these things to you so that my joy may abide in you, and so that your joy may be full. 12“This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name he will give you. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Notes
Mount of Olives
The mountainous ridge called the Mount of Olives stretches totay from the Hebrew University Mount Scopus campus in the north to the Jewish cemetery and beyond, to the village of Silwan in the south. Between these two ends of the mountain are the olive trees from which the mountain takes its name. The area at the bottom of the mountain would have been the place for the olive gardens and an olive press, “Gat shemen” in Hebrew, from which the name “Gethsemane” comes.
The gospels record on more than one occasion Jesus’ sorrow for Jerusalem as he made his way down the slopes of the Mount of Olives. It was a path he would have known from childhood from His many visits to Jerusalem.
Down the road from Bethphage He came riding on a donkey colt with palm branches symbolic of Judaea strewn along the way. “Hosanna!” (“save now!”) was the cry upon the lips of the people (Matthew 21:1-9). This prayer from Psalm 118:25 was a request for salvation. Yet Jesus knew that these cries would be changed within a week to “Crucify him!” He wept again for Jerusalem, for He knew what would befall the people in less than one generation as the city would be besieged and taken.
Upper Room
The Upper room, or Cenacle, commemorates the place where the last Supper was eaten and Holy Communion was instituted. The Gospels tell us nothing of the location of the house, but there is good indication it would have been on the western hill where a wealthy man would have had an upper room on his house. Archaeological excavations in the Jewish quarter show that there were large houses in this area during the time of Christ.
There is a possibility that this is indeed the correct location of the Upper Room. A church was built on this site soon after the death of Jesus. It must have survived the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Bishop Epiphanius wrote of how Emperor Hadrian made an inspection tour of Jerusalem in 130 A.D. and found “everything razed except for a few houses and a certain small church of the Christians which stood on Mount Zion in the place where the disciples returned after the ascension”. This church was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the following centuries before being handed over to the Franciscans who restored the room giving it its present Gothic appearance (14th century).