152 Dimensions of Baptism
Two chapters later he gives the answer: 'I am the true Vine and my
Father is the vineyard keeper. Every branch in me that is not bearing fruit
he takes away (cups i), and every branch that is bearing fruit he trims clean
(Ka0ocipei), so that it will bear more fruit. You are already clean (fi5r|
upsis KocBapoi EOTE) because of the word I have spoken to you' (15.3).
Being 'clean' here has nothing necessarily to do with water, for Jesus is
speaking of horticulture, not of bathing. Those who are 'clean' are not
cleansed from sin, but on the contrary are like fruitful branches trimmed
clean because they have done well. Avoiding the verb Ka8api£eiv,
'cleanse', or 'purify', John instead makes a play on the words 'take
away'(aipei) and'trimclean'(KaBaipei). 'Take away'recalls 1.29: God
'takes away' the fruitless branches just as the Lamb of God 'takes away'
the sin of the world.^6 Purification by pruning is the alternative to being
'taken away'. Those who 'bear fruit' are 'trimmed clean' by hearing and
believing Jesus' word. It is a process played out already in the Gospel
narrative. After Jesus presented himself as Bread of Life and called on his
hearers to eat his flesh and drink his blood, 'many of his disciples' had
said, 'This is a hard word. Who can hear it?' (6.60), and then 'turned back
and no longer walked with him' (6.66). Jesus then asked the Twelve, 'Do
you want to leave too?' Simon Peter answered for them: 'Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life' (w. 67-68), and Jesus
solemnly identified these Twelve as those he had 'chosen' (e£eAE£d|jr)V,
v. 70). By virtue of this pruning or weeding out process, the Twelve came
into being as a distinct entity. Those who had borne no fruit were 'taken
away', and those who bore fruit were 'cleansed' by trusting in Jesus'
words. Now, looking back, he reminds them, 'You are already clean
because of the word I have spoken to you' (15.3).^7
Baptism goes unmentioned. Water comes into the picture only in
connection with the second cleansing, when Jesus washed the feet of the
already 'clean' disciples (13.10). To this he added a command that theyThomas, Footwashing in John 13 and the Johannine Community (JSNTSup, 61;
Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1991), pp. 103-107.- By bearing no fruit these branches prove that they belong to 'the world'. The
parallel suggests that the 'taking away' or purging of the world's sin is an act of
judgment more than of redemption (cf. 15.6). On 1.29, see C.H. Dodd, The Inter-
pretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958), pp.
237-38. - While he does not explicitly identify them again as 'the Twelve', Jesus reminds
them again that they are 'chosen' (E^EXE^CKMTIV, 15.16, 19; cf. 13.18).