Grafting Into the Tree of God

Daily Reading: Exodus 33, Psalm 83, Romans 11, Proverbs 24

If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; 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 from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 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

I love the image of God grafting in branches to his already existing olive tree.

The process of grafting a branch into a living tree is one that has always been amazing to me. It is hard to fathom that this would actually work in nature!

How could a branch that is cut off from its original source of life, and would be dead without support, can be grafted into an entirely different tree, and be nursed back to health?

I still struggle with the fact that this works.

It is that much more powerful with God.

We are dead branches, cut off from God because of our inherent sinful nature as human beings.

And yet God gave us a way to be grafted back into his family. Jesus, through his willing death on the cross, gave us a way to take nourishment from God’s roots and come back to a new life in him.

I not only appreciate Paul’s imagery in these verses today, because of that picture it paints of being nursed back to health in a new tree, but also because of the warning it provides to all of us.

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 from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Paul speaks to a phenomenon we frequently see in the modern church, where there can occasionally be a level of spiritual elitism that can creep in if we are not careful.

The moment we begin to think that we are “above” other people because of our relationship with Jesus, and somehow our lives hold more inherent value, we are on the downward slope towards becoming like the Pharisees and Sadducees that Jesus was constantly furious with.

Consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

I love this statement.

At times it can be easy to give ourselves too much credit based on the volunteering we are doing, the money we donate, and other ways we “support the church”.

These are all great things, and we should always seek to find more ways to advance God’s kingdom here on earth!

However, do we allow this to cause us to puff out our chests and feel a level of spiritual superiority? Do we feel a sense of pride about how much we are “supporting God’s mission”?

Or do we instead always come back to the fact that we do not support the root, but rather the root supports us?

That subtle shift in the posture of our heart is the difference between being on mission for God, and being on mission for our own religious ego. 

Are we doing it to feel good about ourselves as followers of Jesus or are we doing it because we have an unquenchable desire to see more people in our world come to saving faith?

Through our faith in Jesus, we have been grafted into the tree of God. We are now supported by the roots.

A healthy branch should produce an abundance of fruit.

However, the branch should never become arrogant at the volume of fruit produced, or being a part of the tree in the first place. It should always remember its source of life.

You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Daily Reflection & Dialogue

What daily rhythms can I recommit to in order to fully allow the roots of God to nourish me as a branch in his tree of life?