Apple trees are not always what we think. A Macintosh apple is rarely from a tree that is Macintosh from root to fruit. Rather, it’s grafted onto rootstock.
Why rootstock? No matter the variety of apple we want to produce, some trees grow better in certain soils than others. Grafting onto rootstock allows us to choose a tree that will survive in our soil and yet produce the varieties of apples we want to eat.
The apple tree is the Christian church. Exactly. We cannot grow spiritually in the world. Our fruit will never become ripe in the stony soil of unbelief. Rather, we have to be grafted onto a rootstock that can thrive wherever it’s planted.
We have to be grafted onto Christ.
Another thing about rootstock. It can handle any number of apple varieties on the same rootstock. If we graft on Macintosh, we’ll reap Macintosh. On the same rootstock, graft on Granny Smith, and that’s what we’ll harvest. It’s why the message of the cross has been successful for so many centuries. We are all different, but Jesus, our rootstock, is available to us all. We will produce fruit after our kind, useful for teaching, funding the work, or spreading the gospel. However, we will all be attached to Christ, for he is the one who gives us our sustenance, allowing us to minister unto the world.
John 14:6 tells us:
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ ”
We could change this verse slightly and make it read:
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the rootstock, your source of sustenance, and I can thrive in any circumstance. When you are grafted onto me, you will produce fruit in kind that will lead unto eternal life.”
It means the same. It tells us that there is only one way to heaven, and we find it through our Christ and our Lord.
When Jesus is our source, we will thrive in any circumstance, no matter how stony the soil.
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