The Elm and the Vine

As I was walking in the country, looking at an elm and a vine and turning over in my mind what to make of them and of their fruit, the Shepherd appeared to me and said, “What are you puzzling out to yourself about the elm and the vine?” “I am working out, sir,” I said, “how well the two of them suit each other.” “These two trees,” he said, “are set here as a picture for the servants of God.” “Then I would like to know, sir,” I said, “what picture you mean by these trees.” “Do you see the elm and the vine?” he said. “I see them, sir,” I said. [a]

“This vine,” he said, “bears fruit, and the elm is a tree that bears none. But unless this vine climbs up the elm, it cannot bear much fruit while it lies flat on the ground, and the fruit it does bear it bears rotten, because it is not hanging up on the elm. So when the vine is thrown up onto the elm, it bears fruit both from itself and from the elm. You see, then, that the elm also gives a great deal of fruit — no less than the vine, and in fact more.” “How, sir,” I said, “more?” “Because,” he said, “the vine, hanging on the elm, gives fruit that is plentiful and good, but thrown down on the ground it bears little, and rotten. So this parable is set for the servants of God — for the poor man and for the rich.” “How so, sir?” I said. “Explain it to me.”

“Listen,” he said. “The rich man has money, but toward the Lord he is poor. He is pulled in every direction by his own wealth, and the intercession and the confession he brings to the Lord amount to very little; and what little he has is feeble and small, and has no power besides. But when the rich man leans on the poor man and supplies him with what he needs, he trusts that if he does this work for the poor man he will find his reward with God — because the poor man is rich in intercession and in confession, and his intercession has great power with God. So the rich man supplies the poor man with everything, without hesitating. “And the poor man, being supplied by the rich, intercedes with God, giving him thanks for the man who gives to him; and the rich man keeps on taking trouble over the poor man, so that his living is never interrupted. For he knows that the poor man’s intercession is welcome and rich before the Lord.

“So the two of them complete the work between them. The poor man works by his intercession, in which he is rich, and which he received from the Lord; this is what he pays back to the Lord who supplies him. And the rich man in the same way, without hesitating, hands over to the poor man the wealth he received from the Lord. And this is a great work, and welcome in God’s sight, because he understood what his wealth was for, and worked for the poor man out of the Lord’s own gifts, and carried out his service rightly.

“Among people, then, the elm looks like a tree that bears no fruit, and they neither know nor understand that when a drought comes the elm, which holds water, feeds the vine; and the vine, with a supply of water that never fails, gives back double the fruit, for itself and for the elm as well. It is the same with the poor: interceding with the Lord for the rich, they fill up the rich man’s wealth; and the rich, in turn, supplying the poor with what they need, fill up the poor man’s prayers.

“So the two of them become partners in the work that is right. Whoever does these things will not be abandoned by God; he will be written down in the books of the living. Blessed are those who have means and understand that it is from the Lord that they are made rich — for the one who understands this will be able to render some good service as well.”