“I am the true vine ¹  and my Father is the gardener. ² 

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” Because she ¹  thought he was the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him.”

So ¹  he said to the worker who tended the vineyard, ‘For ²  three years ³  now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it ⁴  I find none. Cut ⁵  it down! Why ⁶  should it continue to deplete ⁷  the soil?’

But the worker ¹  answered him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and put fertilizer ²  on it.

If he is uprooted ¹  from his place, then that place ²  will disown him, saying, ³  ‘I have never seen you!’

They are like ¹  valleys ²  stretched forth, like gardens by the river’s side, like aloes ³  that the Lord has planted, and like cedar trees beside the waters.

For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on ¹  it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God.

So put away all filth and evil excess and humbly ¹  welcome the message implanted within you, which is able to save your souls.

a land the Lord your God looks after. ¹  He is constantly attentive to it ²  from the beginning to the end of the year. ³