We may turn back to Psalm 80 as an example of where this parable of the vine is used in the Old Testament. ‘Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.
Some think that this parable of the vine was spoken a little earlier in the evening, perhaps two hours earlier on this last evening that Christ spent with his disciples. He will be crucified the following day. He will soon leave this upper room, and they will proceed to the garden where he will be betrayed and arrested, and he knows it is going to happen and he is going to it voluntarily. But, they say, this fits much better the Passover feast and the inaugural Lord’s Supper that the Passover was turned into by the Lord, and they are tempted to think that it was spoken earlier. But it certainly fits very well where it is and it makes the whole discourse of the Lord on this last night to his disciples very balanced and intact in its consecutive subjects. So there is no reason really I think to move it from its position.