He Calls Us Friends

Text: John 15:9-17

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

At the end of the service we’ll be singing that classic Christian hymn, “What a friend we have in Jesus. We sang it Thursday morning in the chapel and it had been a while since I’d sung it and the words struck me all over again. Right from the beginning. “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.” It’s a wonderfully comforting hymn. Especially in those times when you’re lonely or worn out because of the sinfulness of the world. We still have the comfort of knowing that Jesus is our friend, even when all our other friends might abandon us, Jesus is that friend who is always there when you need Him. What’s most amazing is that the God of the universe looks at each of us and HE CALLS US FRIENDS.

Jesus says “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”  That’s really an odd thing for someone to say. Can you imagine going up to someone and telling them that they could be your friend if they do what you tell them? Maybe one of you can try that this week and come back and let me know how successful you are. For this reason we need to think about the fact that what it means to be friends with Jesus is very different than how we generally view friendship.

“You are my friends if you do what I command you” is what Jesus says. As strange as that is, they’re Jesus’ words and therefore are the truth. Think about Romans 5:10 which says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”  Each and every one of us were enemies of God Himself simply by being born and carrying on the original sin passed on from generation to generation beginning with Adam. Here we are born sinful in the sight of God, enemies to Him because of our sinfulness and yet through the waters of Baptism and the abiding power of the Word, Jesus came to each and every one of us making us His friend. It makes a little more sense when we look at what Jesus says in verse 16. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” Our desire to make friends will often lead us to think that we have to work hard at the task and that there are certain things that we can do to facilitate that friendship. While that’s true in terms of our relationships with one another, Jesus seeks us out. He chooses us to be His friend. Even while everything we seem to do would put us in direct opposition to Him. If it were up to us, we would remain enemies of the Almighty.

The image we have here though, is that Jesus, the Lord, very God of very God, has chosen His disciples to be His friends. He chooses us to be His friend, we don’t and can’t choose Him. Our role is to simply acknowledge that Jesus has made us His friend. And when someone befriends us, we are then inclined to be friendly toward Him. And yet, there’s an inherent inequality in this relationship. You’ve all been in that relationship I’m sure where one gives more than the other. Where an outsider could look at the situation and say “Wow, why does he or she put up with what the other is doing?” We’ve all had that friend that always cancels at the last minute, doesn’t show up on time, isn’t reliable, and who won’t defend you to others. One is clearly being a friend and the other is simply benefiting from that person’s willingness to look past the lopsided nature of the relationship. The heart of that reality is made clear when Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.”

In case that statement doesn’t strike you, this is a big deal. And in the ancient context where Jesus was speaking this is a really big deal. It would be like Caesar laying down his life for Pilate. That just wouldn’t happen, even though Pilate was a friend of Caesar. This is such a clear description of what the Gospel is. It’s the love that isn’t deserved or even expected, but which is still freely given. The Lord, the master, is willing to lay down his life for those that He chose to be His friends, even though His friends don’t deserve it. It doesn’t work this way anywhere else, except in God’s kingdom.

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” You’re chosen to be friends, not slaves. There’s a huge difference between the two. By being a friend you know who the Lord is and what He’s like because it’s revealed to you. This is how Jesus can say, “you are my friends if you do what I command you.” What’s evident here is not the heavy hand of the Law of God, but the life giving Gospel. What we see is our Lord who has called you “friend” by His mercy and who has given His life up for you, His friend. He does all this so that you may live and that you may bear fruit, that the love He shows you, you might show others by following His commands. Remember those two great commandments. The greatest of which is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.

So now that Jesus has made you His friend, He can now say to you “whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.”  The point here is not just that you have someone to talk to, someone to go to in your time of need, someone to dispense whatever your heart desires. This isn’t the general understanding we have of our relationship with God through prayer, but asking for fruit. The fruit of the Spirit that flows from a relationship with Christ. It’s that list we talked about last week that Paul gives us in Galatians. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Jesus invites you His friend, not just to pray for anything, but to ask the Father for these fruits of faith. For the power to follow His commands. For forgiveness when we don’t follow them.

To make us better friends of one another because we have the friend who loves and gives perfectly. To be a better husband or wife. To be a better colleague. To show up even when it’s not the thing we want to do. To be reliable. To defend our friends, speak well of them, and explain their actions in the kindest way. Even to bear with that unbearable person. When we ask for these things, God will give them. Because He wants you to love each other better because He loves you. He wants to forgive you when you fail. This is why you were chosen and why Jesus commanded these things, so that you will love one another. And He does everything He can to make that happen, even showing you His love, and mercy, and forgiveness … and life… by laying it down for you..

“What a friend we have in Jesus.” When we consider our friendship with Jesus, we see how in His love He chooses us to be His friends and how His love empowers us now to follow His commands, to love Him, and to love each other. He came down to us so that we may be raised to Him in eternal life. “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.” But as we’ll also sing, “In His arms He’ll take and shield you, you will find a solace there.”  Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.