Friends (John 15:15)

 


Friday, May 30, 2025



Psalm 72

Deuteronomy 1:1-21

John 15:12-25



Friends (John 15:15)



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.



The history books talk of the difficult professional relationship between the clergy and civil authorities of the first colony in New South Wales. Apparently the difficulty arose over two different ideas about the role of religion in society. Because while the governor, looking over the boatloads of criminals for which he was responsible, thought the church was useful to teach morals, the church had gone ahead and sent an evangelical priest who wanted to save souls.



Jesus says that we are no longer his servants, but his friends. While other religions might demand submission to a set of morals and regulations, the Lord of creation instead offers friendship. Unfortunately for our natural inclination to think about ourselves first, this means true religion is much more difficult than it would first appear. It would be simple if Jesus just said we were to behave in such-and-thus a manner and that were the end of it. But Jesus instead demands our hearts – our minds, our affections, and our wills.



It is paradoxically much healthier to think of others before ourselves. We are finite; if we think about ourselves too much eventually we run into a dead end. But there are always others to think about, and if we have Jesus’ desires before our own then, well, he is infinite, so we will always have something more to concern ourselves with. And it is not as if he doesn’t walk the walk. After he said those immortal words “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” he went ahead and laid down his life for his friends. He is very much a friend worth having.



What are your immediate concerns? How might Jesus be a friend in need for those concerns of yours? What are Jesus’ concerns? How might you, in turn, be a friend to him?



Christ our Lord and Friend: help us in our needs, and show us what yours are, that we may live eternal lives of mutual giving and loving friendship.

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