Here, at the Littleton Church of Christ, we just had our “Mission Sunday.” Speaking that day was our brother from Marseille, France, Philippe Dauner. I always appreciate Philippe because the content of his messages is always Biblically rich. On Sunday, Philippe spoke to us about John 15:9-17. He rightly focused on Jesus’ call to love. He spoke about the Father’s love for the Son, the Son’s love for His disciples, and the command to the disciples to love each other in the same manner. The message was solid and effective!
Sometimes in listening to a sermon, something strikes me that wasn’t the speaker’s main thought. That happened to me as he quoted John 15:15, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (NIV).
In our culture we might consider someone we like and enjoy being with as a friend. In the ancient Greco/Roman world, friendship was significant and had deeper implications. It was a world with rigid social classes. Relations of equals could be considered friends, but what was considered superior and inferior relations were thought of as patron/client relations.
John’s readers, especially in the larger Roman world (like Asia Minor), would find these words truly remarkable. They would have read that Jesus was the eternal Word who became flesh and Tabernacled (as a living temple) with us. He claimed that He was the Messiah (John 4:25-26). In His “I Am” statements, He ultimately claimed equality with God, Himself (John 8:58-59). He will be tried by the Romans as the “King of the Jews.” On the other hand, His disciples were largely taken from the common people of the land, not high-status elites. It was to these “commoners,” that Jesus said that they were His friends! Here is what contemporary Alexandrian Jewish writers said about friendship:
…the highest honor is to be shown to parents but the next honor to one's friends, for a friend is the "equal of one's own soul" ... This view continued to affect popular thought. Thus, one letter recommends a friend … by exhorting the receiver to view him "as if he were me". (emphases mine) (1)
With this in mind, the King of the universe called His lowly disciples the equal of His own soul. He would lay down His life for these friends! That’s what friends do for each other. Jesus will send them to the world as His friends who were to be received as if they were Jesus, Himself. In Matthew, the least of His disciples were to be seen as Jesus, Himself (Matthew 25:31-46).
In the passage from John, Jesus would not consider His disciple as servants, though they were, but as friends who were insiders. Although writers, such as Paul, saw themselves as “slaves of Christ,” they were their Master’s friends.
John’s readers, including us, are also friends of Jesus. Let the full impact of that sink in! It is not that Jesus likes us and wants us to be His pals. Rather, the beloved, one-of-a-kind, Son of God chooses us to be His beloved friends.
This has profound implications for us. Friends are loyal, and we are called to be loyal to Jesus to death. Over the centuries, millions of the friends of Jesus have laid down their lives for their Friend. While we are now blessed with legal protection, around the world thousands of His friends become witnesses of their friendship by also laying down their lives. Friends stand up for their Friend and are to be received as though they were Jesus—as His ambassadors.
Communities of Friends reject systems of hierarchy, while accepting leadership of equals. Friends, who are called to love each other, willingly wrap towels of servanthood around themselves in order to humbly care for others. Friends don’t base friendship on race, social status, or gender (Galatians 3:28). We just love each other, as our Friend loves us.
Who am I? Part of that answer is that, amazingly, I am a friend of Jesus. Who are you? I pray that you have the same answer. The friends of Jesus can echo the words of Joseph Scriven, singing with gusto, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus!”
Tim Kelley
(1)Epistle of Aristeas 228 (from Dictionary of New Testament Background edited by Craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter, © 2000 by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. Published by InterVarsity Press. All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced without written permission from InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515 or permissions@ivpress.com.)