Rev. Steven Davis
Our Friend Jesus - October 30 sermon
Posted on: 10/30/2011 15:48
I have loved you, just as My Father has loved Me. So remain faithful to My love for you. If you obey Me, I will keep loving you, just as My Father keeps loving Me, because I have obeyed Him. I have told you this to make you as completely happy as I am. Now I tell you to love each other, as I have loved you. The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them. And you are My friends, if you obey Me. Servants don't know what their master is doing, and so I don't speak to you as My servants. I speak to you as My friends, and I have told you everything that My Father has told Me. You did not choose Me. I chose you and sent you out to produce fruit, the kind of fruit that will last. Then My Father will give you whatever you ask for in My name. So I command you to love each other. (John 15:9-17)
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Anais Nin was a French-Cuban author who died in Los Angeles in 1977. She's not the sort of person we talk about a lot in church, because some of the writing that made her well known was (shall we say) of the more adult variety, but she touched on a variety of subjects, and somewhere along the way, she wrote these words: “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” Jesus, in our passage today, is speaking among other things about the value of and the importance of “friendship.” We think of Jesus in many ways. Lord, Saviour, Son of God, Messiah – all good and noble titles, but I wonder if there is any more noble title that one person can bestow upon another than that of “friend?” To make someone a friend is to make a conscious choice that this person is worthy of being an intimate part of our lives. As Anais Nin said, to make someone a friend is to - in a sense - create a whole new world just between the two of you. This is the type of relationship that Jesus invites us into. It's all of those other things that I mentioned – but it's also friendship. We understand that concept in church quite well. We sing songs like “What A Friend We Have In Jesus,” and “Jesus, Friend Of Little Children,” and we know the type of close, personal and intimate relationship we're speaking of with those words. Friendships are strange things. Most often, they're temporary. They come, they go. The friends we once had we sometimes lose contact with (although precious is the friendship that lasts a lifetime!) but we make new friends. In the constant revolution and evolution of friendships, our worlds come and our worlds go; new worlds are created with new friends; old worlds are set aside when some friends move on or when we move on. We all know that. Usually it just happens naturally over the course of time.
When I was a young boy from about Kindergarten on I had two best friends. Forgive the grammar – I know it's not logically possible to have “two” best friends, but you get the point! For several years the three of us were a team in one way or another. Rick and Greg and Steve. I had lots of other friends, but the three of us were best friends and everybody knew it. We played together at recess and at lunch break. We spent time in each other's homes. We played street hockey in the winter and baseball in the park in the summer. We collected hockey cards and baseball cards together and traded them amongst ourselves. (“You've got two Paul Hendersons? I've got two Norm Ullmans! Let's trade!) It wasn't always an easy relationship. It had its ups and downs. Sometimes all three of us were best of friends; sometimes one of us would have a falling out and it would be two friends with one gazing wistfully into the circle. Boys being boys, I think I can remember a couple of times when fists might have been involved in some of the falling outs, but whatever caused the falling out was usually quickly forgotten and set aside and eventually the three of us would be best friends again. Until ... Eventually, Greg moved from Scarborough to Brantford, and after Grade 6, Rick and I went to different schools. The friendships were gone. Worlds ended; worlds changed. Losing them was tough for me. I told you a few weeks ago about some of my experiences with bullying after Grade 6. I'd like to think it would have been easier if Rick and Greg had still been around but still – even without them - life went on. And eventually the new worlds of new friendships were born to replace those boyhood friendships, but those friendships (or at least the memory of them) still affect me. I think back on them and realize that although those specific worlds of friendships may have ended, the impact of those friendships have affected me so that they become inevitable parts of whatever new worlds of friendships I have formed or will form. Rick and Greg and I shared a world for a few years. We're always a part of each other in a way, even though it's been many, many years since we've had any contact.
But it would have been nice to have kept them around. That's the truly precious thing about our friendship with Jesus. He's always around. He doesn't move away or go off to a different school. He's always there. From time to time we might get into a fight with Him – and we might even shake our fists at Him – but He declines the opportunity for a dust-up with us, and stays right there, waiting, until we're willing to re-start the relationship. If only the bond of our everyday friendships with those around us were as strong as that! In “What A Friend We Have In Jesus,” the question is asked “Can we find a friend so faithful?” The answer is “no.” We can't. Jesus' faithfulness is a given. It's demonstrated in ways that few of our other friends ever have to demonstrate. We can be a shoulder to cry on or a sympathetic ear – and those things are wonderful and precious – but the test of friendship comes when we have to give something up for those we claim as our friends. Jesus made the point well: “The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them.” How many of us would do that – and for whom? Our spouses, our children – I hope for them. But what level of “friendship” is required to make that kind of sacrifice; that kind of commitment? In a way it's kind of like the rich young man we spoke of a few weeks ago. Jesus told him to give up everything – but I think what he meant was for the rich young man to acknowledge that nothing was his; it was all God's and it had to be used accordingly. Here, Jesus is saying again that we have to be prepared to sacrifice everything for the sake of those we call our friends. Friendship isn't something to be taken lightly. Sometimes we get confused about the difference between true friends and mere acquaintances. Jay Leno once said “Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people; they're just acquaintances.” Jesus would drive you to the airport! Jesus would do more. “The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them.” Jesus did that. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son,” we read in the words of John 3:16, and, as Paul would write years later in 2 Corinthians 5:14, reflecting upon the meaning and mystery of the cross and of his relationship with Jesus, “Christ’s love guides us. We are convinced of the fact that one man has died for all people.” He's our friend, indeed – a friend without equal. George Washington (a man known for being cautious in his friendships) once wrote “Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.” Jesus' friendship for us has been tested by the greatest adversity – the cross. Jesus is a proven friend who's worthy of being called that!
And what of us? Jesus' words have a challenge for us, as well. “The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them. And you are My friends, if you obey Me.” How do we obey? Jesus isn't talking about a legalistic set of rules that have to be followed in order for a friendship to be a friendship. That would be the very opposite of real friendship. Once again, Jesus is speaking of the need for a changed heart. Are we going to obey him (or follow him) by changing our lives and how we view the world so that we, too, reach the point of being willing to sacrifice everything we have for His sake – which means doing it for the sake of those around us, because – frankly – since we call ourselves Christians, any friend of Jesus should be a friend of ours! Remember: “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” May we be creating new worlds all the time, as we befriend the children of God and as we experience the continuing joy of friendship with Jesus!
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