Friendship With Jesus

Friendship with Jesus

John 15:12-17

            It is a few hours before Jesus’ betrayal.  He knows what is going to happen.  He knows there will be pain—excruciating pain, more than any human body can stand.  He knows his life will end on a cross, and he understands what it is to die that way.  The Romans loved crucifixion because it was not only an agonizing death, but totally humiliating.  Jesus knows he has only a short time before the agony will begin, so he chooses to spend that time with his friends.

            Friends may seem like a strange word to use here.  These were Jesus’ disciples—not just any disciples, of course, but his hand-picked inner circle.  He tells them, “I chose you; you didn’t choose me.”  It was unusual for a master to choose his disciples.  In most cases the followers decided which teacher they would attach themselves to; but Jesus chose these twelve, and now he spends his last few hours of freedom with them.

            John’s gospel gives us the most extensive picture of the Last Supper.  Instead of focusing on the institution of the Eucharist (the sharing of bread and wine) John turns in other directions.  He begins his account by telling how Jesus washed his disciples’ feet—a necessary task in those days of dusty roads, one that was performed by the lowliest of servants.  Yet here was the Master—the Son of God—performing this basest of tasks for his followers, his friends.

            John then focuses on Jesus’ last words.  This is no abbreviated version.  Instead we find four chapters devoted to the Lord’s final instructions to his disciples and his prayer for their salvation.  John gives us beautiful, lyrical lines, lines to read carefully and often so we can hear Jesus saying them to us.

            But what about this idea of friendship?  How can there be this kind of relationship between master and disciple?  How can a student be friends with the teacher?  Is such a thing possible?  And how can Jesus call them friends after all the times he had to correct them, the times he shook his head over their density, their insensitivity?  Can he really mean friends?

            Janette Oke has said, “A good friend remembers what we were and sees what we can be.”  In this light, Jesus was truly the disciples’ friend.  He knew what they were when he called them:  a ragtag bunch of working stiffs, not a scholar in the bunch; men who were not afraid to get their hands dirty, but definitely rough, uncut stones—not just rough around the edges, but rough all the way through.

            We might consider Bernard Meltzer’s words.  He said, “A friend is someone who thinks you are a good egg even if you’re slightly cracked.”  No doubt the disciples were that.  They had cracks all over the place—and lest we look at them and say, “I never would have acted like that!  I would never have made the mistakes they made,” we need to look at ourselves in a good mirror, because our cracks are definitely showing.

            Doug Larson says, “A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your successes.”  I would change “tolerates” to “celebrates.”  I believe Jesus celebrated the successes of his disciples/friends.  Mark tells us that Jesus sent his disciples out to extend his work.  When they came back, he wanted to take them away by themselves—to have a little downtime, surely, but also to celebrate the successes they had achieved during their time on the road.

            The finest quote I’ve read recently on friendship comes from an unknown source, who said, “A friend will strengthen you with his prayers, bless you with his love, and encourage you with his hope”—and that is what Jesus did throughout his ministry.  Staring death in the face he continued to pray for his friends, that they would have the strength to resist the world.  He surrounded them with love, and encouraged them with the hope of a future in God’s kingdom.

What a friend!