"I call you friends"

Jesus speaks words that cut through our everyday, thinking and living. Son of God, Saviour he comes out with words that challenge us. Consider these words from the last supper...

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other."

Those words from Jesus really reach me.  They are the extraordinary statement of the new relationship that exists between humankind and God. They are in a way a declaration of love for humankind. After all true friendship is a love.  There can be a stage in a relationship between two people where it changes and grows and there is a dawning realisation that it has moved on to a deeper level. Sometimes it is verbalised "we are friends"  In a similar way this is Jesus speaking out loud, words of friendship" maybe what he and the disciples might have known in their hearts for some time.

"I call you friends" could be thought just a tiny phrase, words to us  hidden away in a longer speech that Jesus made at that last meal that he had with his companions before crucifixion.  But my belief is that it is very important.  The other things that were said at the meal are also important.  But they all stem from, or are motivated by, the friendship love expressed.  Jesus is the tenderness of God expressed in human form.  Jesus fully human yet fully divine is the message of God for all of us.  He teaches us that God is not too far away for us to reach.  And that His command to love (though difficult) is not impossible.  In fact it is the only thing that can make our lives worthwhile.

Of course the next thought is how do we respond to the friendship that God is offering us.  I was thinking about that and remembered a poem by Kahlil Gibran that I have kept in a little notebook for years.

"and let your best be for your friend.
if he must know the ebb of your tide,
let him know its flood also.
for what is your friend that you should
seek him with hours to kill?
seek him always with hours to live."

That is true friendship - being able to share the good and the bad times. To not shut out a friend is important and a test of friendship. I think if Jesus is a friend I should "seek him always with hours to live" - seek this friend Jesus who has commanded me to love!

Dear Jesus, thank you for your words that challenge us. Help me to respond. We ask your blessing on us in good times and in difficult times. Help us to grow in your love, and rejoice in each other. Amen