Wednesday, April 17, 2024

“There is no greater love than 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 slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15: 13 -17, New Living Translation)

                 With my deepest apologies to Joseph Scriven…
                        What friends we have in Facebook, All our moods and cares we share.
                        What a privilege to carry every thought everywhere.

                Every week, I get many, many requests to add someone to my Friends’ list on Facebook. It’s not that I am all that popular but this blog has a wide audience which I deeply appreciate. I also deeply appreciate the requests. Each person would like a response. They seem like nice people. But I don’t often “accept” them, mainly because I could never keep up with the conversations which they so richly and understandably deserve. I am also a private person and feel uncomfortable sharing personal information with strangers which is itself a sad statement about this day and age of identity theft and the like. Once, one of the people, whom I did accept, relentlessly tried to sell my bit coins. I also have a few people whom I do know but whose accounts have been hi-jacked by AI or something and they too, under the phony guise of friendship, try to sell me stuff.

So, apologies to all of you, I seldom go too deep into the Facebook catalogue of Friends. But thank you for asking! It is great to hear from you! Blessings on you all!

Jesus was into choosing friends long before Facebook. In our text from John’s Gospel, Jesus describes his friendship with the disciples. He has confided in them the plan of God to save the world. He has shared with them the Good News of God’s Love and Mercy. He has broken bread with them, washed their feet, and given them the keys to the Kingdom. His friendship has embraced them even in their worst moments as disciples, offering second chances and complete forgiveness.

All friendships are two-way relationships. Just as there is certain responsibility if I accept someone on Facebook as a friend, Jesus seeks the disciples’ reciprocity in their relationship with them. Jesus asks them to do as he has taught and commanded them under the most important of commandments: Love each other. But more than just that (and that alone would be amazing), Jesus’ disciples are to go out into the world and bear fruit. They are to show that they are friends with Jesus through their compassionate deeds, good works and sharing of the Good News.

                Real friendships are not as easy as a click on Facebook. They are not casual. They are not flippant. When we unfriend someone for real, it is hurtful and harmful. Sadly, I have done that. Real friendships should be able to accept the ugly along with the good with our friends. Jesus knew these twelve men were far from perfect. Their friendship didn’t carry them through to the Cross. They betrayed him; they denied him; they abandoned him. Yet, they were among the first to experience the Resurrection and to encounter him in deeply personal ways. He prepares a breakfast for them and once again, creates new bonds of friendship and fellowship. All is forgiven! Amazing grace, indeed!

                Let’s be careful here, though. Jesus isn’t our pal, our buddy, our BFF (well, maybe he is our BFF but not in some frivolous way). But Jesus is a friend who understands us and accepts us as we often are, who encourages us to better than we often are, and speaks honestly to us when we are less than what we should be.

I have found Jesus to be a great conversationalist at times, but he expects me to listen and pay attention. He speaks his mind, shares his expectations, holds me accountable, demands my best, seeks my welfare, knows my heart, mind and soul. I can talk to him about anything and everything. “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” (Romans 5:11)

            So, thank you, Joseph Scriven for these words:   

                What a friend I have in Jesus,
                All our sins and griefs to bear.
                What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.
                O what peace we often forfeit.
                O what needless pain we bear.
                All because we do not carry
                Everything to God in prayer.

Dale