Sunday 17 May - Friends of Jesus

John 15:9-17 'You are my friends ...if you do what I command you'

This has already led to a good discussion at TFG on Sunday! We discussed the many qualities of our friends and then began to consider if Jesus' friendship is different ( as Peter suggested a couple of weeks ago that the peace of Christ transcends human ideas of peace).

Being friends of Jesus implies equality - rather than being slaves or servants that he compared them with. What does this tell us about God? since we believe that in Jesus we see God completely, then surely it implies that God is nota  remote, heavenly being uninvolved with our lives. He certainly doesn't need our friendship, but rather offers us his!

Jesus takes the initiative - 'I chose you...' unlike human friendships where friendship probably grows from shared interests?

Also do friends usually command each other to do something? Yet The command of Jesus is surely paradoxical. 'This is my commandment that you love one another .....as I have loved you'.

And how did/does  Jesus love people? All these words are included as among the last words Jesus spoke to his disciples before his death the next day, giving them great importance, and also just after, in this Gospel only, he had washed the disciples' feet. So there is the paradox of Jesus saying his disciples were not slaves but friends, and yet he, in this acted parable assumed the menial role of a slave.

So how do we describe Jesus' love? Being there for us where we need him most, being there for us 24/7, sacrificial, self giving, unconditional, universal - think of the many instances in the Gospels where he befirended the unloved, the marginalised, those whom it was difficult to love.  God in Jesus became a human being like us to show us his love and give us his friendship and he died to offer us eternal life. So Jesus' love is very costly, self sacrificial - and we are called by him to respond to his friendship by showing that sort of love to others - is that a lot more than being nice to them?

Are we therefore challenged to try to be better friends with God and therefore with each other. Is it really possible to be a Christian and not go to church? Do we need the mutual support from each other and spritual nourishment, as we seek to grow in the love of Christ?

Another challenge this week was 'Go and bear fruit'  - does this challenge us to try to avoid the danger faced by all church congregations, including TFG to be a cosy introverted group forgetting those outside? Are we challenged to share more the love of Christ  with others so that they will see in our friendship more the friendship of Jesus?