This week i have had several reminders of life-long friendships. This week is the seventy-fifth anniversary of my parents’ marriage. Though they have both now been in heaven for a number of years, the impact of their “lifelong-friendship” continues through the lives of their children, their grandchildren and their great grandchildren. Also, today i had lunch with a friend whose wife suddenly and unexpectedly passed a few weeks ago. The fruit of their life-long friendship will also continue. True friendship lives on. True friendship has purpose. True friendship has lasting impact.
It was a Thursday night, two thousand years ago. Jesus would be arrested in just a matter of hours. The disciples would all abandon Him and scatter before the night was out. At that moment He was the only One who knew what was about to occur, as He and His disciples made their journey across the Kidron Valley from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane. Earlier that night, He showed them that He was their Servant as He knelt before them and washed their feet. Then He explained that He was their Savior as He broke the bread and passed it together with the cup representing His body and blood that would be broken and shed. Though the disciples did not realize it, Jesus was sharing His “last words” with them. They would see Him a few more times after He arose from the grave, but this was His last time to pour into them as their Master and Teacher. For three years He had been their Teacher. Earlier He had shown them that He is their Servant. Tomorrow He would demonstrate that He is their Savior. On Sunday He would show them that He is their Risen Lord. But for now, He wanted them to know that they are His friends. Even though they would abandon Him, He still called them His friends. Jesus said, “ 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” (John 15:15-16).
He called them “friends”. As i hear that word i think of the song of the same title written and performed by Michael W. Smith and his wife, Deborah (lyrics below). Recently, Michael had the opportunity to perform the song at the funeral service for President George H. W. Bush, at the request of the former president before his death. The song was written to pay tribute to a dear friend who was moving away, but it has also been sung, as in the case of President Bush, to pay tribute to a dear friend who has died. At its heart, it is a testimony and tribute to friendship. Friendship that is birthed in the heart and will of God. Friendship that lasts forever, beyond time and space. Friendship that is centered in God’s purpose. And it reflects what Jesus was telling His disciples that night as they walked.
About two thousand years before that night, when God was setting in motion His plan to raise up a chosen people through whom He would bring glory to His Name, He had sought out a friend. And that friend was Abraham (James 2:23). God chose Abraham and appointed him (Genesis 12:1). He wasn’t God’s friend on his own merits. He was a sinner, chosen solely by God’s grace. But God confided in him and told him His plan (Genesis 12:2-3). God chose a friend through whom He would bless “all the families of the earth” (Genesis 12:3).
That night outside of Jerusalem, God was already in the midst of doing a new work. He was preparing to enter into a new covenant through which all the peoples of the earth would be blessed. It would not be a covenant of Law sealed through the shed blood of sacrificial lambs, it would be a covenant of Grace sealed through the shed blood of the Sacrificial Lamb – His one and only Son. Thus God had again chosen friends through whom He would carry out this new work. These were friends with whom He had confided. These were friends that He had chosen – one by one. These were friends into whom He had poured His life. These were friends for whom He was about to die. These were friends to whom He had just promised to send a Helper.
Abraham did not choose to be God’s friend; God chose Abraham. These disciples did not choose to be Jesus’ friends; Jesus chose them. He appointed them to go and produce fruit. He appointed them to go and make disciples. He appointed them to go and spread the Good News.
And His pronouncement of them as friends didn’t stop with those eleven men. He prefaced His statement by saying, “You are My friends if you do what I command” (John 15:14). He also told them, “This is My commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you” (John 15:12). That means that as we follow Him in what He has commanded, we, too, are His friends. As we love each other in the same way He has loved us, we are His friends. As we abide in His Word, He has told us “everything the Father told {Him}”, and therefore He calls us friends – not by our choosing, but by His. And as His friends, He has chosen us to be a people through whom He makes His Name known. We are His friends for His purpose. He is building His Kingdom according to His design, and He has chosen us to be a part of that work as His friends. Friendship that is birthed in the heart and will of God. Friendship that lasts forever – for eternity. Friendship that is centered in God’s purpose.
As you continue in your journey with Him today, remember, He calls you friend!
Excerpts from Chapter 39 of Taking Up The Cross
Friends
Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
I can't believe the hopes He's granted
Means a chapter of your life is through
But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong
And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends
And with the faith and love God's given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you live in
Is the strength that now you show
We'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong
And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends
And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends
To live as friends
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends
No a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends
Written by Michael W. Smith and Deborah D. Smith