Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 42 – July 1978
What A Friend
Sermon by Rev. J. H. Derkley, Th.Grad. on John 15:15
Scripture reading: John 15:1-17
Psalter Hymnal: 222:1-4; 389:1, 2; 389:3; 384; 436; 441
Congregation of the Lord Jesus,
What is your relationship with Jesus? It makes you sometimes wonder, when you ask yourself this question. Yes, indeed, what IS my relationship with Jesus? IS there a relationship? DO I have any personal contact with Him?
Some regard their relationship with Jesus as comparable to that between me and the Prime Minister. He is at the top, I am at the bottom end. He’s got all the goodies, I have to pay for them in my tax. In know his face, all too well, maybe. He doesn’t know mine, is not interested in it either.
Perhaps some feel the relationship to Jesus more like that of the defendant in the box of the accused toward the judge on the bench. You have to be very careful what you say and how you say it, you should make sure you get a good lawyer, for one slip and you are convicted and harshly sentenced for things you did not intend to be bad – they only turned out bad; you couldn’t help it.
There are those who feel their relationship with Jesus more in the line of that of a boss – the big boss – and a labourer, without the benefit of an active trade union steward. The boss decides and you have got to do it, whether you like it or not, whether you think it is useful or not. Mostly I don’t like it. Often I cannot see the need for it. Often I am not going to do it anyway. But I always realize that finally I will be in trouble.
As that boy said, “It looks so nice in the Bible: ‘Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the way of your heart and the sight of your eyes’. Beautiful! Free ticket, a blank cheque, do as you please! The trouble is the rest of the verse: ‘But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgement.’ There goes your freedom again.” For God holds the pay-envelope, the whip-hand, the gates of heaven, or whatever He holds to make me toe the line. I may even come to resent Him. But I cannot get away from Him; He is the Boss.
Or perhaps, without changing the picture, you may regard Him as the Boss indeed and yourself as the servant and you may be quite definite that this is as it should be. “Remember your Creator…!” shows our littleness, dependency, humbleness over against God’s greatness, mastery, majesty. I am only the works of His hands; He is the Master-Potter, I am the clay. “As the eyes of servants look to the hand of the master, as the eyes of the maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God – till He has mercy upon us.” That is humility, that is knowing your place, that is the correct attitude, for the Bible itself says so. He is the Master, I am the slave. What I hope for is only mercy. Mercy, nothing more. That’s my relationship with the Lord. Very humble, very Biblical.
It also means that I leave everything in His hands. HE knows best! I am not going to advise Him; not even in my prayers am I going to suggest what He should be doing in my particular problems – I leave it all to Him. After all, He is in charge, He knows best! I leave it all to Him. And besides, where would I get the nerve to imagine that He would consult me – ME! – in His management of the world, or of the Church, or even of my own life? I know my position, I know my limitations, I know my Bible. God does not need my advice, nor does He want it.
This may sum up the relationship with Jesus for many, many people, one way or another. Anything more than that appears to be presumptuous.
But Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants”, or slaves, or abject housemaids, or mindless labourers. No longer. That means formerly it may have been appropriate, but that time is past. In other words: Jesus introduced a change. Why? Why that change? Jesus said these words at the first Lord’s Supper, at the closing chapter of His earthly ministry. Three years long He had shown them what God had in mind when He promised salvation to Adam and Eve, to Abraham and Moses, to David and Isaiah. Three years long He had been busy to reveal God’s plan of salvation. And soon He was going to the cross. Soon His disciples were going to be so utterly confused by the turn of events that suddenly they could not understand any more what’s what. Very soon, that same evening.
Then, at that time, Jesus said, “I am the true vine… abide in Me… I love you… – I don’t call you servants any more, I call you My friends.”
He said these words just before they were to nod away while He was in agony in prayer, just before they would run for their lives when the going became hot; just before one would swear like a dockworker that he had nothing, but nothing to do with “that Man”, just before they were all going to leave Him to fight it out for Himself and – as Jesus Himself phrased it – be offended at Him. Even when Jesus knew that all this was going to happen very soon, He said to His disciples, “As from now on I call you My friends.”
In our good moments it may happen to occur to us how much is lacking in our lives. We may realize how little gain we are to the Lord. Instead of an asset we are a liability. Instead of bringing honour to Him we create dishonour. We may hope that the Church may grow, but we ourselves are often dragging it back. We may sing “Onward Christian soldiers” but we act like the gossiping home front. We may pray “Lord of harvest, send forth reapers”, but we think “as long as You don’t send me.” In these good moments we may despair and wonder what Jesus will think of us. Useless servants? Unintentional, but nevertheless, actual traitors? Will He say to us, “Away with you, I have never known you”? For what do we have to offer him?
Sometimes we can find it difficult to sing those loved words “what a Friend we have in Jesus”. How dare we assume friendship between Him and us. Friendship, if it is to be real friendship, is like love: it has to come from two sides. It comes alright from Him, but OUR side is so often weak, corrupt, limping. That is why we rather sing “Thy love to me” than “My love to Thee”. We feel ashamed of the quality of our love or friendship which we offer in return.
At the time when the Lord Jesus spoke, the word “friend” had a meaning somewhat different from what we understand by it nowadays. The Greeks used the term “friend” for a person who could help you along in the world – something like we now say when somebody makes rapid promotion: “He must have influential friends”. In such a case to declare someone a friend meant that you expect or hope that he will be of benefit to you. Jesus indicated that same sentiment among the Jews of His time when He referred to inviting people for dinner: “Don’t invite those who will invite you back, don’t prepare dinner to get a hopefully better dinner (and influential promotors) in return.” When you invite people invite the poor, the lame, the never-has-been, the outcast. Don’t look for friendship with “people-that-count” but offer your friendship to “people-that-don’t-count”. In other words, Jesus changed the principle of friendship with the intention of getting ahead in the world into friendship with the aim of helping others. That is the way Jesus spoke – and speaks! – to His disciples; that is the way Jesus offered – and offers! – His friendship to Peter and Thomas, and to you and to me.
And when we look at it now, we see how Jesus put His own principle into practice: He offered His friendship to people who would never be able to repay it, to people who – humanly speaking – were not worth it, who were a liability rather than an asset. The only reason why He offered that friendship to them was His love for the lost. He had called them, lost men, to be with Him. They had responded. With all their weaknesses and their sins they obeyed when they heard the call, “Follow Me!” They had come to confess Him, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Even though at times they weren’t so sure what the future would hold, when Jesus asked them whether they also wanted to go away, they cried, “To whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life!”
They clung to Him. No asset; No! For their sins were not merely weaknesses which have to be tolerated. Jesus was going to be overwhelmed with their sins. These sins would not merely make His life unpleasant, they were going to be the cause of His death. Exactly to these men Jesus said, “From now on I call you My friends.” He still says to anyone today, “Come to Me; you are My friend.”
Someone explained it beautifully, “Lovers face each other, utterly rapt in each other. Friends stand side by side, rapt up, engrossed in something that interests both of them.” We can also say, more in line with our text: “Employers, masters, slave-owners stand in front of their workers, pointing out what they have to do. Friends are standing side by side, enthusiastic about something they share.” So Jesus turned to stand side by side with His disciples, with you and me, with Nathanael and Matthew, sharing with us in the matter of His and our interest. Directing our eyes towards His Father, and to the works of His Father. “All that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” That’s the object of His interest and the interest of His disciples, His friends. That is what binds them together utterly enraptured: the works of God.
And these works were just about to be unfolded in their greatest glory: the Cross. But also the open grave. Gory death, but also glorious resurrection. Reconciliation, but also justification. Salvation, but also sanctification. No longer something outside ourselves, over our heads, beyond our view. No longer so! Now the servant-turned-friend may look and understand and marvel and exult. What prophets inquired into and did not get the answer, what angels loved to look into, servants-turned-into-friends may see, clearly, revealed to them. They are no longer the workers-because-we-have-to-but-we-cannot-care-less. They have become the friends whose eyes are all a-sparkle while they are looking at what God’s hands have been doing, complete with full step-by-step explanation of every detail of that marvellous work: the salvation of man. Not merely the works of the past, but also of what God is doing today, in the world, in the Church, in you and in me. Utterly rapt up, fascinated. ARE YOU?
Friendship is not a one-sided affair. Although it started with Him and remains HIS gift all along, it must reflect in those He offers His friendship to. This standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Jesus, this all embracing fascination about God’s work, this willingness and desire to live as real friends of the great Friend.
DO YOU HAVE IT?
Even when now we must confess our lack….
What a Friend we have in Jesus
ALL our sins and griefs to bear;
What a privilege to carry
EVERYTHING to God in prayer.
AMEN.