A Friend for Jesus
John 15:9-15
Dr. Curtis Fussell
May 10, 2015
Hymns are important in the life of the church. Jesus himself sang hymns. We’re told that
at his Last Supper before they left the meal they sang a hymn. Hymns are important for the life
of the church not only because Jesus sang them, but also because of the sound of the music and
the words. Now I don’t know if you pay much attention to the words when you sing a hymn, but
if you do then you know there’s a lot of theology, a lot of viewpoints in the words of the hymn.
When we choose hymns for worship, we pay attention to the words of the hymns because of their
theological viewpoint. However, if you change only a word here or there in a hymn, you can end
up with an entirely different viewpoint.
For example, we sing in the church that old gospel hymn, “What a friend we have in
Jesus.” And yes, rightly, we sing it with a feeling of warmth and tenderness, as we should. These
words were for this hymn were written by an Irishman named Joseph Scriven. It was written for
his mother to comfort her during an illness she was suffering –which makes it an appropriate
hymn to sing here on Mother’s Day.
It’s also thought that this hymn portrays some of Joseph Scriven’s own faith. He was
engaged on two occasions, but before each wedding, his fiancées died. No doubt, Joseph Scriven
knew himself the comfort of having a friend in Jesus, who bears our griefs.
But, if we changed the words from, “What a friend we have in Jesus”
to “What a friend Jesus has in me”? When we make that simple change, it changes everything. 1
Friends. Everyone needs a friend. Having a friend is important for everyone’s life. A life
without a friend would be very lonely and very sad. We need friends. Friends are important for
us and in our lives.
One of the most intriguing statements in the Bible says that “The Lord spoke to Moses
face to face, as a person speaks to a friend,” Exodus 33:11, and in the book of Isaiah it is God
who says, “Abraham my friend,” in 41:8 [NIV]. It’s a staggering thought.
We regard God as Almighty. God the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. God the
Almighty, who has no beginning and no end. The love of God Almighty. The mercy of God
Almighty. The judgment of God Almighty. Listen, when you stand before God the Almighty
One, you take off your shoes and you bow down. But what about friend of God?
The activity of friend is something Abraham and God or Moses and God have together. I
imagine Abraham with God, not bowing down but sitting down, loosening his prayer shawl,
putting his feet up on the table, sipping his glass of wine. Abraham is not being a Father of a
nation at that moment, and God is not being the Creator. They’re friends. There’s no agenda. No
demands. No jumping through hoops. They are simply being together, the two of them. Helping
and supporting one another. Friends. 2
Now, is being a friend with God a privilege only for the chosen few? Not according to
Jesus. Jesus says, “You are my friends, if you do what I command you.” And what Jesus
commands is this “to love one another.” To be his friends, we have to love one another, as God
loves us, even to the point of laying down, setting aside our former ways of thinking and acting,
for one another. It is an enormous task, and Jesus does not pretend it’s otherwise, but it’s worth
the effort.
Now, I don’t know what your idea of a friend is. I think of a friend as someone I can trust
to listen to my deepest longings and my deepest fears, doubts and hopes, without judgment. A
friend will not say about my hopes and dreams, “That’s silly,” or “That’s stupid.” I think of a
friend as someone who stand by me, support me, cheer me, give me honest advice when it’s not
what I want to hear, with all my warts and frailties, and call on me because they expect the same
support, cheering, respect, acceptance, and honest advice from me.
It’s here now that I have to give a shout-out to Mother’s Day. You see, my mother was
this kind of a friend. My mother was my biggest fan, my biggest supporter, my biggest
cheerleader. She would also give me advice on how I could be a better person, and always with a
twinkle in her eye.
I will tell you this; my mother is my role model for who God is in Jesus Christ. My
mother loved me fiercely, fiercely. And I live in the hope and promise that God loves me fiercely
as well. The issue though is this: do I love God fiercely as well? Do I love God as a friend to
Jesus?
I think we all recognize that it’s hard work to have a friend, it’s hard to be a friend. As the
expression rightly puts it, to have a friend one must be a friend. Indeed, a friend is more than a
noun or even a name. A friend is love in action too. Friend is a verb. To have a friend demands
being a friend, friend is an activity. It takes a lot of time and effort to have a friend and be a
friend. I like the way Facebook has the expression, “friend me.”
No wonder then that it’s normal to have only 1 or 2 close friends. Oh, it’s true we call
many people “friends” –we have church friends, social friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, golf
friends, work friends, card-playing friends, and so on. But, genuine, true friends –only 1 or 2.
That’s all.
But each of us has this one true friend. Jesus. Jesus calls us his friend. It’s true that in his
sermon on the mount, Jesus spoke about a lot of blessings. Blessed are the poor in spirit, because
they are humble and have no need to prove themselves. Blessed are those who hunger for
righteousness, because they are searchers for the goodness of God. Blessed are the peacemakers.
And so on. But here in his farewell speech to all his disciples, not just to the 12 disciples, but to
all his disciples, everywhere and for all time, Jesus says, “I call you friend.” I count this
statement as another blessing. Blessed are those who know Jesus as a friend. Blessed are those
who are a friend to Jesus.
Jesus says, “I no longer call you servants, I call you are my friend.” Now that sounds like
a promotion. 3 We’re no longer servants, we’re now friends of Jesus. How did we earn this
promotion? Well, we didn’t earn it –it was given to us from Jesus. Jesus gave us that promotion,
that title of “friends.” We are now friends.
And it’s so interesting how Jesus makes a contrast between being a servant and being a
friend. Jesus says, “I no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what the
master is doing.”
But I have to tell you, I have spent a lot of my time being a servant. I’ve grown used to
being a servant. As a minister in the Presbyterian Church, I have to abide by the Book of Order
that tells me a whole lot of things I can and I can’t do. I have a Session, a group of 12 Elders who
tell me what I can and can’t do. Then I have all of you who tell me what I can and can’t do. And
of course, there’s my wife, who tells me what I can and can’t do. You see, my role in life is to be
a servant. You’ve probably become use to being a servant as well. I, you, we just obey the rules,
follow orders.
It’s the same in my relationship with God. As a servant I have sought to obey the rules,
follow orders. I don’t lie, cheat, steal, or covet. I don’t use the Lord’s name in vain or worship
other Gods. Well, I know and you know I’m not a perfect servant, but I make every effort to do
what I’ve been told to do. I have striven throughout my life to be a servant.
And as a servant I don’t know what goes on up at God’s house. I just do my work, follow
orders, and go home. I don’t go over the books after hours like the Master does. I don’t make
plans or decisions for the next day for the Lord’s house. I’m just a servant.
But no, that’s not true. Here’s the truth: I’m no longer a servant, I’m a friend with Jesus,
and you’re no longer a servant, you’re a friend with Jesus. And that changes everything. As
friends with Jesus we are not bound by the rules. Listen, someday, and I hope it never happens,
but someday you might have to steal bread to feed someone. Someday, and I hope it never
happens, you might have to lie to protect someone’s reputation, or even their life. You know
Jesus broke the command against working on the Sabbath in order to bring healing to people.
That’s what friends do.
Now obviously there were some good benefits in just being a servant. I don’t have to
know about everything that goes on up at the Master’s house. You know, sometimes ignorance is
blessed.
There’s a scene in the movie, “Forrest Gump” where he’s talking to a man and a woman
on a bench waiting for a bus to take Forrest to Jenny. Forrest is telling them how he and
Lieutenant Dan founded “Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.” The man found that incredulous. I
mean, Forrest doesn’t exactly present himself as a successful business person. So the man stands
up and announces, “We’ve been taking to a millionaire. And we didn’t know it.” And he walks
away. Then Forrest says to the woman, “Do you want to see a picture of Lieutenant Dan?” And
he holds up a Newsweek magazine with Forrest and Dan’s picture on the front cover, identifying
them as the successful founders of the “Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.” Have you ever had that
kind of experience? You are talking to someone and suddenly realize who it is you’re talking to
and it changes your whole approach to that person, because now you know. When you didn’t
know, it was less stressful.
His name is Carl Utley. But I knew Carl when he and I were serving churches in
Greensboro. Carl was committed to mission work down in Chiapas, Mexico. When I met Carl,
he was really gun-ho about serving the improvised people in Chiapas. Carl even enlisted my wife
and two of my children to travel to Chiapas to do mission work there. I didn’t go. I was less
enthusiastic about traveling to Chiapas to do mission work for a lot of reasons. Mainly, I was
simply more content to be a servant where I was.
Carl though was so committed to serving the people in Chiapas, Mexico as a friend. Carl
even spent six months taking a language emersion course on Spanish so he could better serve the
people of Chiapas. When it came to the people of Chiapas, Carl was a child on Christmas
morning. Carl was so enthusiastic about all the people and all the programs that served the
people.
Finally, one day, I had the need to know. “What is there about this mission work in
Chiapas that’s so invigorating? And that’s when I heard friend Jesus say, “Karl is a friend of
mine in these mission trips. Assist him.” And I did. I went on two mission trips to Chiapas,
Mexico and they were some of the most rewarding experiences I ever had. But I never did catch
the kind of enthusiasm that Carl has the work in Chiapas.
I just hope I can continue to hear the voice of friend Jesus. Above all, I hope one day to
be a genuine friend of Jesus. I admit I have a long way to go. There are so many barriers for me
to being a friend for Jesus. I am set in my ways. I tend to see people with eyes of judgment,
rather than with the eyes of the friend Jesus who sees with eyes of love and profound and
generous grace. I tend to ask, “What’s in it for me?” What I need to ask is, “What’s in it for
Jesus?” I hope, maybe one day I can sing and say, “What a friend Jesus has in me.” Because
Jesus says, we are no longer servants; we are friends.
1. Fred Craddock, “The Collected Sermons of Fred B. Craddock,” [Westminster John Knox
Press: Louisville, KY], p. 190.
2. Frederick Buechner “Whistling in the Dark,”
http://frederickbuechner.com/content/friends-0
3. Ibid., Craddock.
4. Ibid., Craddock, p. 191.