Over the past two years, I have dedicated myself to the study of biblical friendship. The journey has been consuming and transforming. When I think of Easter, I think about friendship. Jesus did too.
As we travel towards the end of John’s gospel, Jesus has gathered with his disciples in the upper room to celebrate Passover. This event gives the Rabbi one more teaching opportunity before he goes to the cross.
In that upstairs room in Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth, washing feet, breaking bread, and drinking wine, ushers in the new and better covenant for which all creation was waiting. He does it with this staggering announcement:
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be full.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this,
that someone lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know
what his master is doing;
but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father
I have made known to you.
John 15:9-15
In this new covenant, every member of the covenant community enjoys a personal friendship with God.
In this new covenant, every member of the covenant community enjoys a personal friendship with God.
Can I say that again? Because it is a pretty big deal! In this new covenant, every member of the covenant community enjoys a personal friendship with God! How is that possible?
God Saves Us To Befriend Us
Because of Calvary. The cross of Jesus Christ is a cosmic act of friendship. It is the heroic act of Jesus demonstrating the very words that he taught his friends in that upper room when he said in Verse 13 of John 15, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
God saves us to befriend us. Wow. All of those big words from the story of Easter, the doctrine of salvation – redemption, reconciliation, justification, substitution, atonement – the purpose behind all of them, is this cosmic act of friendship. God saves us to befriend us.
We Are God’s Restoration Project
One of my favorite TV shows is Love it or List it Vancouver. My 12-year-old daughter Isabella loves HGTV, and she got me hooked on this property program about guests on a show who invite a realtor and an interior designer into their property journey. While the realtor shows them potential new homes, the designer sets about a restoration project that will see them fall in love with their home all over again.
We are God’s restoration project. The new covenant is established in the context of a new community, the church. This community is given a new commandment – to love one another.
They are a community of friends.
John 15 teaches us that Jesus’ invitation to move from servanthood to friendship is not a throw-away idea but is a development of God’s covenants with his people. Easter is not a stand-alone, random event. It is the epicenter of God’s salvation work among his people. We are building on the sure foundation of God’s promises and presence.
Easter is not a stand-alone, random event. It is the epicenter of God’s salvation work among his people.
When we talk about friendship with Jesus, we are not talking about awkward sentimental relationships but rather tough committed covenantal love.
From Servant To Friend
Almost always, I will choose the movie over the book! I love to read, but if someone is going to turn the text into a film, I will gladly wait and enjoy it on the screen. I have always loved Peter Jackson’s movie version of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and to be honest, they are a lot less work than the heavy lifting of reading Tolkien.
One oversight that is lost in the movie that is much more evident in the book is Frodo Baggin’s relationship with Samwise Gamgee. If you watch the movie only, you might be mistaken, thinking of Sam and Frodo as best friends. Of course, in the development of the plot, this is what happens in the end.
What the book makes crystal clear is that this was not always what the relationship was. Sam was Frodo’s employee, his gardener, his servant. The Lord of the Rings saga’s real beauty, aside from the defeat of evil and Middle Earth’s salvation, is Frodo and Sam’s journey. Their journey is not just from the Shire to Mordor; it is the relational journey from servant and master to friends.
You and I are invited to friendship with Jesus. How is that possible? Because of Easter.
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