15 May 2020 - I have called you friends

Today's Readings

(Audio)

I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.

Jesus calls us friends. He does this to show the level of intimacy he wants to have with us. It rightly gives us good feelings to hear this. But it is about more than feelings. He tells us we aren't servants so we can stop acting like them. We can stop living from a place where our primary motivation comes from fear and duty and instead becomes a response to his own love for us.

I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.

In real life we tend to move back and forth between these motivations. And it is assuredly better to be his slave or servant than to not follow him at all. But given that he intends for us to be his friends, what can we do to live from that reality more and more?

I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.

The thing that constitutes us as friends is coming to understand the plan of salvation from the Father which Jesus makes known.

In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will (see Ephesians 1:8-9).

His will is not arbitrary. It is not abstract. It does not require a college degree or great intelligence to understand. The core of it is really quite simple.

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

It is the truth expressed in the famous passage from earlier in John's Gospel, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life" (see John 3:16). As we learn more and more about Jesus and his motivation for what he does our own motivation for responding to him begins to change. We act as friends more and more.

This basic idea, that the truths that really matter are truths we can known, and which, when we know them, can set us free, is what Paul and Barnabas were sent to convey.

If you keep free of these,
you will be doing what is right. Farewell.

We don't need to be upset at strange teachings and have our peace of mind disturbed. This, more than simply, a pleasant image, is what it means to be friends of Jesus. 

My heart is steadfast, O God; my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and chant praise.