Friendship with Jesus

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father, I have made known to you ... if the world hates you, know that it hated me first ....(Jn. 15:15).

 

When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me, but you also must testify (Jn. 15:26).

 

What if we saw 'religion' as just the invitation to friendship with Jesus?  Somehow, we have not seen it that way at all, but if we look at the Gospels, we see Jesus simply walking the roads of Galilee, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Caparnum,...healing the sick, forgiving sinners, and inviting people to 'follow Me.'  After His Resurrection and Ascension, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the followers/ the church grew in such great numbers that some organization and discipline became a necessity.  But still, the original invitation to encounter the risen Jesus and to enter into friendship with Him never changed.

 

As Richard Rohr points out, the church is but a "holding tank," holding us in place until we grow into spiritual maturity to the point that we can encounter and respond to the living Christ.  Those who see Him as simply a good role-model, as a historical figure like George Washington, have not yet encountered Him as a friend, as a living Person.  If His rising from the dead and appearing to many meant anything, it meant that He continues to walk with us as a friend and companion. 

 

I have a screen-saver that says, "We're all just walking one another home."  So, too, is Jesus with us on a daily basis to walk us home.    The very thing He said to His apostles, He says to us, "I call you friends, because I make known to you all that I receive from the Father."  The Spirit of Truth testifies to us that we are children of God, and every child has a right to know what his Father expects from him.  If the Spirit did not testify in our hearts, we would not be children, but still servants.

 

When we "testify" to Jesus Christ, we are not proclaiming something which others must believe because we say it; we are "testifying," or witnessing to the inestimable riches of walking with God, of friendship with the Holy One of Israel.  I always tell my students that I am not their teacher, that Jesus Himself will teach them everything they need to know, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.  I am there with them as a witness to the truth of the Gospel; I am there to "certify" that what Jesus promised us is true -- because I have experienced it myself.  I am there only to extend the invitation that Jesus offers them:  Come, walk with Me; learn from Me.  I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.

 

Still, some always walk away, just as people walked away from Jesus on earth.  Not all will recognize the Gift He offers us.  Not everyone thinks the "Pearl of Great Price" is worth asking for and receiving.  If we do not know Jesus Christ, as Paul told the Jews, our religion is in vain:  No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code (Romans 2:29).  (The Christian assembly should read "baptism" for 'circumcision' in this passage.) 

 

Jesus came that we might know Him and, through Him, know the Father:  Have I been so long with you, and you still do not know Me? He asked Philip at the Last Supper.  And, If anyone loves Me, he will keep my commands, and the Father and I will dwell in him.  What a promise -- to know the indwelling Presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as companions on the journey of life! 

 

There is still one more aspect of friendship with God -- the world will not receive Him (the Holy Spirit) because it does not see Him or know Him (Jn. 14) -- and it will hate those who do know Him. The early Christians were persecuted by the Jews; then they were put to death by the Romans.  Even into the 21st century, the "world" still persecutes both Jews and Christians, hunting them down and putting them to death, driving them out of their homes and cities.  As Scripture says, The blows of those who hated You have fallen upon me (can't locate the source). There will always be enmity between God and the world, but Jesus is the doorway through Whom we pass from the ways of the world to the ways of God.  Through Him, we enter into the very life of God -- and that friendship that cannot dissolve or pass away is worth any price we have to pay.