Followers of Jewish rabbis were considered to be slaves to their teacher. But with Jesus, we see a friendship forged by sacrifice. The night before Jesus was crucified, He celebrated a Passover meal with His disciples. There, Jesus had washed their feet, warned one of them would betray Him, and that Peter would deny Him. Before the group went to pray in Gethsemane, Jesus tried to prepare His disciples for what was to come.
He urged them to stay connected to Him like a branch does to a vine. He wanted them to be fruitful and especially bear the fruit of love. This would enable them to obey God’s commands and bring them joy. Jesus told them His relationship with them was changing, and now they were friends.
John 15: 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.[1]
The Cross Enables a Relationship With God
Jesus had spent three years with these disciples as He revealed things from the Father. Slave owners don’t confide in their slaves but require unconditional obedience from them. Friends share confidences and possessions, and in extreme cases, are willing to lay down their lives for a friend. This was the kind of friend Jesus was. In less than twenty-four hours, Jesus would die on the cross.
But there was a condition to this friendship. Jesus gave commands, and the disciples were to obey them. We are sinful human beings and often fail to obey. Jesus doesn’t stop loving us, but this disobedience keeps us from experiencing His love. The solution to this problem was Jesus paying the blood price for our sins on the cross.
Romans 5: 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.[2]
Friends of God
The Jewish people of Jesus’ time reserved the term friend of God for great leaders of the past like Abraham and Moses. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, the disciples then and we now can become the friends of God. Our part of the friendship may also mean sacrificing our wants and desires to obey the will of God. Our relationship with God is a friendship forged by sacrifice.
To learn, listen here:
https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/becoming-like-jesus
[1,2] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers.