“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”. (John 15:15)

In the Gospel of John, we get such an intimate, personal look at the Christ, The Son of Man. He breaks down every wall, every barrier so that everyone has an opportunity to experience new life, new relationship. Thanks to the Word made flesh, we no longer need to be terrified of a task master/slave kind of existence. Still, we mostly view ourselves as servants of the Most High. As wonderful as it is to accept Jesus’ “new” classification of us disciples, we don’t feel worthy. Precisely the point! At our most guilt-ridden, ashamed awareness, Jesus extends a hand of friendship. I derive great comfort at seeing myself as Jesus sees me, as He saw his disciples – not as slaves, but as friends. Now make no mistake: Jesus still asks us to do things. That’s what friends do: enlist each other’s help. In turn, our Master and Friend lets us in on what He has learned from the Father.

Have you witnessed this kind of loving apprenticeship in your own lives? Parents or friends who “take in” one of your friends who is struggling, in desperate need of a mentor? This is what I pray will happen for me as I seek to offer my services as a volunteer for troubled youth. None of us wants to ever again hear about another Dylan Klebold, Dylan Roof, another Parkland or Sandy Hook. Anyone who is baptized, who comes to believe in the only Son of God, is a friend. A neighbor. One for whom Christ died. With that great responsibility comes the amazing, joyous wonder of how any of us is deemed qualified as a friend, not a servant.

I have a “brother Timmy.” A “surrogate nephew Dylan.” They have been the grateful recipients of loving friendship; adoption, if you will. Someone outside of their biological, nuclear family filled the void of nurturing and mentoring that everyone needs in order to truly live. We should consider it the highest honor to be called not servants, but friends of the Christ, the Son of Man. As our brother, He loves us unconditionally.

Pastor Art