DAILY DEVOTIONAL – August 21, 2019
“Friend Me”
Prayer: Almighty God and Father, You reign on High. You are above all things and all people and all powers. There is none mighty like You, none before You and none who come after You. You spoke and the universe came into being. You speak and Your creation listens. When we consider just how small and insignificant we are, we are left in awe and amazement that You would call us friend, and that You made us Your friend by dying on the cross, while still yet we didn’t know You. Jesus, You alone receive our thanks and praise. You alone are worthy. Amen.
Scripture: John 15:12-17
12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 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. 16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Devotion – “Friend Me”
Over the years I have visited quite a few people in the hospital, quite a few of the elderly and quite a few of those who are looking death squarely in the face. I’ll be honest with you, pastoral calls and visits are some of the most difficult parts of the job. There are certainly times of joy and celebration during a pastoral call, but it is not very often your phone rings and you are asked to be present with someone just to celebrate how wonderful things are. That would be nice…but it just isn’t reality.
As difficult as some of the calls to the sick or dying may be, as I look back on my years of ministry thus far, some of the most formative and powerful moments in ministry have happened through the most difficult calls. Moments that opened my eyes to the Truth of God’s Word and the Truth of Jesus more than any amount of theological study could have done.
Recently, I visited an elderly person in the hospital who was really having a tough time. About every 3-4 days they would be in the hospital, sent to rehab, then home and then back to the hospital to repeat the whole process over and over again. As I sat with them in the hospital room we talked about many things, and somehow we got on the topic of friendship. Towards the end of our conversation that was filled with quite a few tangents and detours, the 87 year old member I was visiting said, “I guess what I am trying to say, is…that’s what it’s all about. It’s all about friendship. It’s all about family and friendship.” Pausing for a moment in their thoughts, they then looked me squarely in the eye and said, “And do you know who your friend is pastor? Anyone in need. That’s who your friend is; anyone in need. It doesn’t matter if you know them or their background or whatever, if they have a need they’re your friend, and you help them.”
This well-weathered and lifelong elderly Christian didn’t quote a single Bible verse, but their words were equally powerful and spot on. As I reflected on their words driving home, it dawned on me that I had heard those same words many times before…with little variation…and always from either the elderly or the sick or the dying who were in a unique position to look back on their life, to evaluate life. Their illness or age that made the reality of death front and center allowed them to sift through all the junk and conclude what ultimately matters in life…or as the person I recently visited put it, “what it’s really all about.” It really is all about friendship. True friendship, Biblical friendship, the friendship our Lord had, was not a friendship based on Facebook likes. True, Biblical friendship isn’t even about the friends you have, or how many you do or don’t have. True friendship is about who you are a friend to. Just as the member I was visiting said, “Who is your friend? Anyone in need. That’s who your friend is…anyone in need.”
In our selfishness as sinful people, we by default measure true friendship by how much we get out of the relationship. Case in point: if I were to ask you, “Who are your true, best friends in life? How do you know they are your true friends?” Invariably, a significant part of that measurement would be how that person helped you or made you feel or how they provided what you needed in any number of ways; essentially, our default litmus test for measuring true friendship is to count or measure the benefits we receive.
I’m not sure how many of us would count someone as a true friend who has caused us nothing but grief or stress or pain – and it’s that truth about ourselves and our own sinful nature that makes what Jesus says in our passage from John so absolutely incredible. Jesus says, “You are my friends.” What do we have, or what have we ever had to offer the Living God in the flesh? What could we ever give to Jesus that would be worth even a minute fraction of what God in Christ has given us? The answer is simple; nothing. That’s the amazing part of God’s amazing grace and what makes the Good News of Jesus good. As Christ also said in our text, “You did not choose me. I chose you.” Christ doesn’t call us friend because we proved to be true friends of His before He willingly carried your cross and my cross the top of the hill called Golgotha where He would be crucified for our sins against God and against one another. God and Christ call us friend only because God is love, and Christ is love, and for no other reason than that God chose out of that amazing love and grace to forgive our sins by casting them on Himself. Jesus said in verse 13 of our text, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Christ’s very next words were “you are my friends.”
How do you ever say thank you? How can you ever match the friendship of God given to us in Christ? The truth is friends, we can’t. It’s grace. That’s what it’s all about; God’s pure grace that loves us and forgives us knowing we could never fully repay Him. But that doesn’t mean we can’t express our love and thankfulness to God for His gracious gift. In our text for today, Christ tells us just how we can express that love and thankfulness – by obeying our Lord and Master Jesus who died in our place, by loving one another, by loving those in our life who could never love us back, to be a true friend…and who is our friend? Anyone in need.
Being a friend to someone, being there for someone in their time of need doesn’t always mean you have to give them something physical like money or loan them your car. Even in the most severe of circumstances, even in the midst of the biggest problems, more times than not what a person really needs is small. A hug, a word of reassurance, an ear that will truly listen, a shoulder they can lean on when the load becomes too much to bear, and many times my friends, being a friend to someone in need means just being there.
God calls us friend, and unlike you and I, God always knows what to do and always knows what to say…He even put it in print for us to be able to read anytime we want and need. The God who walked to Calvary’s Hill and laid down His life for you and me calls us friend. We call Him Lord and God and Master and Savior and Father. But amazingly, He calls us friend, and calls us to love and be a friend to others as He has been to us. Who is our friend? Anyone in need. That means everyone is your friend.
God bless you, my friends, and remember that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
