Jesus was a friend of John.
Jesus was a friend of Paul.
He was a friend of Matthew, and James on down the line.
I do believe I'd been a friend of Jesus in his time.
Jesus hung with the hard-line gang.
Jesus knew the songs they sang.
Jesus walked with harlots; he ran with the hoodlum kind.
I do believe I'd been a friend of Jesus in his time.
___The words to that song, "Friend of Jesus," have haunted me for about two decades now, since the first time I heard my friend Darrell Adams sing them in our church. When I'm completely honest with myself, I'm not so sure I can sing that song with conviction. Would I have been a friend of Jesus in his time? Would you?
___That song comes to mind this week--Holy Week--every year. In the span of eight days, we recall the throng of people who presumed they were Jesus' friends during his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Their friendship evaporated as the Roman and Jewish authorities set their forces against him. Their friendship diminished by the time he stood alone, on trial. It all but disappeared by the time he hung upon the cross, suspended between heaven and earth between two thieves. And it went into hiding over that weekend, when almost everyone who had anything to do with him laid low, lest they be next on the crucifixioner's list.
___Would I have been a friend of Jesus? Would you?
___Of course, you can interpret "Friend of Jesus" a couple of ways. The straightforward version--the one my friend sings--acknowledges Jesus was a friend to sinners. Jesus chose to be friends with people who needed a friend, and he became their friend.
___So, when you look at it that way, maybe I would have been a friend of Jesus. Jesus could read people the way a grocery store scanner reads a barcode. Maybe he would've seen the need in my life for a truly loving and close friend and responded in compassion. Maybe he would've made me his friend. How about you?
___But when I think of the people who weren't Jesus' friends, I'm not so sure I would've accepted his friendship. Maybe I'm too much like them. The scribes and Pharisees were the good, clean, church-going folk of the day. And they weren't Jesus' friends. They didn't need to be, or so they thought. Their backgrounds, their social standing, their faithfulness to status-quo religion--it all seemed sufficient. So, they didn't see the need for one more True Friend, like Jesus.
___Today, 2,000 years later, we paint these folks with dark hues. They're the villains of the Jesus story, because they were spiritually blind and could not see the Messiah. They rejected him and his friendship. They crucified him.
___But I wonder if I'm different--may I say, "if we are different"?--only because we live on this side of Easter. We already know about Easter and Jesus' victory over death. Consequently, it's much easier to boast: "Yeah, sure, I'd been a friend of Jesus. Just look at me now."
___When we're honest with ourselves, we've got to ask, "If I didn't know what I know now because of Easter, would I have been a friend of Jesus?" If you look at the stories of Jesus closely, you see that two kinds of people initially weren't likely to be friends of Jesus.
___First, some felt they didn't deserve to be Jesus' friends. They were the lame and blind and diseased. The beggars. The social outcasts. The out-and-out sinners. The "hard-line gang." And yet they were the easy marks for Jesus' friendship. Jesus broke down the barriers, and they drank up his friendship like the freshest water in the world. Once they got to know him, they knew he had what they needed--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
___The others who weren't likely to become friends of Jesus--and rarely became his friends--had just the opposite problem. This group felt they didn't need Jesus. We're talking about the "good" crowd. The pious, religious, self-reliant and comfortable. The church-goers. They were a tougher crowd than the down-and-outers, because they recognized no vulnerability, no weakness, no place where Jesus could help them.
___In both regards, not so much has changed. Thousands upon thousands of people don't believe they're worthy of Jesus' love. We live in a merit-based society, so the merit-less (according to social norms) often can't imagine much good for themselves, including friendship with God's Son. On the other hand, the self-reliant "I'll do it myself" crowd is good, secure, steady. They feel they can take care of themselves.
___Do you see yourself in either group? Oh, I know. Most people who read the Baptist Standard already have given their lives over to Jesus. We claim him as our Divine Friend. But the question comes back to us: Do we act accordingly?
___Sometimes, friendships can grow strained. Disagreements and misunderstandings can get in the way. More often, friendships disintegrate for lack of attention. We fail to keep in touch.
___At Easter, we are reminded of Jesus' infinite, self-giving love for each of us. Do we live in gratitude of such an incomparable gift? Do we live as if we are Jesus' friends?
___Would you be a friend of Jesus in this time?
___ —Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
The Baptist Standard