09 May 2021

Living and Abiding in the Friendship of Christ Jesus

Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, has come by the Water of His Baptism, by the Blood of His Cross and Passion, and with His Spirit by the Gospel, in order to love you and abide with you.  He has come to befriend you — that His joy may be in you, and that your joy should be made full in Him, no longer driven to and fro by covetous desire, but content and at peace in His friendship.

His joy is found in faith and love, as He always abides in His Father’s Love for Him.  He trusts His Father’s Word and promises, and so He has kept His Father’s commandments from the Waters of His Baptism to His Blood shed on the Cross.  He went to His death in the hope of the Resurrection.

And the Father loves Him faithfully, forever and always.  He has raised Him up again and poured out the Spirit upon Him, so that His risen and glorified Body is the Fruit of the Cross that remains.

You, then, abide in His Love, and avail yourself of His Love for you in the Liturgy of His Gospel.  Rest yourself in His Love for you by trusting His Word and promises to you — from your Baptism even to your death.  And, so also, keep His commandment.  Love one another, as He loves you.

He has called you His friend.  And what does that mean?  He has made you a member of His own household and family, a comrade within His inner circle.  He has made you His own brother in the fullest sense of that word.  So does He make common cause with you.  He bears your burdens as though they were His very own; and He lays down His life for you, in order to spare you and save you from death and the grave.  That is the height of genuine friendship, as even the ancient pagans were able to understand in their own way.  But now the Lord Himself has called you His friend.  He values you and your life with His own Life, and He thereby makes you equal to Himself.

He loves you with His Father’s Love for Him.  And consider what a remarkable thing that is — that God the Son should love you with the very Love that God the Father has for Him.  But that is the case.  Everything that Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, has heard and received from His Father, He speaks, reveals, and gives to you by the Ministry of His Gospel.  He is not selfish or greedy.  He does not horde or hide His stuff from you.  He does not argue and fight to take anything away from you, or to keep anything to Himself.  But whatever is His own, whatever belongs to Him, He shares with you, also.  From the fullness of His joy He pours out Himself and His Life for you.

As He Himself has come in the Flesh to save you by the Water, by the Blood, and with the Holy Spirit, so does He now give Himself to you by the Water, by the Blood, and with the Holy Spirit.

He preaches Peace by His Gospel of forgiveness.  He calls you to repentance and to faith, that you might receive and rejoice in what He gives you freely by His grace.  He pours out His Spirit upon you with the new language of His Cross and Resurrection, with the speaking of His Atonement.

He speaks of your Redemption by the Word of His Cross, and it is so.  He declares you righteous by the Word of His Resurrection.  He sanctifies you with the Spirit by the preaching of His Gospel.

He preaches the Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And to you who are baptized, He calls you back to the waters of your Baptism, that is, not to be re-baptized, but to contrition and repentance, to confession and absolution — to be cleansed by the One who loves you to the end.

As He has made you His disciple by His Word and Holy Spirit, by Holy Baptism and ongoing catechesis in His Name, so does He invite you to eat and drink with Him in His Resurrection from the dead — and not only to eat with Him, but to eat His Body given and drink His Blood poured out — that He should thus abide in you, and you abide in Him, body and soul, now and forever.

He thereby fills you up with the fulness of His joy.  Indeed, He fills you up with Himself, with His Flesh and Blood, His Body, Soul, and Spirit.  Thus do you overflow with His divine and holy joy, in much the same way that His Chalice overflows with His grace and great salvation for you and for the many.  You overflow with His joy in the Father and the Holy Spirit, and you pour yourself out in love for others — in love for your neighbors — whom you befriend with the Love of Jesus.

Thus do you keep His commandment to love one another, as the Lord Jesus loves you.

His commandment is not burdensome.  It is not a command of the Law, as it were, in the sense that you should make yourself righteous by keeping it.  Nor is it the command of a master to his slave, as though you were shackled and chained and compelled to obey, under threat of punishment.

His commandment is rather that of a close friend and confidant, the word of a comrade in arms, like soldiers communicating with each other as they execute maneuvers, each serving his own role.  Like teammates coordinating a play on the field or the court.  If you threw a pass to your teammate, or kicked a pass in soccer, can you imagine your teammate regarding that pass as some kind of law, as a burden?  No, not at all!  So, again, this commandment of Jesus is more like musicians playing in tune, in harmony with each other — like dancers moving together with beauty and grace, one of them leading with confidence, the other following his lead with poise — or like partners, first planning and then putting into practice some great endeavor or some grand adventure.

His commandment is that you should be with Him, and that you should be and do like Him.  For He has befriended you, and He would have you be His friend.  Not because He needs your help.  He does not offer you a contract or a bargain.  He befriends you solely for the sake of His Love.

He has already done and accomplished everything on your behalf.  But now, in His Love, not only does He give you this great work of His by grace; He actually draws you into His life and work, that you should live and abide in Him and work with Him.  He first of all gives you all the credit for His work, and He gives you all the benefit and profit of His work, as though you had done it.  And now He works in you and through you, that you should bear good fruits after His own kind.

He has chosen you in love.  He has called you His friend.  And He has appointed you to go and do likewise for your neighbor — that is, to befriend your neighbor within your own calling and station in life, that you might show yourself to be a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, this isn’t anything like a “friendship” on Facebook or any other social media platforms — though many of us are active on social media, and to be sure, those arenas can also become a part of all that we’re talking about here.  It is possible to love and serve your neighbors and to nurture your relationships in those forums.  But in the main, the friendship of Jesus is quite different.

His friendship is not a case of self-promotion or a popularity contest.  It is, rather, a true friendship of self-giving and self-sacrifice for others.  That is the way Jesus has befriended you, and that is the way that you are to love and befriend your neighbors.  It’s not a matter of begging or expecting others to do this or that for you, but simply doing for your neighbor.  It is coming alongside your neighbor, in order to share and carry his burdens.  It is spending your life in love for your neighbor, not because she has been “friendly” to you, but in order to befriend her.  It is making friends by being a friend, not emotionally, but actively; not for the sake of some “return on your investment,” but from the overflowing fulness of joy in Christ Jesus, in the peaceful contentment of His Love.

Friends of God, let His Love have its way with you, and so love one another, as He is loving you.

Abide in His Love by resting in His Gospel.  That is a kind of active passivity, by which you avail yourself of His means of grace, His free gifts.  Listen to His preaching.  Remember your Baptism, and return each day to the dying and rising that He shares with you and works in you by His Word and Spirit.  Eat His Body and drink His Blood, as He serves you here at His Table in His House.

Pray to the Father in His Name.  Pray in the confession of His Name, that is, according to the Word and promise that He has spoken to you.  Pray in the faith and confidence of your Baptism into Him.

Abide in His Love by living and working within your own office and station, in the confidence of His calling and His faithfulness — as Christ Jesus Himself also went forward from His Baptism in the Jordan River to His Cross and Passion, in the Way of Life His Father laid out before Him.

Live in the sure and certain confidence of your Father’s Word and promise, who has called you His own beloved and well-pleasing child.  Know that the work He has given you to do is pleasing in His sight, and it is productive, accomplishing His purposes; for He is with you in that work, which He Himself has prepared for you and given you.  Your labors in the Lord are not in vain.  There is meaning and a point to it all, and the fruits of your good works remain forever in Christ Jesus.

Live in the confidence of His grace, mercy, and forgiveness.  For not only does He fill up whatever is lacking and make amends for whatever is amiss, but He also freely and fully removes all of your sins and failings.  He does not hold your faults against you, nor does He even consider them at all.  He rather cleanses you of all unrighteousness by the Water, Blood, and Spirit of His Passion.

Live, therefore, in the confidence that your God and Father loves you for the sake of His beloved Son, Christ Jesus.  He does not cast you away from His presence, but He hears and answers your prayers and provides for all your needs.  Always there is the loud and resounding “Amen!” of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.  So does the Lord save you, according to His mercy.

Live in the confidence, which is your sure and certain hope, that He will raise you up — day by day and always and forever.  The One who promises is faithful, and He will do it.  Because you also are among the good fruits that Christ Jesus bears by the Tree of His Cross; and so it is that you shall remain forever in His own Resurrection from the dead, abiding in Him as He abides in you.

That is the testimony, the pledge, and the gift of His Water, His Blood, and His Spirit, which He pours out upon you here, and into you, body and soul, for the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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