What a Friend!

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish Sunday, August 18, 2013.  The Bible verses used are John 15:9-17 and Matthew 26:45-50.

As we continue looking at the top songs from our Hymn Hysteria tournament earlier this year, today we're going to talk about What a Friend We Have In Jesus.  This song made it to the Final Four of our tournament, defeating Crown Him With Many Crowns, Jesus Loves Me, He Lives, and even The Old Rugged Cross before losing to How Great Thou Art in the semi-finals.

The words to What a Friend We Have in Jesus were written in 1855 by Joseph M. Scriven.  The tune was written by Charles C. Converse in 1868.  Neither of them wrote any other hymns that are in our hymnal.

Joseph M. Scriven was born in Ireland in 1819 and moved to Canada in 1844.  He never married—he was twice engaged, and had both women pass away before they were married, one by drowning on the eve of their wedding and the other of pneumonia.  After that, Scriven decided to dedicate his life to helping others.  He worked as a teacher and a laborer, but gave away pretty much everything he ever had.

Scriven wrote the words to What a Friend We Have in Jesus as a poem to comfort his mother when she was very ill.  He never thought it would go any farther than that.  He had no idea that the words would be published, set to music, and become a hymn that's still incredibly popular over a hundred fifty years later.

Charles C. Converse was born in Massachusetts.  He was a lawyer who also wrote church music.  He wrote a number of other songs, but none of them ever became famous.  It's not clear when or how he heard of Scriven's poem, but he wrote the tune for it that we still sing today.

It's a wonderful thing, of course, to have Jesus as our friend.  I wonder, though, if we really think often enough about what an incredible, almost unbelievable thing it is that Jesus is our friend.  I mean, most of our friends are people whom we have stuff in common with.  Most of our friends are people we respect and think well of.

Now, think about who Jesus is.  Jesus is the divine Son.  Jesus is God, part of the trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is perfect in every way.

Then, think about who you and I are.  We are, um, not perfect.  Not even close.  We're selfish.  We're easily distracted.  We don't understand what's going on most of the time.  We're weak, sinful people.

When you think of that comparison, we really have almost nothing in common with Jesus.  There's no reason Jesus should respect us.  There's no reason Jesus should think well of us.  And yet, Jesus is our friend.  Jesus wants to be our friend.

And if you doubt that, look at the Bible verses we read today.  Start with the reading from John.  Jesus is talking to the disciples here.  And Jesus calls them his friends.  He specifically says, I'm not calling you my servants.  I'm calling you my friends.  And he says, you did not choose me.  I chose you.  I picked you.  I selected you, specifically, to be my friends.

Now, maybe you say, well, but that was the disciples.  Those were the guys in the inner circle.  Of course, those guys were Jesus' friends.  But think about it.  Who were the disciples, when Jesus chose them?  They were nobody special.  They were just ordinary people, people like you and me.  Some of them were fishermen.  One was a tax collector.  A lot of them, we don't even know what they did.  They were not famous people even while they were alive.

If they had not been chosen by Jesus, nobody would ever have heard of them.  They'd just have been twelve people who lived and died, twelve people out of the billions who've been alive on this planet since the earth began.

Jesus chose ordinary, anonymous people to be his friends.  Jesus still chooses ordinary, anonymous people to be his friends.  People who are nobody special.  People who work on farms, or in stores, or in factories.  People who own businesses, people who are retired, people who are teachers or nurses or bankers.  People who are unemployed or on welfare.  Even people who've been lawyers and preachers.  People like you and me.

And here's the other thing that's incredible, and almost unbelievable, about the fact that Jesus is our friend.  When one of our friends hurts us, do we still consider that person a friend?  Maybe, but it sure puts a strain on the relationship, right?  The closeness is gone.  Sometimes we can get past it.  Sometimes we can forgive and forget.  Sometimes, eventually, the relationship can be repaired.  It takes time, though.  And the deeper the hurt is, the harder it is and the longer it takes.  And if that hurt is the result of a betrayal, that's the hardest thing of all.  It's really hard for us to have someone betrays us and still consider them our friend.

Now look at our reading from Matthew.  Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He's about to be arrested.  This will lead to his being beaten and tortured and eventually killed in a very painful way.  Jesus knows this is going to happen.  He's just prayed that if the Father can find some other way to bring salvation, that God do it that way.  But Jesus knows that's not going to happen.  Jesus makes up his mind to go through with it.

He sees Judas coming with the crowd, with the guards and the priests and the elders.  Jesus watches Judas come up to him.  He hears Judas greet him.  He allows Judas to kiss him, which is the pre-arranged signal Judas had with the guards.

What would we have said to Judas, if we were in Jesus' place?  I mean, even if we were determined to go through with this, the way Jesus did, we would not have been happy about it, would we?  After all, even Jesus was not really happy about it.  So what would we have said?  Would we have gotten mad at Judas?  Would we have warned him about the consequences of what he was doing?  Would we have threatened him?  You and I might have done any of those things and more, if we were in Jesus' place.

I'm guessing none of us would've said what Jesus said.  Jesus said, “Friend, do what you came for.”

Jesus called even Judas his friend.  After everything Judas had just done.  After Judas had just betrayed him.  After Judas had just set into motion all this terrible pain and suffering that Jesus was going to have to go through.  With this betrayal just brand new and fresh, with no time passing whatsoever, Jesus called Judas—Judas—his friend.

What a friend we do have in Jesus.  A friend who will always be our friend.  Jesus will be our friend no matter what we do.  Jesus will be our friend no matter what we say.  Jesus will be our friend no matter what we feel or think.  There is nothing we can do that will make Jesus stop being our friend.  As the song says, we cannot find a friend so faithful as Jesus Christ.

Jesus does bear our sins and griefs.  He carried them to the cross.  It is such a privilege to be Jesus' friend.  Jesus shares all our sorrows.  He knows our every weakness, and yet he still is our friend.  He'll carry our burdens for us.  He'll be our friend even if no one else will.  Jesus will take us into his arms and shield us from everything.

Jesus is our friend no matter what.  But if we really want the full benefits of that friendship, we need to do one thing.  Our song says it, over and over again.  You probably know what it is.  We need to go to Jesus in prayer.

Jesus wants to carry our sins and griefs and burdens for us.  But he cannot carry them for us if we won't give them up.  Think about it.  Have you ever seen someone struggling to carry something, and you offer to help them, and they say, “No, no, I can do it myself.”  And they keep struggling, and you offer again, and they say, “No, no, that's all right, I can handle it.”  We want to help, we want to keep them from struggling, but they won't let us help.

I think that's how it is for Jesus sometimes.  Jesus wants to help us.  Jesus offers to help us.  Sometimes, I think Jesus even begs us to let him help us.  But we don't let him.  We keep insisting on struggling along with the burdens we carry, instead of giving them up to Jesus.  As the song says, we forfeit peace, and we suffer needless pain, by not giving these things to the Lord in prayer.

So what I'd ask you to do, right now, is take a minute.  Think about something you're struggling with.  It could be anything.  You know what it is.  Take that thing, right now, and let it go.  Do what our song says.  Go to Jesus in prayer and give it to him.  Take it to the Lord in prayer.  Do it now.  We'll take a minute to let you.

[a minute of silence comes here]

We will never, in all our lives, have a better friend than Jesus.  A friend who wants to carry our sins, and our griefs, and our burdens.  A friend who knows our every weakness, and who still wants to be our friend.  A friend who is so faithful that no matter what we do to him, even when we deny him, even when we completely betray him, is still our friend.


That's the kind of friend Jesus is.  It's incredible.  It's unbelievable.  But it's true.