I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for every thing that I learned from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-- fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. (John 15:15-16)
When Jesus saw the crowd around Him, He gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to Him and said, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head." Another disciple said to Him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus told him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." (Matthew 8:18-22)
In this past Sunday's sermon, Pastor Martha pulled a phrase from John 15:15: I call you friends, and I will make known to you. The implication, found not just there but throughout the Gospels, is that there are plenty of people eager to be servants, but not so many that are called friends.
A servant does not know his master's business. What a plea for intimacy! The parable of the talents (see Matthew 25:14-30) does a lot of talking about servants. And two of the three servants successfully did the business of trading for the master, but doing the business is not equal to knowing the master's business. Knowing requires "insider knowledge"; it requires private conversation, confidentiality, trust, faith. The strength of true success in God's business is worked out in the private wrestlings of spiritual disciplines like those found in Matthew 6: praying, giving, fasting.
We in the Church are implicated. Serving is second nature to many of us. We have ushered for so long, played music for so long, preached for so long, that it has become routine. We are doing the business, and many of us are excellent at doing the business. But our pastor reminded us, backed by the word of God, that our Jesus has hand-picked some people that He calls friends, and that He has appointed them to know-- to have a depth of understanding that only comes from spending much time in the secret place of prayer. In the proverbial field of barren trees that mark the carnal church, these few friends of Jesus are productive, bearing "fruit that will last".
Jesus is able to look and see who His friends are, where the fruit is, and where the fakes flourish. To the brash and overconfident servants, Jesus says: You think you're able to follow Me wherever I go, without My having equipped you? You think you're able to step in and out of this faith journey as you please? Guys, it doesn't work that way. To the chosen disciples, He says: Follow Me on My terms, and I will prune you so that you become a fruit-bearer for My kingdom. It won't be easy. But you will know Me intimately and we will love each other deeply.
A prophetic plea for 2013: Less rote serving. More real knowing.
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