Friday, May 11, 2007
(John 15)
We can note a certain tension in the New Testament that the gospel today suggests. In different places Paul calls Christians “slaves of Christ” (I Cor 7: 22 et al.) while John quotes Jesus today as saying that he does not consider his disciples slaves but friends. How should we accommodate this difference of perspective?
There is no inherent contradiction in being Christ’s slaves and his friends. A slave can win the confidence of his or her master to be treated as a friend or even as a relative. I once read the story of a slave in a Georgian Catholic family who so loved her masters that she stayed with them after Emancipation and eventually was buried in the family plot.
In calling Christians “slaves of Christ” Paul means to emphasize that we follow Jesus unreservedly. If he tells us – as he does – that it is a sin to divorce one person to marry another, we do not divorce, at least in the sense that the word is interpreted by the Church. In calling his disciples “friends” the Jesus whom we meet in the Gospel According to John means to underscore his confidence in us. He trusts us implicitly to understand his words and to carry out his will.
The two terms – slaves and friends – should be seen as complimenting one another. At times we may have difficulty comprehending what Jesus means. It is hard, for example, for the family of a murder victim to pray for the perpetrator of the crime. Yet they do so out of faithfulness to their master. Most of the time, however, we can reflect on and appreciate the wisdom of Jesus, our friend, when he shares with us, for example, how we eat his body to have eternal life.
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