In classic traditions, friendship was a great gift and treasure and a human pathway to the divine. In the Christian tradition, friendship reveals the grace, love and call of a caring God. God’s friendship is the gift that precedes friendship and makes it possible.
In the relationship between Jesus and his disciples, the switch from being servants to friends is most significant for their relationship. Theologian Jurgen Moltmann believes that in the fellowship of Jesus, the disciples experience him in his innermost nature as Friend.
Open friendship becomes the bond in their fellowship, and most significantly, becomes their vocation in a society still dominated by relationships of masters and servants, helpers and helpees with corresponding inequality of power, freedom and choice.
Long gone is the “camper-helper” relationship. In its place is a cherished friendship of mutual care, enjoyment and conversations about the questions our lives give rise to.
