Friend Request Pending

In Luke 17 Jesus says " In the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, 'We are good-for-nothing slaves; we've only done our duty.'" When I read this it perplexed me. Aren't we friends of Jesus? Does someone really call their friend a slave?

Back up a little further to understand when and why he was saying this:

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed," the Lord said, "you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.
Which one of you having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he comes in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'? Instead, will he not tell him, 'Prepare something for me to eat, get ready, and serve me while I eat and drink; later you can eat and drink ' Does he thank that slave because he did what was commanded? In the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, 'We are good-for-nothing slaves; we've only done our duty.' " (Luke 17:5-10 HSCB)

Aren't we friends of Jesus? And all the apostles did was ask for more faith. What was wrong with that? The apostles here are asking Jesus to do something for them so that they can gain from it- much in the same way as the man in Mark 9 who says "I do believe! Help my unbelief!" so that Jesus will do something for him right after he says "If you can do anything..." This is why he gives them the analogy of the slave and his master. A slave must first serve his master before he is dismissed to do anything for himself. And even then he should not expect anything special for doing his job. A slave's place is only to serve his master. Jesus is rebuking them for serving out of the desire to gain something.

"Yes, yes" you say, "but why use the slave analogy when they are his friends? They are the closest 12. THE 12." I have heard many people recently and have even lightheartedly said myself "Jesus is my friend." This is based on John 15 where Jesus calls the apostles his friends. So we make the assumption that since we know Jesus we must also be his friends. This is a misunderstanding. (I am not making judgements on anyone's friendship with Jesus, but I am only discussing the basis for the claim.)

Sometimes we forget about the two sentences before Jesus says "I have called you friends." He says, "You are My friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn't know what his master is doing." The word "if" makes the status of "friend" conditional. Also Jesus says "I do not call you slaves ANYMORE..." These words indicate that he called them slaves before this. We are not automatically Jesus's friend.

The timeframe of John 15 is just before Jesus is betrayed in the garden. This means that in Luke 17 Jesus still called them slaves. The transistion to friendship is by doing what Jesus commands for the pure fact of doing what he commands. In Luke 17 the apostles are doing what he commands so they can gain things. He is telling them instead to just do what he commands. Then after they are faithful to do what he commands, he says "You are my friends if you do what I command." And basically "I am letting you know what I am doing because you are my friends." They have obviously been doing what Jesus commands. He commands us to love one another, but this is a discussion for another time.

As "slaves" of Jesus who hopefully wish to become "friends" of Jesus, we must do what he commands with the motive of just serving our master. We do have a reward for our obedience, but if we obey out of our desire for a reward then we are not working out of love for our master. And we cannot become friends with the one who commands us if our goal is a reward and not the master himself.

According to the World English Dictionary a friend is "a person known well to another and regarded with liking, affection, and loyalty; an intimate." It is only by getting to know Jesus's ways by doing what he asks that we come into being able to do them without express commands.Then we can say that we know him to that level so that he no longer asks us to do things. We just know to do them. That's what friends do.