(Please read the Scripture passage before reading the homily.)
Lazarus was a friend of Jesus. He died, but Jesus raised him from death and restored him to his family and friends.
Moses was described as a friend of God’s. The ancients considered one they called friend to be a wise person. If you are my friends, I consider you as wise people.
The opposite of being friend is to be slave. Slaves are not considered very smart, even though they may be twenty times smarter and wiser than their masters. A slave, however, cannot be a friend because the slave has to have a different relationship with the master.
The Son, as the heir to the vineyard, has the power to set slaves free. When the Son sets some free, that person is really free, free to become a friend, a wise person.
How does a person become a friend? It is not that you have to act like a friend in order to be a friend. Rather, it is by choice. If we are a friend to somebody, it is because that person has chosen us for friendship.
It is the same with God and Jesus. Jesus says that it is not you who chose me, but I who have chosen you. Jesus looks at us and decides to make us his friends. He chooses us for friendship, not for slavery. He chooses to give us wisdom as his friends. He chooses to walk with us as his friends. He chooses to make us wise because friends are wise people.
It is not “what a friend I have in Jesus”, but what a friend Jesus makes me. It is not our doing, but it is Jesus’ doing.