I call you Friends

Renée Antrosio – August 19, 2025 1 Comment

I have been thinking about the role of “friend” these past weeks as our cribbage friendship group morphed into an end-of-life care group. None of us anticipated this shift, though I probably should have seen it coming when I agreed to become healthcare power of attorney for the 75 year old with no family nearby. The learning curve has been steep; medical social work and school social work are very different realms. 

But the spiritual role of friendship was one I had not considered either. As my friend was shaking and panicking about being alone and in pain, he implored me to help him make the “right” decisions, saying seriously that he trusted me with “his soul”. What a weighty responsibility! 

Another believing friend and I kept vigil through his last days, reading him Psalms and scriptures, thanking him for his friendship and the many things he taught us about cribbage and moonflowers, and singing to him of the love of Jesus. Contemplating our spiritual role, she reminded me of the story of the men who carried their friend who was paralyzed, how they were willing to tear up the roof to open a pathway to Jesus. 

Some men were bringing a man who was paralyzed, lying on a cot. They wanted to carry him in and place him before Jesus, but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they took him up on the roof and lowered him—cot and all—through the roof tiles into the crowded room in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Luke 5:18-20 (CEB)

I think about the different ways we can become paralyzed- by illness or accident, by fear, by our past, by our sins. How we all need friends who will carry us, overcoming whatever obstacles, in order to place us at Jesus’ feet where we can be seen, forgiven, and healed. 

Jesus saw the faith of the friends on behalf of the paralyzed man- who perhaps could not muster the faith himself- and Jesus granted forgiveness because of their faith and persistence. As we sang to our friend- Turn your Eyes Upon Jesus, Precious Lord take My Hand, Come into My Heart, and more- we opened up the roof to place him before Jesus. By faith we knew that it was our sacred responsibility to carry him, and by faith we believed that Jesus would see him and call him Friend- forgiving sins and welcoming him into the holy presence. 

Jesus also calls us friends, which seems quite the honor and responsibility as well:

I have said these things to you so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete. This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I don’t call you servants any longer, because servants don’t know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because everything I heard from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:11-15 (CEB)

There’s that word joy again. Jesus’ joy in us, and our joy completed in him, just as he explains what kind of friendship love he is modeling. It is no light matter to be a friend of this kind, and yet Jesus describes it as joy. 

It has been an honor to accompany our friend through his final days on earth and feel the Holy Spirit at work in and through us. And, I daresay it was even a joy. Such are the mysteries of this life of following Jesus.

May we grow in friendship with Jesus and with others, embracing the joy and the love of this great calling. –Renée