As we commemorate Remembrance Day today, these words from Jesus provide motivation, comfort and reassurance for many men and women who have served their country as part of our armed forces, and they form the basis for the well-known Anzac value of ‘mateship’.
Though many today don’t realise it, when Jesus spoke these words, He was telling His own friends about how He would show His love for them.
Only a few days later, these words came true when Jesus gave up His life on the cross to rescue His friends from the power of sin and death.
The amazing truth behind these words is that Jesus’ sacrifice is for us too. After saying this he defined His friends as everyone who follows Him.
That means, that if you choose to follow Jesus then you become one of His friends too, and His death saves you.
Recently, we have seen many members of the armed forces at work in our community, helping to protect houses and infrastructure from the floods.
Alongside them, many regular people from the community have rolled up their sleeves and got to work too, demonstrating their own embracement of the value of mateship and looking out for each other in times of hardship.
One question I’ve heard people ask though is, ‘where was the church when all this was happening?’
It’s a legitimate question, as our society rightly expects that people who follow Jesus will live out His teaching, particularly this call to follow Him in laying down our lives and livelihoods for those around us in our community.
And I’m happy to say that the ‘church’ has been right there alongside their fellow community members, filling sandbags, protecting homes, providing food, clothes and places to stay, and helping with the clean-up afterwards.
You might not have seen them, because in reality, the ‘church’ is simply everyday people who look just like you and me.
We don’t wear our name-badges or flash our crosses or Bibles at people when we come to help out, we just get down to work amongst everyone else, because we are people just like you, and our motivation isn’t to big-note ourselves, it’s simply to love one another as friends just like Jesus has loved us by calling us His friends.
In saying all that, this week a Samaritan’s Purse team, supported by all the churches of Echuca and Moama have set up at Echuca Community Church to co-ordinate volunteer teams to clean-up homes that have been flooded in the Rochester and Echuca-Moama areas.
Samaritan’s Purse is a Christian organisation that has extensive experience in supporting flood recovery across Australia, and so we are excited that they are helping us to reach out to help our community in our time of need.
If you need assistance in cleaning up your property, email NationalDRU1@samaritanspurse.org.au, phone 0460 420 166, or get in touch with a church, and we will help you too.
Donovan Jasper on behalf of the Echuca-Moama Minister’s Association
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