Day 6 – February 28, 2010
Christ Befriended the Friendless
Scripture: John 8: 3-11
One day the scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman taken in adultery. Jesus said, “He that is
without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” They who heard it, convicted by their own
conscience, went out one by one; and Jesus was left with the woman. Then he asked the woman: “Where
are your accusers? Has no man condemned you?” She said, “No man, Lord.” And Jesus said: “Neither
do I. Go and sin no more.”
Religious people brought this woman to Jesus.
Not long ago a woman committed suicide. She said she had served a jail sentence, and no one would help
her. Everyone turned against her. Another woman in Pennsylvania had been out of jail for a year, and no
one had spoken to her.
Judas came with the mob to take Jesus to the house of the chief priest to be put on trial. He had betrayed
Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Yet Jesus called him “friend.” Jesus knew that soon the men who
conspired with Judas would turn against him. Judas lost his place with the disciples. He lost his place with
the scribes and chief priests.
Jesus died on the cross between two thieves. Around the cross was the sneering mob, gambling soldiers,
arrogant priests. One thief said to the other, “We did justly, this man unjustly. Lord, remember me.”
(Luke 23: 40-43) Jesus answered, “This day you shall be with me in Paradise.” The thief found a friend in
Jesus.
Jesus calls us friends if we do what he commands us. “I call you not servants, for the servant knows not
what his Lord does.” (John 15:15) Jesus said, “But I call you friends because I have imparted to you all
that I have learned from my Father.”
So many of your children, our Father, think they are in a friendless world. May they find in us friends to
help them along life’s toilsome way. Amen.
Harry Denman
(Prophetic Evangelist: The Living Legacy of Harry Denman, 1993)
