Jesus spoke these words when he was hours away from death, and he describes his relationship with us as "friends."
As it is commonly used, that word may seem a bit too thin to describe Jesus' relationship with us. (Actually, the Greek word John uses is from the root meaning "love" and might be better translated "beloved.")
What is it like to be friends with others? We share things with them that we share with no one else. We share the good news and the bad news. We trust them. We accept one another, we help one another. We like to be together. We have fun together. We look forward to talking and being together.
That applies to us and Jesus, even if it seems too good to be true. We can tell him anything just as we would a friend. We can talk with him that way, that often ... and about things that aren't always so important.
Jesus was talking about a very adult, honest-to-goodness relationship with people he loved.
That's us. And because we're friends, we can tell Jesus how we really feel, sometimes confused, sometimes angry with him. We need to tell him when we're scared.
And we need to tell him that we love him.
It's what good friends do.
- Little White Book, Diocese of Saginaw