Personal Friendships of JesusMiller, J. R. (James Russell)
Philosophy
Personal Friendships of Jesus
Miller, J. R. (James Russell)
Jesus Christ -- Friends and associates
We can imagine that when the truth of the resurrection began to be
believed that morning, Peter wondered how Jesus would receive him. But
he was not long kept in suspense. The women who came first to the
tomb, to find it empty, received a message for "the disciples _and_
Peter." This singling out of his name for special mention must have
given unspeakable joy to Peter. It told him that the love of Jesus was
not only stronger than death, but also stronger than sin. Then,
sometime during the day, Jesus appeared to Peter alone. No doubt then,
in the sacredness of love, the disciple made confession, and the Master
granted forgiveness. Several times during the forty days Jesus and
Peter met again. The friendship had not been marred by death. The
risen Lord loved just as he had loved in the days of common human
intercourse.
One of the most interesting of the after resurrection incidents is that
of the walk to Emmaus. Cleophas and his friend were journeying
homeward with sad hearts, when a stranger joined them. His
conversation was wonderfully tender as he walked with them and
explained the Scriptures. Then followed the evening meal, and the
revealing of the risen Jesus in the breaking of bread. Again it was
the same sweet friendship which had so warmed their hearts in the past,
resumed by the Master on the other side of death.
It was the same with all the recorded appearances of Jesus. Those who
had been his friends previous to his death found him the same friend as
before. He took up with each of them the threads of affection just
where they had been dropped when the betrayal and arrest wrought such
panic among his disciples, scattering them away, and went on with the
weaving.
May we not conclude that it will be with us even as it was with Jesus?
His resurrection was not only a pledge of what that of believers will
be, carrying within itself the seed and potency of a blessed
immortality, but it was also a sample of what ours will be. Death will
produce far less change in us than we imagine it will do. We shall go
on with living very much as if nothing had happened. Dying is an
experience we need not trouble ourselves about very much if we are
believers in Christ. There is a mystery in it; but when we have passed
through it we shall probably find that it is a very simple and natural
event--perhaps little more serious than sleeping over night and waking
in the morning. It will not hurt us in any way. It will blot no
lovely thing from our life. It will end nothing that is worth while.
Death is only a process in life, a phase of development, analogous to
that which takes place when a seed is dropped in the earth and comes up
a beautiful plant, adorned with foliage and blossoms. Life would be
incomplete without dying. The greatest misfortune that could befall
any one would be that he should not die. This would be an arresting of
development which would be death indeed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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