Personal Friendships of Jesus — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Personal Friendships of Jesus
John Stuart Mill · en
Millais the great artist, when he was a young man, painted an unusual
picture of Jesus. He represented him as a little boy in the home at
Nazareth. He has cut his finger on some carpenter's tool, and comes to
his mother to have it bound up. The picture is really one of the
truest of all the many pictures of Jesus, because it depicts just such
a scene as ofttimes may have been witnessed in his youth. Evidently
there was nothing in his life in Nazareth that drew the attention of
his companions and neighbors to him in any striking way. We know that
he wrought no miracles until after he had entered upon his public
ministry. We can think of him as living a life of unselfishness and
kindness. There was never any sin or fault in him; he always kept the
law of God perfectly. But his perfection was not something startling.
There was no halo about his head, no transfiguration, that awed men.
We are told that he grew in favor with men as well as with God. His
religion made his life beautiful and winning, but always so simple and
natural that it drew no unusual attention to itself. It was richly and
ideally human.
So it was unto the end. Through the years of his public ministry, when
his words and works burned with divine revealing, he continued to live
an altogether natural human life. He ate and drank; he grew weary and
faint; he was tempted in all points like as we are, and suffered, being
tempted. He learned obedience by the things that he endured. He
hungered and thirsted, never ministering with his divine power to any
of his own needs. "In all things it behooved him to be made like unto
his brethren."
In nothing else is this truth more clearly shown than in the
humanheartedness which was so striking a feature of the life of Jesus
among men. When we think of him as the Son of God, the question
arises, Did he really care for personal friendships with men and women
of the human family? In the home from which he came he had dwelt from
all eternity in the bosom of the Father, and had enjoyed the
companionship of the highest angels. What could he find in this world
of imperfect, sinful beings to meet the cravings of his heart for
fellowship? Whom could he find among earth's sinful creatures worthy
of his friendship, or capable of being in any real sense his personal
friend? What satisfaction could his heart find in this world's deepest
and holiest love? What light can a dim candle give to the sun? Does
the great ocean need the little dewdrop that hides in the bosom of the
rose? What blessing or inspiration of love can any poor, marred,
stained life give to the soul of the Christ?