p. 4 | Friendship with Jesus by Clara Edna Rosencrans

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 31, 1911

Friendship with Jesus

By Clara Edna Rosencrans

IN that memorable talk with His disciples, on the way from the upper room, where He had given them such a beautiful lesson in humility, to the garden, with its agony and bloody sweat, its betrayal and arrest, is made one of the most wonderful statements in the Bible. “Ye are My friends,” He said. Marvelous condescension, that the Son of God should stoop to be the friend of man! We all know what friendship is. There is not a man or woman in the world who has not at one time or another known what it was to have a true, loyal friend, whose hand clasp meant perfect faith, whose sympathy and loving help were almost indispensable. And yet in all its depth and purity of purpose, the truest earthly friendship can not compare with the friendship of Jesus. In its utter self-abnegation, its self-effacement, it stands without a parallel.

This was not shown so much by His death as by His life. In the life that He lived on the earth, and the life that He now lives in and through us, is shown the highest, noblest friendship. Not a sorrow darkens our lives, not a throb of anguish thrills our hearts, but Jesus feels it too. This is the great atonement, that stooping down He condescends to suffer with us, lifting us at the same time into the heights of His own purity and peace.

But in taking so much of Jesus, let us remember that friendship that is worth the name is always reciprocal. If we accept such loyal, loving service from Him, we should be willing to give as much in return. Jesus never speaks unkindly of any one, and to His friends He was always gentle and courteous. We must be very careful, therefore, lest by word or action we lead the world to think that we do not regard Him very highly. Alas, how many of us, by cowardly silence or open rebuff, cause those who have never known its blessedness, to think that the friendship of Jesus is scarcely worth the having! Like Peter, we follow afar off, where there will be no danger of being classed with the inner circle of His friends.

Friendship includes also kindness and consideration. Few would wilfully turn their backs upon the merest acquaintance, while talking; and yet how often we let whole days pass, without allowing this our dearest Friend to speak to us through His Word! How often we neglect to seek Him out, and show Him that we love Him! While we seek the companionship of those who can only amuse, we wound and slight Jesus, in the house, too, of those who claim to be His friends.

There is another phase of this subject, which I wish to mention. When we have a friend visiting us, do we ever leave him at home alone, while we go to places of questionable resort—for a Christian—and spend whole days or evenings, fearing if he should know our whereabouts it might lower us in his estimation? I certainly hope there are none of my readers who could be so rude; and yet—and yet—we treat our best Friend in this discourteous manner, going where His delicacy and native refinement would recoil at the merest contact.

Ah, friendship of Jesus, how deep, how true, that can endure such treatment, yet remain unswervingly loyal! We have all felt like Peter, in moments of deep religious feeling, that it would be easy to die for Jesus; but ah, how little we do to show that we are in fact living for Him!