I was thinking that perhaps over the next few days I would post a few thoughts taken primarily from my teaching notes prepared for a class that I gave in early 2008 on the topic of friendship...although it is by no means exhaustive in its scope, I do hope that what you do read will somehow be a blessing, and an encouragement to you. So-o-o, I'm supposin' that this could be considered the first installment!The words friendship and fellowship are found quite often throughout Scripture and are actually interchangeable...in the Old Testament they both come from the same Hebrew transliterated word "COWD" meaning: "a couch, a cushion, a pillow, a friendly conversation among friends". Being very visual and also being particularly partial to cushions and pillows, this paints a beautiful picture to me of the ease and comfortability that true friendship brings.
A few years ago I had been reading a book that contained these lines...
No matter how we look at it, friendships, in all their various shapes and sizes, are an interaction between us and others that profoundly impact our lives.
While Jesus was on earth, there were relational circles in which He moved and lived - there would have been His relationship with His earthly family...father, mother, brothers, sisters...then His extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins...then His friends, then His acquaintances and then those that came across His path each day...and of course, at the centre would have been His relationship with His Heavenly Father.
We also move and live within relational circles, many of the people in these circles we don't get to choose, and yet there are those that we do get to select and invite into our lives...these are the ones that we are going to be looking at over the next few days. (By the way, speaking of circles, when I was a young girl I memorized this poem, "...he drew a circle that shut me out, a heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout...but love and I had the wit to win...we drew a circle that took him in." I had no idea that one day I would think upon those words in the context of Jesus, coming into a world that for the most part, shut Him out, but love... well, didn't God so love the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life? God Himself drew a Circle around this girl that took her in and gave her Life!), but I digress....
From all those that Jesus knew, He chose for Himself twelve; from those twelve there were three that He selected to enter into an even deeper intimacy with Himself. Although there were specific Kingdom purposes in the selection of Peter, James and John from out of the twelve, we can learn from the principles laid out in Scripture as to the choosing and selecting of our own intimate friends.
So out of the many, Jesus chose twelve whom He Himself wanted. This particular circle was now becoming smaller and more intimate.
Then in Matthew 17:1 Jesus then took from these twelve...three.
"...Jesus took with Him, Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves."
It was here, on this mountain, that they were to experience a revelation, an intimate unveiling of Jesus that they were to keep in confidence and tell no one about until Jesus Himself had risen from the dead (Matt 17:9).
We see these three being chosen also in Mark 5:37 and Luke 8:51 when Jesus was going to the house of the synagogue official, we read..."and He allowed no one to accompany (enter) with Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James..."
In Matthew 26:26-35, after all the disciples had partaken of the cup and the bread at the Passover meal, Jesus and His twelve went out to the Mount of Olives, in v. 36-39, when they had reached Gethsemane, Jesus said to all His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed..."
The two sons of Zebedee were James and John, so here, along with Peter, we see these three again being chosen from out of the twelve. Chosen to be with Jesus during a time that He was grieved and distressed. Jesus said to these three, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."
From Jesus' invitation, many came - yet out of the many, He selected for Himself twelve and then out of the twelve, an even more intimate three. This is a vital and healthy principle that we should incorporate into our own lives as well. That out of our many friendships and acquaintances, out of all those that we do life with, that we have those intimate few that are witnesses not only to our grieving and distress, but to our joys and delights as well, those who come alongside us to encourage and pray...to "remain and keep watch". Having said that however, we need to see something else.
v.39 "...And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed..."
Friendship is ordained by God, we were never meant to do life alone and isolated. We need our intimate friends, especially during those hard times of life, those that are witnesses to the anguish of our hearts and who can "remain and keep watch" with us. However, there is that point where they must remain and keep watch, and where we must go "a little beyond them"...further still; further still to the place where we meet with God alone, where we fall on our face before Him and allow God to be our most intimate of Friends, beyond all other; the Centre and the Original Circle that begins and ends with only One.
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