He permitted only Peter, James, and John

I remember a cartoon on facebook talking about a man who had died. The comment was that he had 576 friends on Facebook, but nobody came to his funeral. To me it was not really funny, because it speaks a truth about our culture, the truth that we are connected at some level superficially with many, but sometimes with none deeply. To put is another way we can be lonely in the midst of the crowd. Jesus had twelve disciples who He called friends (John 15:15), and of the twelve Peter, James and John were somehow special. You would think that the other nine might be jealous, and in fact they likely were (Matthew 20:24). But Jesus makes no apologies for singling out the three!

I have more questions this morning than I have answers. The quote is from Mark 5:37, where Jesus was about to raise Jairus' daughter from the dead (vv 22ff). My question here is was it because the three had faith, I mean he shut out those with unbelief (verse 40)? I know myself I find it hard when I ask for prayer and somebody prays doubting it is God's will. I would rather they did not pray. I mean if it really is not God's will, He can say “no.” “No” is an answer. The Lord told Paul “no,” and yet he prayed again twice for the same thing (2 Corinthians 12:8, 9). I would rather bring Him my desires and be told no that to come with feeble faith. We are told to come boldly before the throne of Grace (Hebrew 4:16).

But it was not because of possible unbelief that Jesus took the same three on the mountain of transfiguration (Matthew 17:1). And so back to the friendship theme. God knows no favourites, or perhaps it is better to say we are all His favourites. But Jesus does not try to have the same relationship with everyone. Research has shown that it not possible to have close relationships with more than about twelve people, and it is probably not possible to have really close relationships with more than three or four. And we don't need to apologize for that, Jesus didn't. And this emphasizes for me again the humanity of Jesus. He came as a Spirit filled man, and as a Spirit filled man He is our example of what a Spirit filled man (or woman) looks like.

Father, I am not God and I am not responsible for the whole of the universe. In fact I have had to resign that position several times! Jesus was, and is God, but He laid aside His Godhead (Philippians 2:7) and so He is our example. Lord I cannot please everyone, and I cannot be everyone's best friend. Show me Lord how to navigate this, I want to be more like Jesus. I have a ways to go Lord, we all do, but I want to thank You this morning that You have promised to keep on working on us until that day when we will see You as You are because we will be like You (Philippians 1:6; 1 John 3:2) in Jesus Name Amen