Reading: “Leaning on Jesus’ bosom.”—John 13:23
Contemplate the privilege of this highly favored disciple. Surely to sit at the feet of Jesus, to look up at His face, to behold the Lamb of God, and to hear the gracious words out of His mouth, would have been a happiness unspeakable and full of glory! But the beloved apostle leaned on Jesus’ bosom.
Oh, condescending Saviour to manifest, by this endearing token, how dear and precious all His redeemed ones are in His esteem! But stop. If John lay on Jesus’ bosom, where was it Jesus Himself lay, when He left all for our salvation? The disciple whom Jesus loved lay upon Jesus’ bosom; but He, whom the Father loved, lay in the bosom of the Father, indeed, was rapt up in the very soul of the Father from eternity.
When He was in the bosom of the Father He had not emptied Himself of His glory—He had not been made in the likeness of sinful flesh, nor put Himself under the law. He was not then a man of sorrows nor acquainted with grief. He had not then exposed His face to shame and spitting, neither to poverty, temptation, the bloody sweat, and the cross.
And yet Jesus would go through all these, and more; He would leave the Father’s bosom. Indeed the Father took this only-begotten, only-beloved Son from His bosom in order that John might lean on Jesus’ bosom and that all the redeemed, like him, one day, could dwell with Jesus, and lean and rest in His embraces for ever. Oh, for hearts to love both the Father and the Son, who have so loved us, that we may be ready to part with all, and forsake all, and die to all, that we may live in Jesus and to Jesus, and rest in His bosom for ever.
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