And Jesus did go. We know the story. By the time He arrives Lazarus is dead for four days. Everyone is mourning. The sisters are beside themselves with grief. And then we get to the shortest and one of the most powerful verses in the entire Bible:
Then Jesus wept. John 11: 35 (NLT)
Jesus wept. The Son of God cried. Why? Not because Lazarus was dead. Jesus knew He was about to raise him from the dead! In fact, Jesus specifically tarried in coming to the village for the express purpose of raising Lazarus from the dead. No beloved. Jesus wept because He loved Mary and Martha and shared in their suffering. He was upset because His dear friends were in pain. Did He teach them spiritual truths along the way? Absolutely. He had to remind them that He is the resurrection and the life! He had to strengthen their faith. But He also cried with them. He also shared in their grief. He was heavenly minded while being of earthly good to them.
Consider the Apostle Paul. After Jesus, Paul is our primary source for doctrine yet he was also extremely relational. Not only teaching the ways of God but establishing a great many friendships along the way. Consider that the Epistles that make up the majority of the New Testament are actual letters Paul had written to the friends and churches he had established. Were they filled with heavenly matters such as doctrine, correction and instruction? Of course! Paul was definitely heavenly minded. But they were also filled gems such as these:
Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, - Philippians 1: 3-4 (NLT)
I am writing to Timothy, my true son in the faith. - 1Timothy 1: 2 (NLT)
This letter is from Paul, a prisoner for preaching the Good News about Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. I am writing to Philemon, our beloved co-worker, and to our sister Apphia, and to our fellow soldier Archippus, and to the church that meets in your house. Philemon 1: 1-2 (NLT)
The Epistles are not impersonal decrees of holy doctrine. They were heartfelt letters to real people Paul loved and had established friendships with. He taught them but he loved them. Nearly the entire 16th Chapter of the Book of Romans is Paul singling everyone out he wants to personally thank! There are over 25 separate people Paul thanks and says something nice about individually.
Our relationships were not meant to be peripheral in our lives. They were
meant to constitute our lives. The Bible is our instruction manual for
navigating this world but isn't it interesting that God included so many
examples of good strong friendships? Daniel had three friends. Even Job had
three friends. David had Jonathan, as well as Abiathar, Nahash, Hiram, Hushai,
and Ittai. King Ahaziah had King Joram. Abraham had
But Ruth replied, "Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!" Ruth 1: 16-17 (NLT)
Oh that we would develop such friendships in this life! But the world we live in pushes people away. It develops a selfish mentality inside of us. That we cannot be bothered with someone else and their problems. That it is a dog eat dog world. Survival of the fittest right? Ironically that is a term coined by Charles Darwin as a synonym for his theory on evolution. I say ironic because sometimes Christians spend so much energy correctly dismissing the Evolutionary theory only to treat the people in their lives as if they swear by it. The Bible tells a story of a man crippled in both feet named Mephibosheth. He was dropped when a child causing the lameness. Because he came from the line of King Saul, people assumed he would be an enemy of King David and they hid him in a place called lo-debar, which in the Hebrew means "no pasture." But King David remembered his friendship with Jonathan:
David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?" 2Samuel 9: 1 (NIV)
And so David sent for this lame cripple and brought him into the palace. He assured Mephibosheth that he would restore all of the land that had belonged to his grandfather King Saul to him and that he would always have a place to eat at the king's table. In an instant, Mephibosheth went from being a poor cripple hiding in a land of no pasture to being rich beyond comprehension and sitting at the table of the king. That is why Mephibosheth is a picture of salvation for us. For we too were crippled by the world. Dropped and lame. Hiding from the king in a land that offered us no pasture. We too deserved none of the kindness that the king was about to send our way. Being crippled we could do nothing for ourselves. But in one supernatural second, we became saved and suddenly we had riches untold in Christ Jesus and we had a place at the table of the King of Kings!
But Mephibosheth reaped the rewards of a friendship David and Jonathan treasured. Remember that Jonathan was the son of King Saul, so David would have made more sense as a natural enemy. But not so with the close friends:
