What Friends Do
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Introducing Jonathan
Introducing Jonathan
We are the products of the people around us. None of us are really “self-made”. We are the product of our families, our parents and grandparents, we are the product of the teachers who influenced us at key times, the friends who were with us, the spouses we’ve walked with, the kids we know. That being true, we don’t spend much time thinking about friendship and what we learn about God from our friendships. This morning, I would simply like to tell you the story of Jonathan. We tend to overlook the oldest son of Saul because the ascent of David to be king is so rapid and the decline of Saul is so pronounced that Jonathan gets lost in the background. We don’t really know much about Jonathan. The names of his mother and wife are lost, and the biblical story doesn’t so much tell his story as it tells us about the one thing that Jonathan did really, really well. Jonathan was a friend. He was a friend to those who returned his friendship and to those who didn’t. He was a friend when it was bathed in laughter and he was a friend when the only thing friendship meant was crying bitter tear. Jonathan helped make the people in his life better, and his story, if we hear it, will make us better as well.
Jonathan and Saul
Jonathan and Saul
When we first meet him, friendship wasn’t his strong suite. As we come to meet him in the story of David in 1 Samuel, Jonathan is self-centered and doesn’t really see the people around him. We first meet Jonathan in 1 Samuel 13. Jonathan and his father command the armies of Israel on the high ground while the Philistines were in the valley between them:
Saul chose three thousand out of Israel; two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin; the rest of the people he sent home to their tents. Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Geba; and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear!”
Eyes on Himself, Part One
Eyes on Himself, Part One
As long as Jonathan and his father Saul stay on the high ground and the Philistines stay in the valley, they will be safe. Then Jonathan takes things into his own hands:
Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Geba; and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear!” When all Israel heard that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become odious to the Philistines, the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal.
Notice please, Jonathan is acting and Saul is reacting. Jonathan didn’t wait or coordinate, he just acted and attacked. Jonathan’s attack had unintended consequences. It drew new Philistine armor and calvary from the west and this now much larger army overwhelmed Saul on the east edge of the valley:
The Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude; they came up and encamped at Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. When the Israelites saw that they were in distress (for the troops were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns. Some Hebrews crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
All of that, Jonathan’s uncoordinated attack and the Philistine response, set the scene for Saul’s great sin in the latter part of 1 Samuel 13. The Philistine army is growing by the day, the army of Israel is on the run and the prophet Samuel is nowhere to be found. Saul take it upon himself to offer sacrifice on behalf of his army. We don’t know if Jonathan was there or not, but Jonathan created the situation in which Saul’s impatience and anxiety got the best of him. It may have been Saul’s sin, but it was Jonathan’s mess.
Eyes on Himself, Part Two
Eyes on Himself, Part Two
You would think that after the debacle of chapter 13, Jonathan would turn his eyes out and pay attention to the people around him. You would be wrong. In 1 Saumel 14, Jonathan and his armor bearer raid the Philistine camp. Again, Saul isn’t prepared for the battle that Jonathan’s raid sets off. Saul is very much afraid that Israel will be overrun. He binds the army of Israel to an oath: they would not eat anything as long as the battle raged and the outcome was in doubt. Jonathan was (of course) not there to hear about the vow, and Jonathan breaks the vow his father made. The armies of Israel win the battle that day, but know that something very wrong had happened. They discover that in the heat of battle, Saul’s son and their prince Jonathan broke Saul’s vow. Once again, Jonathan had placed his father in an impossible position:
Then Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.” Jonathan told him, “I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand; here I am, I will die.” Saul said, “God do so to me and more also; you shall surely die, Jonathan!” Then the people said to Saul, “Shall Jonathan die, who has accomplished this great victory in Israel? Far from it! As the LORD lives, not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground; for he has worked with God today.” So the people ransomed Jonathan, and he did not die.
Jonathan and David
Jonathan and David
By the time Jonathan meets David in 1 Samuel 18, Jonathan has twice contributed to his father’s downfall. Its hard to know whether Jonathan understood just how severe the situation was, but we do know that the Jonathan we meet in the narrative from chapter 18 forward isn’t the same person we see earlier. When we first meet him he is implusive and self-centered. He acts and the world has to respond. But something is different now. In the act of giving himself to his friend David, it is as if Jonathan finds himself:
When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that he was wearing, and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.
Later generations would ask a question: “how is it that Saul stopped being King, and David became king?” The answer is right in front of us. Jonathan gives David the royal sword, is royal garment. Jonathan for the first time in his life finds something more important than himself: his friend.
It isn’t that Jonathan abandones his father for David. In face, he gets caught between his father and David too often. David would live for periods of time in the royal household, David would marry one of Saul’s daughters. Eventually, Saul’s mood would turn dark and he would try to kill David. In those times, Jonathan would remind his father of all that David had done for Israel. Once, his father got so angry that he tried to kill Jonathan with a spear just like he had tried to kill David. When David was finally driven out into exile in the wilderness, Jonathan didn’t join him. He did continue to help David by telling him when King Saul was trying to capture him. That we know of, Jonathan only saw David twice after Saul drove him into exile.
1 Samuel 20 is one of those times when Jonathan was trying to protect David. Saul was trying to lure David back into the palace. David didn’t know whether Saul had changed, or whether this was just another chapter in the running “Saul tries to kill David” story. Jonathan and David concoct a scheme. Jonathan will feel out his father as to his true intentions with David. Once known, Jonathan will communicate by secret sign. David’s life depends on Jonathan. David pleads with him in verse 8:
Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a sacred covenant with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”
Dealing “kindly” is a theological idea. The God of Israel had dealt kindly with Israel and been faithful and loving to them in good times and times that were not so good. David’s request was that Jonathan would act towards David as God had acted towards Israel. Later in verses 14 and 15, Jonathan asks David to treat him and his sons in the same manner:
If I am still alive, show me the faithful love of the LORD; but if I die, never cut off your faithful love from my house, even if the LORD were to cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”
This is friendship at its best: to show us glimpses of God. To seen and experience love rooted in choice rather than attraction, to be the object of undeerved and unmerited favor. To be love and accepted not for what a friend brings to us or what they do for us, but to love and treat with faithful kindness just because we choose to love and act.
Our new Testament reading comes from the story of the Transfiguraton in Matthew 17. Jesus takes his four closest friends, Peter, Andrew, James and John to a private place. There they catch a glimpse of who Jesus really is. That is what friendship is about, helping someone see Jesus in the dazzling robe of love rooted in choice, his face gleaming from kindness.