Today's Passage: 1 Samuel 19-20
The world of facebook has, in some ways, redefined the word "friend." There are people that are my "friends" that I haven't spoken to in years...they once were close, but time and distance has made our friendship more a memory than an action. There are people that are "friends" that facebook really has made our friendship stronger. I know more about their lives, how they spend their time, and what they truly love. Then there are people that are "friends" on facebook that I don't have to look at their status updates to know what's going on...odds are, we've already talked about life so much that it's not really news to me.
David and Jonathan seem to fit in that last category...their friendship is often held up as a model for believers. While their friendship is mutual, I'm always struck by Jonathan's side of the relationship. David represented everything Jonathan had to lose. Jonathan, son of Saul, would be the next king...but David had been anointed to be the next king. The throne should belong to Jonathan...wouldn't he resent that? Why wouldn't he side with his father to ensure that he would be the one in power, the one to be served?
I think one of the defining marks of a close friendship is to lay down your life for someone else...scripture tells us in John 15 that "greater love has no man than this: that he would lay down his life for his friends." I know there are people in this world who would stop whatever was going on if I needed them...I hope they know that feeling is mutual! They would (and have) sacrifice their needs, their pride, even their future for our friendship. Jonathan lays all of that down and more because his friend, David, is the anointed king.
This is why we can say that Jesus is our friend...He gave it all so that we might live. He laid it all down on the cross so that we would be lifted up from sin, death, and hell. How, then, is your friendship with Jesus on your end? How often are you willing to give it all so that He may be glorified in this world? How often are you willing to sacrifice so that He would be lifted up?
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