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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
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:
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:
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:
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
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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