"Immortal, Invisible God -- Only Wise"? Yes. Yet today, however, we will leave it at FRIEND.

Text:  John 11:1-45

Theme:  "When Something Happens to A Friend"

5th Sunday in Lent

April 6, 2014

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

This story of the raising of Lazarus has me at a loss.  It is so rich in meaning and powerful in content that I really don't know where to begin.   All week long, this account has been on the back of my mind; it has haunted me -- even through the golf ball, tennis ball-sized hail that pummeled our building.  You can study the words of John eleven in their original Greek.  One can read commentaries galore on the chapter.  You can examine  its narrative backwards and forwards and sideways.  Interpretively speaking, you can spar with the text, wrestle with text, squeeze the text, poke and prod the text, try to drain the text dry. But the more you work on it, the more you feel  as though you're  imposing on it. What does one do when confronted with a masterpiece of staggering proportions?  You just take it in and let it move you -- perhaps even change you -- as it will.

As I marveled at John chapter eleven this time around, one topic did emerge -- and I kept coming back to it.  It's friendship.  Friendship, in the classical Greek sense, is a form of love.  You know, the New Testament has three different Greek words for love.  First, there's agape -- which means the love of God, the love that can only come from God, the love that has its origin in God.  Second, there's eros -- which means physical, or sexual, love.  And third, there is phileo -- which means brotherly love or friendship.  There's lots of phileo, brotherly love, friendship in John chapter eleven. 

In the Old Testament book of Proverbs, there is a snippet of wisdom that reads like this:    "A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."  Think of what ties people together.  It may be blood.  It could be an ethnic background.  It might be that we have similar viewpoints.  We like the same kind of music, support the same kinds of causes, et cetera. 

But friendship?  That's different. There is something about a genuine friendship that is almost impossible to explain.  The bond of a true friendship borders on the mystical. Certainly, there were curiosity-seekers who followed Jesus around during his three year public ministry.  Others became followers and believers.  Then there were the twelve disciples that were chosen by Jesus -- even though one would betray him. But what emerges from the interaction of Jesus with Mary, Martha, and their brother, Lazarus, is that these three siblings were His friends.  Let that sink in for just a moment:  they were His friends, and He was their friend.  Like the theme song from the sitcom "Friends" says:  "I'll be there for you 'cuz you're there for me too!" 

They had a little home less than two miles away from Jerusalem, and when Jesus was in town He would go hang out with his friends.  He was there for them, and they were there for Him.  Mary comes off as the quiet, contemplative one in the trio.  She sat at Jesus' feet and listened and anointed his feet with perfume.  Martha seems to be the more driven individual -- the type A personality, if you will.  Then there is Lazarus.  We know nothing about the mother and father of these three siblings. All we know is that they're sisters and brother and brother and sisters.  And Jesus was their friend, and they were friends of Jesus.

I hope you won't mind if I share something of a personal testimony.  My name is Paul, and I am an alcoholic.  For over twelve years, I have not felt the need to take a drink of alcohol.  For that, I am truly grateful -- and so are a lot of other people!  Along the road of recovery, I learned a few things.  When my disease was active, God had become, in my mind, like some kind of heavenly version of a parent that I could never please enough.  All God had become was someone, something that I had to make happy.  And I resented that; I got sick and tired of that; I hated that. 

I have a sponsor in the program who is also a good friend.  He asked me:  "How are those ideas about God working for you?"  If this person hadn't become a friend, I would have told him that he could stuff his question where the sun don't shine!  But he had won me over simply because he took the time to share his experience, his strength, and his hope with me.  The answer was obvious:  no, the ideas in my head about God were not working.    I can tell you this, though.  When I came to believe that God, in Jesus Christ, was my friend -- that "friend who sticketh closer than a brother",  that was when it was like the gates of heaven had re-opened for me.  Early in recovery, I remember being home one night.  I picked up the old hymnal from my childhood.  It had an evening hymn in it called "Abide with Me".  One of its verses took on new meaning for me; it said exactly what was going on in my heart:

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,

But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings;

Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea.

Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me.

Tears for all woes?  Indeed.  The shortest verse in the Bible is in John chapter eleven:  "Jesus wept."  Why?  His friend died. 

Jesus had made it back to Bethany.  When Martha -- that dear friend, that outspoken friend -- saw Him, she said:  "Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."      Jesus said:  "Your brother will rise again."  Martha said:  "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."  Jesus replied:  "I am the resurrection and the life.  The one who believe in me will live even though he dies.  And the one who lives and believes in me will never die."

Moments later, sister Mary says the same:  "If you would have been here, he would not have died."  Genuine friendship is like that:  what binds you together is stronger than the painful truths of life; in short, you tell it like it is to each other. 

In the end, Jesus told it like it is to the grave itself.  He shouted:  "Lazarus, come out."  Out came Lazarus covered in grave clothes.  "Take off the grave clothes and let him go," says Jesus.

Only days later, they would wrap Jesus Himself in grave clothes and place his body in a borrowed tomb.  There was weeping and mourning then, for Jesus had died.  The grief went on; friends went to the tomb.  But someone rolled the stone away.  And then a friendly angel told it like it is:  "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; He is risen -- even as He said." 

So think of it:  the One who holds the power of life and death in His hands, the One who is the resurrection and the life, is your friend.  Again, He is your friend. 

Amen.