Friendship goes well beyond the grave. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus. Lazarus had many friends and was well known in the community. His two sisters were mad at Jesus because he allowed him die of sickness. His sisters knew that Jesus could have healed him if he had only arrived in time.

But Jesus chose to wait until Lazarus had died before he arrived. He then tried to convince the sisters, Mary and Martha, that Lazarus was fine and that Jesus could bring him back from the dead. Of course, he would return, they said, in the future resurrection of the dead. But we miss him now!

Jesus went to the gravesite where Lazarus was buried and was moved by the sight of sadness and mourning. Maybe it was the hopelessness people felt that a beloved friend was gone. But Jesus stopped and felt as a man feels at a gravesite of a close friend.

Jesus knew Lazarus was not gone forever. He even knew that Lazarus was going to join them shortly. But he was filled with emotion. Now he speaks: Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus comes out of the grave in his wrappings and Jesus tells the shocked people to help him out of them.

This incredible event reveals that friendship goes beyond the grave. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus and all of Jesus’s friends will live forever. But Jesus was asking his two friends, Mary and Martha, to trust him in this moment. They had faith in him but it was thin. They could believe Jesus could heal their brother but raise him from the dead?

Do you have a friend who is far away? Does that matter? Distance does not diminish friendship. They can be on the other side of the world and they remain your friend. Jesus showed us that even when someone dies, they are still a friend and they are not forever lost to you.

Trust is the foundation of friendship. You trust a friend because they love you and care about you. It is the same with God. He loves and cares for you and me. More than we know. Is he far away? No, not really. We can be friends with him in a very practical way. As our trust grows, we can rely on him for many things. Maybe everything.

Remember that friendship is voluntary. You choose your friends. God has chosen you to be his friend. And he doesn’t care how much you ask of him. In fact, he wants you to impose on your friendship with him. He wants you to have an expectation of a great friendship that will be for your entire lifetime and beyond that.

How much of a friend is God? As much as you and I can love him. His love is great; ours is little. But our love for him can become greater. God will grow bigger in the relationship. He is good and very generous. And he will teach us the value of friendship and love during his process of making us more human. And we will come to know what is truly valuable in life and even beyond.

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Do you have a best friend. How did you meet? Maybe you don’t remember. Maybe you have ‘always been friends’. What if they are far away? Are you still friends? Of course, you are. Because friendship lives in another plane, another sphere.

If love is the ultimate relationship, then all kinds of love are important. Friendship is a common relationship but friends are more important than we think. Do you choose a friend or does someone choose you as their friend? Or is it beyond that?

Friendship is beyond us. It is beyond our understanding although it is not beyond our appreciation. Like all love, it is invisible yet powerful like gravity. You feel it but you don’t know what it is exactly.

You see, humans are different: they can love. And they have the possibility to love much. This mysterious ability takes place in another dimension. We are more than we appear to be. How is it we can love? It is because we are made for more. We are royalty who can’t easily find their way back.

Why? Our first parents were king and queen but gave up their thrones and became common folk. How? They fired their wise advisor and benefactor. “We can take it from here, sir.”

Their advisor said something like, “It won’t be like it was.” And it wasn’t. And it isn’t. But all is not lost. We must go forward rather than backward. There is a friendship that is higher. It is a friendship with God. We lost that friendship. But it wasn’t God who de-friended us. He wants us back in a friendly relationship. “I call you my friends because I’ve explained everything I am doing to you.” These are the words of Jesus.

He wanted a relationship of co-operation and friendship. He wanted to take fear out of the relationship. Don’t worry about the future; it’s all taken care of by God my Father. The one called Lord never lorded it over anyone. He only accepted followers as willing associates with him in his work. Then he calls them friends. He expected them to continue his good work.

There is another aspect of friendship. I didn’t make this up. Your friends may die before you do. This is sad, I know. But you will see them again as they are. If fact, when you die, they will be saying to God, “Oh, we must have this person here with us.” They mean you. If they are friends with God, they speak up on your behalf. Now you also need to be a friend of Jesus, sure, but imagine their happiness and yours when you meet again.

Friendships need never end. They can go on forever.

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There are two kinds of weakness that are important. The first is a weakness toward sin. This is easy. You just do whatever you feel like. Just do it. It doesn’t matter. But eventually you are in a habit of doing wrong. You justify it to yourself. I have to do this because … This is not really that bad because … Who cares if do this? I’m not hurting anyone.

Well, you are hurting someone. Yourself. You know it. I know it. I mean I know I am hurting myself by this habit. We have to stop.  But how do you do that? Do something else. Something good.

What would that be? Something Jesus said to do. Let’s take an example: be generous. If you have money, be generous with it. If you have time, be generous with that. Be kind to someone. Does this sound dumb?

It sounds stupid to do this if you are looking at your own resources. If I give, I will have less. If I spend my time on others, I will have less time for myself. All this is true. But what if … What if we had a rich father? What if he was always looking out for you. He approves of your generosity wholeheartedly. If you run short, he will help you out. He may do it in an ordinary way. Yet, you never find yourself without help at the time you need it.

The second weakness is a little hard to explain. It is weakness toward God. You think you are weak. But toward God, you find yourself strong. I won’t do that. You can’t make me do that. Actually, he can but he won’t. He won’t coerce you. God won’t force you to do anything.

Weakness toward God is this: yes, I will do that and see how it goes. It makes little sense to do that but I will do it. Not – try to do it. Not – think that if everyone did that what a better world this would be. Not – mean to do it at some point in the future. No. At the next opportunity, I will act generous. I will act kind.

No matter how lame your attempt is, God will have your back. Have fun with it. How can I bless this person without it being a big deal where I get the credit for it? Give money secretly. Do something good without making sure everyone knows it.

Can Doing Good go bad?

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