Colossians
3:12-17
12As God’s
chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness, and patience. 13Bear with one another and, if
anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord
has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14Above all, clothe
yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
15And let the
peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one
body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly;
teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts
sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17And whatever you
do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks
to God the Father through him.
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Before
we dig into our second reading let’s review King David’s story. Starting from
the beginning, what are some important events in King David’s life?
-Goliath
-Rise
to power
-conflict
with Saul
-becomes
king
-Bathsheba
-Amnon
and Tamar
-Absalom
and Amnon
-Absalom’s
exile and return
The
text never tells us why, but soon after his return to Jerusalem Absalom started
thinking a lot about his own power. It started small, but certainly not
harmlessly. Absalom recruited an entourage to show he was important. Then he
started spending time at the city gate, which is where the elders of the city
and other people went to talk about important things. In many ways that was the
court in those days. People went to the gate to settle contracts and to seek
justice when they were having trouble.
Absalom
didn’t go to the city gates to help his father or to find out how things were
going. Instead, when someone came to Jerusalem with a problem Absalom would
tell them that their complaint was right, but that there wasn’t anyone in
David’s administration who would listen to it. Then he would go on to say how
much he wanted to help people get justice. Little by little, Absalom built up a
following, all the while keeping the problems from ever making their way to
David’s ears.
Finally,
when he felt he had enough people following him, he went to Hebron, where David
had first been crowned, and had himself declared king. Surprisingly, David
panicked and abandoned Jerusalem with his leaders. Many others followed him as
well.
Absalom
took over the city of Jerusalem and plotted his next move. Meanwhile, David and
his followers mourned and worried. Then they got ready for the battle. David
was not going to give up the throne, so they needed to fight. David split his
forces into three groups, each led by trusted leaders. Joab, David’s chief
general led one group. David’s commanders convinced David not to go into battle
himself and he sent them out begging them to be kind to Absalom.
Of
course, battle is a hard place to be kind. I’m not a parent, but the biggest
flaw David has shown so far in his parenting is not stepping in when his kids
are doing the wrong thing. He didn’t do anything when Amnon raped Tamar, so
Absalom felt like he had to be the one to execute justice. Then, as Absalom was
building his power base, David ignored that problem too. At this point in the
story, I think it’s too late to be kind.
Joab
thinks so too. Joab is a favorite character of mine in the story of King David.
He is fiercely loyal to King David. He is a brilliant strategist and ruthless
realist. He is also ruthless about looking after his own interests. At two
other points in the story David tries to appoint another commander in chief of
the army and both times Joab kills them. I’m not going to hold Joab up as a
moral example in any way, but he is loyal to David.
In
this case, even though he has heard the King’s command to be gentle with
Absalom, Joab does what he think needs to be done. One of his men discovers
Absalom hanging from a tree by his hair. Joab and his closest followers kill
him and bury him in a pile of rocks. Then Joab blows the trumpet to signal that
the battle is over and sends a runner to bring the good news to King David.
The
runner announces to David that the battle is won, but all David wants to know
is whether Absalom is safe. The messenger says, “May the Lord grant that all
the enemies of my lord the king be like that young man.” David leaves the
command post to go to his room weeping for the life of his son. That’s where
our story for today picks up:
1 Kings
19:1-8
It was told
Joab, “The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.” 2So the
victory that day was turned into mourning for all the troops; for the troops
heard that day, “The king is grieving for his son.” 3The troops
stole into the city that day as soldiers steal in who are ashamed when they
flee in battle. 4The king covered his face, and the king cried with
a loud voice, “O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
5Then Joab
came into the house to the king, and said, “Today you have covered with shame
the faces of all your officers who have saved your life today, and the lives of
your sons and your daughters, and the lives of your wives and your concubines, 6for
love of those who hate you and for hatred of those who love you. You have made
it clear today that commanders and officers are nothing to you; for I perceive
that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be
pleased.
7So go out at
once and speak kindly to your servants; for I swear by the Lord,
if you do not go, not a man will stay with you this night; and this will be
worse for you than any disaster that has come upon you from your youth until
now.” 8Then the king got up and took his seat in the gate. The
troops were all told, “See, the king is sitting in the gate”; and all the
troops came before the king. Meanwhile, all the Israelites had fled to their
homes.
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I
think we can identify with David’s grief. Too many parents know the pain of a
child’s death. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like if that child died in
battle against the parent. David has lost his son. In the terrible tension of
waiting for the battle to be over he must have thought about the possibilities.
He must have tortured himself with the should haves and would haves, with
reexamining his actions and imagining what he could have done differently to
avoid the horrible situation he’s in now.
David
was a great battle commander himself, so the logical part of his mind knows
that this can really only end two ways. His troops can lose the battle and
Absalom will be king or his troops can win and Absalom will probably die. He
knows that, but in his heart he still holds out hope that everything can
miraculously turn out right. Maybe somehow he can win without Absalom dying.
Maybe somehow he and his son can be reconciled and their mistakes won’t have to
be the end of their story together.
Kings
are human, and they feel grief like anyone else. But kings and other leaders often
have to put their feelings aside. One of the hardest thing about power is that
when it is used right it is much more obligation than privilege. David’s first
duty here is to his soldiers and followers, to those who have stayed loyal to
him in the hardship of rebellion and flight. David is usually a natural leader
with an instinct for doing the right thing. In this case, his grief and guilt
make him forget his duty. All he can think about is his dead son.
So
now David’s soldiers who have stood by him feel abandoned. Instead of
celebrating and giving thanks for a hard victory, they sneak back home ashamed.
They have done everything right; they’ve stood by their king when it would have
been easier to stay home, but when they see their king’s grief all they can do
is feel bad about what they have done.
There
aren’t many men who would dare to approach David in his grief. It’s easier to
give him the space he so obviously wants. But Joab is a loyal commander and friend.
He sees the danger in David’s situation and he goes to save him. Joab knows
that the rebellion, the flight and the battle have been hard for the army as
well as for David. He knows that they need praise and encouragement, that the
men need to be reassured that their courage and sacrifice and suffering has not
been for nothing. They need their king’s gratitude and support. The king has to
put the duties of command, the duties of royalty ahead of his personal grief.
So
Joab goes and he tells David the truth. He knows David doesn’t want to hear it.
He knows David wants to be alone to wallow in his grief, but Joab knows what he
needs to do. David needs to know the truth so he can live up to his calling
even when he doesn’t want to. That’s what true friends do; they tell us the
truth even when they don’t want to and even when they know we don’t want to
hear it. They tell us the truth and they keep loving us.
Deep,
faithful, challenging relationships are at the heart of what it means to be a
church. Faith in Christ starts with knowing that we are sinners and we need to
change our lives. It starts with knowing we can’t do it on our own, that we
need Jesus to save us from our selfish ways.
Once
we start the path of discipleship we still need help. We need a community to
support us and build us up when we’re having a hard time. We also need the
honest, loving accountability of people who care about us too much to watch us
take the wrong path. To be the best disciples we can be, we need a community
with the kind of hard, loving honesty that Joab gives David.
That’s
what Paul means when he writes: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly;
teach and admonish each other in all wisdom…” Admonish each other. That means
tell your brother when he’s doing the wrong thing. Warn your sister when she’s
heading down the wrong path. Don’t just pray for your friend from a distance,
let them know that you’re worried about the choices they are making.
Our
culture is weak on relationships. Most of our relationships are very surface
level and we have all but lost the art of constructive criticism. We’re great
at blasting people from a distance. We excel at sarcastic digs behind people’s
backs. We’re skilled at saying we’re fine or telling a coworker their work is
good while silently steaming because we will have to redo it.
