David and Mephibosheth

(We are currently in a series on the life of David at Chelsea Village. As I’ve written before I attempt to write a full manuscript of my sermon before preaching. Throughout this series I’ll be posting some of the sermons I think will be helpful. If you would rather listen to the sermon, you can find it here.)

I’m convinced now more than ever that one of the first things being a Christian should change is how you treat people. Unfortunately this has not always been our experience with Christians has it? We can all go through a laundry list of mistreatment by other people who claim to follow Jesus. I’ve joked before that four of the five meanest people I have ever met I knew because of church, but I don’t laugh about it anymore. Encountering rude, mean people who for some unknown reason other people held up to be paragons of virtue made me question not just the church, but aspects of the Christian Gospel as well. Guys this happened to me in a couple of cases while I was a pastor. I wondered how on earth someone who hated my guts and would not even speak to me unless other people were around could be held in high esteem by seemingly mature, well-meaning Christians. I could not understand why someone why a man who held someone of the most disgusting views on race I had ever encountered could be elevated to teach a Sunday school class. I stood baffled as a teenager why a woman who regularly walked up where the high school students sat to chew us out for someone talking during church could be held up as the model for what it looked like to follow Jesus. And I had no category for watching people who claimed to be acting at God’s leading coordinate a campaign to fire their pastor and embarrass him personally.

While it is easy for me to poke at other people, I have to be honest and say that the rudest person I know is me. If I am honest, my own selfishness, pride, and spotlight stealing self-centeredness is a greater issue for me than the rudeness of other people. If you are honest, this is likely the case for you as well. What I want us to see today is our desperate need to show kindness to others, and how we can only be provoked to do so by the kindness of God.

We are going to see this today from the life of David, as he reaches back and shows kindness to someone from he had nothing to gain and nothing the other person could offer back to him. In doing so he models the kindness of God for us and shows us how this kindness moves us to be kind to others.

And David said, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David. And the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” And he said, “I am your servant.” And the king said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him?” Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in his feet.” The king said to him, “Where is he?” And Ziba said to the king, “He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar.” Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar. And Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, “Mephibosheth!” And he answered, “Behold, I am your servant.” And David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.” And he paid homage and said, “What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?”

Then the king called Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master’s grandson. And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce, that your master’s grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth your master’s grandson shall always eat at my table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table, like one of the king’s sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Mica. And all who lived in Ziba’s house became Mephibosheth’s servants. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet.
2 Samuel 9

How David Models the Kindness of God

This passage begins with David asking if there is anyone from Saul’s house to whom he can show kindness. This comes on the heels of David hearing God’s promise to make his family reign on the throne forever. I think we can see from this that David has seen God’s grace. In his prayer he asked who he was that he might receive this promise from God. He recognized the grace he had been shown and it led him to want to show grace.

At the same time, David was also on the receiving end of covenant promises. The Lord promised David someone from his line would reign forever. The Lord promised to make his name great and build a house for him. David’s family would have dominion over the land and rule in a dynasty. David knew his Old Testament history well enough to know the Lord keeps his promises. He promised to preserve Noah during the flood and he did. He promised to give Abraham a child and decedents as numerous as the stars in the sky and he did. He promised to bring Israel out of slavery in Egypt through mighty works and he did. He promised to give the land to his people and he did. David had every reason in the world to believe this promise.

Remembering the covenant promises he had received reminded David of a covenant promise he had made. Before David was king, he made a promise to his friend Jonathan who had just delivered him from the clutches of his father, King Saul. “And Jonathan said to David, “The LORD, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? But should it please my father to do you harm, the LORD do so to Jonathan and more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. May the LORD be with you, as he has been with my father. If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the LORD, that I may not die; and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD take vengeance on David’s enemies.” And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.” David remembered this promise he made to Jonathan and wanted to act on it.

Now there is another significant word in this passage we need to which we should turn our attention. David wanted to show “kindness” to someone from Saul’s family. This word “kindness” is not strong enough and I’m not sure we have one English word that could encapsulate everything this word implies. The word has the sense of “loyal love” or “covenant love.” This phrase occurs all over the Old Testament to describe the love of God for his people. One of the most important passages in the Old Testament is Exodus 34:6-7. In this passage the Lord covers Moses in the cleft of the rock as his presence passes by. As he passes by he says, “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.’” These sentences become the central confession of faith about God in the Old Testament. They are repeated in Numbers, 2 Chronicles, Nehemiah, Psalm 145, Joel, and Jonah. In fact the reason Jonah refused to go to Nineveh was he knew God is compassionate and loving. He did not want God to show love and compassion to the Ninevites.

David found Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth. In 2 Samuel 4 Mephibosheth’s nurse escaped with him during an attack, dropped him, and he became crippled in his feet. David brought Mephibosheth in and promised to show him kindness because of his father Jonathan. If you think about this, it is remarkable because Mephibosheth’s grandfather hated David and wanted to kill him, but here he was with David showing him overwhelming kindness. David restored every bit of Saul’s land to Mephibosheth and promises he can always eat at David’s table. Think about this for a second, who eats at your table every day? Your family eats at your table and welcoming someone to your table means you are making them part of your family. In fact the narrator told us Mephibosheth always ate at the King’s table like one of his sons.

The narrator closed by reemphasizing Mephibosheth’s disability. This could just be a way of ending the narrative, but could also highlight Mephibosheth’s difficult situation and David’s kindness. Mephitisheth has nothing to offer to David. They should be enemies. David should be suspicious of him. Furthermore Mephibosheth has nothing he could offer to David. He can’t work in his fields or do anything to pay him back for his kindness. David shows kindness to Mephitisheth without price and without any expectation of repayment.

When we read biblical narratives we tend to see ourselves in the heroes, but often we should identify with the weak and helpless people we see in the Bible. When we read the story of David and Goliath we should see ourselves in the helpless Israelite army. When we come across the children of Israel before they cross the read sea, we shouldn’t think of ourselves as Moses holding up his staff and parting the waters, we should identify with the scared slaves leaving Israel who needed a miracle for God to deliver them. When we approach this text we should see ourselves not in the place of kind David, but as the helpless Mephibosheth in need of grace and kindness.

In fact we should see an incredible picture of God’s grace and the Gospel in this passage of Scripture. First David’s kindness points us to the kindness of God. Think about the themes in this narrative that remind us of who God is and how he treats us in the Gospel. David shows kindness to Mephibosheth because of his covenant with Jonathan. Then you think of God’s kindness to us through the new covenant which he enacts through the death of Christ. God loves his people. We talk about this in general many times but we need to speak specifically. Do you know that you are loved by God? Even though we sinned against him and have nothing with which we can repay him, he at cost to himself sent his own son to die in our place. Through his Son’s death he fulfills his promise to never leave us or forsake us. I find this to be such a kindness from God. One of the things we constantly see in the Psalms is the writers’ fear they have been abandoned by God. If you have trusted in Jesus can I tell you some good news this morning? God never has and never will abandon you. He walks with you and guides you. Wherever you are he is with you and will not leave you on your own. One of the most important things I’ve ever heard is the reminder that wherever I am in life is where I would put myself if I knew everything God knew.

Also we see a truth about what it means to be a Christian in this passage. A Christian is not a person who was good enough for God to promote them to his varsity team. A Christian is not a person who got their act together enough for God to be impressed by them. Christianity is exactly the opposite of that. The Christian is the person who recognizes they have nothing, are nothing, and can do nothing to earn God’s favor. Instead they must rely on the kindness of another to bring them back to God. This is exactly what we have in Jesus. Jesus, in his kindness and great love for us gave his life for us. He died in our place so we might come back to God through faith in him. And it’s not as if God doesn’t want to forgive us and Jesus dies to convince God to forgive. No! God loves to forgive and reconcile, so he sent his Son so the barrier between us and him might be removed. Because of God’s love for us and Jesus’ death, we can move from utter helplessness and alienation to a place at God’s table. Left to ourselves, we deserve nothing but God’s wrath, but through Jesus we get to eat at the table as one of God’s sons. So if you came this morning hoping to try to get some help to be a better person so you could calm down your conscience, I want to encourage you to trust in Jesus who heals your conscience and makes you a son of God.

How David’s Example Calls us to Acts of Kindness

We need to think seriously about the relationship between God’s covenant with David and David’s kindness to Mephibosheth. God protected David, made him king, promised him a dynasty, and let him live at peace in the land. You cannot help but think that David pondered all God did to preserve his life and bring him where he was and thought of the promise he made to Jonathan as God used Jonathan to save him. In light of the kindness and love David received he showed that same kind of love to Mephibosheth. He had nothing to gain from him and actually it cost him to show this kindness, but after the kindness he received he was glad to give it.

This models for us the kindness that should come from Christians toward others. Think about it; not because of anything you have done, but because of God’s love you get to be a child of God. Jesus gave his life for you, God forgives you, he gives you his Holy Spirit, and he promises you an inheritance. After you have received all of this, how could we not show others the kindness and grace we have received.

One thing we need to constantly remember is the connection between the Gospel and what it means to live as a Christian. If I just got up and told you today that you need to try harder to be nice to people, I don’t know that you would want to do it or have the power to do it. What the Gospel does is show you the reason you have to show kindness and points you back to the power to help you persevere in showing kindness. You’ve experienced the kindness of God and the Spirit empowers you to show kindness, how could you not do it?

Have you noticed we live in a culture where we love to shame people. For example someone again reminded me this week of the story of Justine Sacco. Sacco was on her way to South Africa and tweeted out a disparaging statement about Africa to her 170 followers. Her statement was dumb and racist, but it did not earn what fell upon her. The tweet circulated within hours and she became public enemy number one. By the time she landed she had been fired and discovered she was hated by millions who had never heard of her just hours before. Contrast this response to Sacco’s misdeeds with what Scott Sauls wrote this week about Tim Keller. “In five years, never once did I see Tim tearing another person down to their face, on the Internet, or through gossip. Instead, he seemed to always assume the good in people. Occasionally, he would talk about how having the forgiveness and affirmation of Jesus frees us for this—for “catching people doing good” instead of looking for things to criticize or be offended by. Even when someone had done wrong or been in error, Tim would respond with humble restraint and self-reflection instead of venting negativity and criticism. Like the grace of God does, he covered people’s flaws and sins. Sometimes he covered my flaws and sins. He did this because that’s what grace does; it reminds us that in Jesus we are shielded and protected from the worst things about ourselves. Because Jesus shields us like this, we should of all people be zealous to restore reputations versus destroying reputations, to protect a good name versus calling someone a name, to shut down gossip versus feeding gossip, to restore broken relationships versus begrudging broken people.” What if because of the Gospel we received, we aimed to change people through our kindness instead of shame?

We need to acknowledge that genuine kindness begins with the people you live around the most. One of the unfortunate things we do is we treat people close to us or who cannot affect us negatively the way we really wish we could treat someone else. So a few months ago someone used Beth’s debit card number to make a purchase online. We had a real hassle with the company giving us conflicting information and I called them after they had really been dragging their feet. I had talked to them on several occasions and been told different things ever time. This time they told me they could not talk to me but had to talk to Beth. I’ll have to be honest, I decided in that moment I was not going to take this for an answer because they had been talking to me for weeks. I started telling them how stupid this was in light of the fact they had been talking to me for weeks and she said, “it’s for your wife’s security.” I responded with, “oh now you care about the security of her card. Too bad you didn’t care when it was being used fraudulently.” At this moment the person on the other end hung up and I only basked in the glory of my quick-witted line for a moment until I realized I only was as sarcastic with her as I was because she doesn’t know me and it’s no skin off my back if she does not like me. What was true of me is true with us for any person we think has to deal with us at our worst. If we are kind to everyone outside of our closest sphere of influence and rude to those within that circle, our kindness is superficial and fragile.

If you’re married, this starts with your spouse. One thing I have noticed over the years is that the Bible does not have much marriage advice. There are passages that teach us what marriage is and some of our roles in marriage. There are instructions for how to deal with an unbelieving spouse and encouragements to faithfulness, but there is not a ton of marriage advice. I think this is the reason behind the lack of “advice.” If you read the “one another” passages you will know how to treat your spouse. Think about some of the one another. Forgive one another. Love one another. Be kind to one another. In humility count one another as more important than yourselves. Honestly, if you love each other, are kind to each other, serve each other, and forgive each other you are going to have a marriage with a lot of joy in it. This begins though with realizing your spouse is your neighbor, and your closest neighbor at that.

Have you noticed how much division there is in our culture? Democrats think the worst of Republicans and vice versa. It’s not enough that the people we disagree with are wrong; they also must be evil monsters. You could expand this out beyond politics to many other spheres of life, but here is what I think the root of our problem is- we don’t know our neighbors. We do not know the flesh and blood people who live around us and among whom we move. We spend most of our lives with our heads buried in our phones. Then we barricade ourselves in our homes and watch TV or stay buried in our phones. In our vehicles so many of us listen to opinion based radio whether it be news or sports. So much of it thrives on conflict. It exists because they need to create someone for you to be afraid of so you can continue to tune into them and find out how bad they are and how to defeat them. Can I encourage you to do something? Turn off talk radio, cancel your cable if you need to, put your phone in your pocket, and talk to people. Walk around your neighborhood and talk to your neighbors. Chat up your server at a restaurant. When you are in a public place and hear someone saying something you don’t necessarily agree with or really disagree with, don’t grab your phone and write a Facebook post about the stupid person in the restaurant where you are. Look over, and say, “sorry, I overheard what you just said and I’m curious how you came to that conclusion. Could you tell me a little bit about that?” Remember what James said, “be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger?” He actually meant this and we can learn much about how to love our neighbors when we listen to them. They may still be completely wrong, but you listened and listening has a way of disarming people’s defenses so you can have a good conversation with them.

One of the other reasons we need to get to know our neighbors is because it is so much more difficult to be rude to people when you don’t know them. For example, if you are part of a Facebook group for your neighborhood, you have probably seen people post passive-aggressive complaining about people who live just a couple of doors down from them. Why is it that someone can trash talk someone who lives within fifty yards of them? You can do this easily when you don’t know them. We had a post in the Facebook group for our neighborhood one time where a guy posted his neighbor’s address and complained about his barking dogs. The person he was talking about responded and asked why he didn’t just come over and say something to him instead of posting about him online. I don’t remember the guy’s response, but his basic point was that he didn’t want to. This kind of rudeness has a difficult time thriving when you know a person. When you know them, their lives, and their stories you cannot justify rudeness any longer. They aren’t a house number; they become flesh and blood people with lives and stories.

This kindness also stretches to people we think don’t deserve it. Now what I am about to say mainly applies to political conservatives and I am one too. The reason I feel like I can single out political conservatives is because Shelby County is the second most Republican county in the state. When I went to vote last year, sixty-six Republicans had signed in to vote and there were zero Democrats. If I lived in Manhattan I would single out more liberal minded people and expose their biases, but I’m in Shelby County and we need to discuss the areas where we have blind spots. We do a lot of talking about needy people in ways that sound like Ron Swanson from the show Parks and Recreation. He once said “Capitalism- God’s way of separating who is smart and who is poor.” I’m afraid we talk like this too often and not for the sake of a laugh on a sitcom. We take consistent potshots at the poor, the immigrant, and the outcast in a way you never see from Jesus.

So what do we do when we have no desire to show kindness to someone? Maybe we are dealing with a person we just have no compassion for or they have done something to us and we believe we cannot forgive them. We must remember the kindness of God in the Gospel. We only have hope, we only have life, we only have peace, and we only have joy because of the kindness God has shown us through Christ. Remembering the kindness he has shown to us, let us show that kindness to others in hopes they will see our good works and glorify their father in heaven.

Related Posts:
“David and God’s Grace”
“David and the Covenant”

For Further Reading:
2 Samuel: Out of Every Adversity by Dale Ralph Davis