“Treasuring God’s Love”
2 Sam. 18:5-33
This morning I am simply going to share A STORY with you, a true story; an ancient, yet contemporary story. No fancy outline, not three points, or four or two points, no alliteration - just a story with some comments. It’s A STORY ABOUT GRIEF AND LOVE, about grief which is borne out of love. So it’s also a familiar story, because we’ve been there - we’ve grieved. And we’ve grieved because we’ve loved. This story about a father’s grief is, at heart, a story about a father’s Love.
We begin, then, with A STORY OF DAVID’S LOVE. Let me set the stage for you - share some program notes, bring us up to date with the action. David, of course, is king. He was then, and still is, the greatest of the kings of Israel. But he was human. As we’ve seen, he committed adultery and then, in an attempt to cover it up, murder. But God was watching. And He rendered judgment and doled out punishment upon David: “Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house...the son born to you will die.” At the time of this 18th chapter, the son who was the product of adultery, had died. In addition, David’s eldest son, Amnon, fell in love with his half sister Tamar and eventually raped her. Absalom, another of David’s sons, hated Amnon for this, and secretly vowed revenge. The sword was alive and well within David’s household. Two years passed and Absalom threw a major party for the purpose of killing Amnon. The party was a success and Amnon was killed. Absalom now had to flee to escape the rage of David. (We almost need the TV Guide or weekly soaps update to keep track of the story, don’t we?)
Several years passed in this highly dysfunctional family, with Absalom all the while plotting how he could over throw his father and become king. Eventually Absalom wound up with his supporters in Jerusalem and David fled to the wilderness with his supporters. At chapter 18, the battle lines have been drawn. Civil war is about to break out between the forces of father and son. The kingship is at stake. More than just the future of a family, the future of the Kingdom is at stake. And David’s last words to his military leaders? “Be gentle with the young man Absalom for my sake.” David loved his son. Even with the kingdom at stake, David loved.
Perhaps this is really more than a story of David’s love - it’s really A STORY OF PARENTAL LOVE. Only a parent’s love could ignore the miserable, deadly deeds and aims of Absalom and so David was willing to risk everything to spare his son. While David may have been afraid of losing his throne, he was more afraid of losing his son. As Frederick Buechner has put it, “Absalom was the thorn in David’s flesh but was also the apple of David’s eye.”
Parental love is a powerful force. As someone has said, “No one loves you like your kin.” Or, perhaps more accurately, NO ONE LOVES US LIKE THE ONE WHO GAVE US LIFE. Absalom cannot kill David’s fatherly love. Parents always pray for, hope for, and want the best for their children. And many of us have been there and done, and are doing that. We constantly pray to and plead with God to turn the tide in our rebellious children’s lives. We may hate everything they do and say - but we love them. We gave them life. They are a part of us, and always will be. We see the apple and don’t feel the thorn. PARENTAL LOVE IS UNDYING. So we feel with David. “Take it easy on my son. He may be ready to overthrow me, take my power, ruin the kingdom - but he’s my son. Take it easy on him.” It’s preposterous; it makes no sense; it’s absurd. But it’s parental love.
Well, to make a short story even shorter, Absalom, as we read, got his head caught in a tree - (just the latest of many hang ups in his life!) - and was then killed by David’s men. Word is finally sent to David, who responds with, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son, Absalom! If only I had died instead of you - O Absalom, my son, my son!” “If only I had died instead of you.” This is really A STORY OF PROXY LOVE. Investment companies, corporations, life insurance companies regularly send shareholders notices about annual meetings. New members are to be elected to the Board of Directors, and they ask the shareholders to send back a card giving permission to a certain person to be their proxy to vote - TO BE THEIR SUBSTITUTE IN THE PROCESS. So David longed to substitute for Absalom in death, to be his proxy, to die in his place.
Perhaps part of David’s response was guilt - it was his sin, after all, which activated the sword within his family. Certainly he knew why this was all happening. But more than that, all parents want to be proxy for their children. Age is no factor - whether the parents are 26, 56, or 96 they will say, upon the death of their children, “It should have been me. Children should not die before their parents! Why couldn’t it have been me?” A proxy love. Regardless of the life the child has lived, a parent wishes to substitute self for the child. It’s just the nature of proxy love. In commenting on David’s proxy love, Buechner writes, “He meant it, of course. If he could have done the boy’s dying for him, he would have done it. If he could have paid the price for the boy’s betrayal of him, he would have paid it. If he could have given his own life to make the boy alive again, he would have given it. But even a king can’t do things like that. As later history was to prove, it takes a God.”
So, really, this is A STORY OF GOD’S LOVE. I mean, talk about a parental, preposterous, proxy love! Here we are - like Absalom - in rebellion. We, too, have gone against our Father. We, too, have taken matters into our own hands. We, too, have tried to seize control of our destiny. We, too, have tried to usurp our Father’s throne and rule and our own lives. We have grieved our Father! And yet, WE ARE LOVED! After all, no one loves us like the one who gave us life! As absurd as it is, as preposterous as it sounds, it’s true! Our Father still loves us - He always will. In fact, he loves by proxy! Listen: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”… “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Indeed the Father gives everything for us - even His own Son. In the words of William Willimon, “The cross does not set everything right, The cross does not erase the seriousness of the evils we commit. Rather, the cross forgives and makes it possible for life to continue, despite tragedy. David would have given his life to save his son from death. Here, at Calvary, is a Father who suffers with and for his Son, who suffers for us. There, on the cross, God’s whole, tragic human family was gathered, embraced, forgiven, saved by a Father who, in grief, loves us yet.”
Fridtjof Nansen, the great Norwegian explorer, went North to fathom the depths of the Arctic Ocean. After he found the place where he could lower his lines, he lowered his first line. It didn’t reach the bottom. In his log book he wrote, “Deeper than that.” The next morning he dropped his second line, which also failed to touch the bottom. In his log book he again wrote, “Deeper than that.” He continued with all of his lines but couldn’t find a line that would touch the bottom of the vast ocean. After each attempt he would write in his log book, “Deeper than that.” Finally, in frustration, he tied all his lines together and dropped them into the ocean; still they did not reach the bottom. He wrote in his log book, in capital letters, “EVEN DEEPER THAN THAT!”(1) If it were possible to tie together all the sins we have committed and measure the depths to which we have fallen through our sin, still God’s love is “EVEN DEEPER THAN THAT!”
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”… “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’” As a hymn-writer wrote, “O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me! Underneath me, all around me, is the current of his love, leading onward, leading homeward to that glorious rest above.” (2)
Heading into the 1998 Olympics, Michelle Kwan was favored to leave Japan with the gold medal in figure skating and 15-year old Tara Lapinski was expected to bring home the silver. But Tara captured the gold. Michelle was disappointed and hurt, but gracious. Some of her hurt slipped out when she sent a message to her family on television. She said, “I love you, Mom and Dad, and Karen and Jimmy. I hope you still love me.” “I hope you still love me.” Absalom was there. “I hope you still love me.” King David was there. “I hope you still love me.” I’ve been there. Have you? God’s love in Jesus is even deeper than that! HIS LOVE DOES NOT DEPEND ON OUR PERFORMANCE; HIS LOVE HAS NO CONDITIONS. GOD LOVES US BECAUSE HE LOVES US! AND IT’S A LOVE WE CANNOT LOSE.
Hear me now - no matter how rebellious you have been, no matter how far you have wandered, no matter how far you’ve fallen, no matter how great your failures, - no matter how deeply you’ve grieved our Father - God will not quit on you! You may say “I’m no good to anybody. I’ve let people down.” God says, “I’ll take it.” You may say, “But I’ve made mistakes.” God says, “I’ll take it.” You may say, “I’m clumsy, untalented, ignorant. I’m worthless.” God says, “I’ll take it.” You may say, “You don’t know where I’ve been. You don’t know what I’ve done.” God says, “Yes, I do. I’ll take it.” You may say, “But I’ve lied. I haven’t shown love. I have nothing to give.” God says, “I’ll take it.” You may say, “But I’ve done terrible things.” God says, “I know you’re failures. You may think you’re beyond reach, but listen…Every wrong you’ve done, I know about it. If you’ll give it to me, I’ll take it. And in you I will create marvelous wonders. Give me everything you have. Your pain. Your sin. Your failure. Everything. I’ll take it.” (3)
I know - it makes no sense - it’s absurd - it’s unbelievable! But it’s true. God’s love in Jesus Christ is preposterous - but oh, so powerful. With Paul (Eph. 3:17-19 NLT), I pray that “…your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” May we learn to truly treasure God’s love.
(1) Taken from Believer’s Chapel Tape Ministry, (McRae-Ephesians), as reported by Pastor Roy L. Whaley
(2) Samuel Trevor Francis, “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus”
(3) From “I’ll Take It.”, a video from www.sermonspicecom
