Tales From The Crip

“Tales From The Crip”

Text: I Samuel 20:42; II Samuel 4:4, 9:1-13

I. Introduction

This is a very familiar portion of Scripture. You have probably read it and heard it preached on numerous occasions. We have all been exposed to this story as a great story and example of Grace. David, the king, remembers the poor crippled son of Jonathan. Mephibosheth receives undeserved and unmerited favor from the king. The king brings him in and allows him to sit with his crippled legs under the table hiding his crippled condition. It is indeed a great illustration of Grace. This is perhaps the greatest Old Testament account of grace. I have preached about the meanings of names in this story. The names illustrate for us how we get out of the desert or dry place.

Mephibosheth means “Idol Breaker” and when we break the idols in our life it produces “Micha” Mephibosheth’s offspring which means “Godlikeness.” Again this is a great lesson. But this morning I want to deal with a different angle of this account. I don’t really want to deal with the fact that Mephibosheth was crippled because I didn’t come to find out if anyone in this place is crippled. I already know that there are many under the sound of my voice that are living in a crippled condition. I didn’t come to demean your pain or to attempt to condemn your crippled state. What I want to deal with in this account is why Mephibosheth winds up crippled? I want to pose the question “Why did the son of king end up handicapped and broken”? I also want to look at how he dealt with this issue.

II. Prayer

III. 2 Reasons for Handicap

A. He was mishandled

II Samuel 4:4 tells us that when the news came that Saul and Jonathan were dead Mephibosheth’s nanny picked up the young child and began to run. However, in her haste to flee she drops the boy and both legs were injured, broken, crushed and Mephibosheth ends up crippled for life. Get the scene in your mind. This unsuspecting, innocent young boy is minding his own business when he is scooped up and then dropped into brokenness and pain. In other words, Mephibosheth a healthy young man becomes crippled because he is mishandled. The nanny was trying to help but ended up hurting and her clumsiness creates a crippled.

Many of you come from homes, situations, or experiences at school that caused you to arrive on the campus of SCU crippled. Many of you arrived healthy, unsuspecting, minding your own business only to now after 2 months into a semester to find youself walking with a decided limp. The issue is not are you crippled the issue is why? For many of you like Mephibosheth you can testify to being mishandled and it has produced life altering pain and devastation. Maybe it was your mom or your dad. Unkind words, lack of affection or approval and you find yourself broken and crushed. Perhaps a boyfriend, girlfriend, or a best friend has betrayed, broken your heart, and dropped you in haste. Maybe a roommate, a teacher, administration, or an RA in an attempt to help ends up dropping you. They may have not meant to hurt you. They may have been trying to help but you find yourself dropped. You are crushed in spirit, in emotion. You have been used, abused, and now you look in the mirror and you see a crippled. It could have been malicious and on purpose or it may have been done by mistake with good intentions. However, the result is the same. You are in pain. Your life has been wrecked. You are crippled. You are no longer whole but hurt. No longer victorious but a victim. All because you were mishandled.

B. What he was running from caused him to be crippled

However, there is another way to look at this account. Mephibosheth was crippled because he was running from something. Fear caused him to become crippled. If there had been no fear there would have been no fall. You need to understand that what you are running from will cripple you. If there was no bitterness there would be no brokenness. If there was no shame there would be no shattering.

Many of you are crippled right now because you are looking over your shoulder, afraid, hoping no one will find out what you did 2 years ago, 2 months ago, this weekend in the dorms. Your memory, your past is crippling you. You can’t get what you did off of your mind. You can’t forget where you have been. You can’t forget what you took part in. The result is that you are unable to serve, bear fruit. Because you are in escape mode you are overcome with fear, shame, low self-esteem, embarrassment and what you are running from has crippled you. What are you running from this morning? What secret are you afraid of? What is causing you to be crippled?