Lectionary for Aug. 11, 2024
12th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33; Psalm 130;
Ephesians 4:25–5:2; John 6:35, 41-51
One of my favorite stories from Scripture is that of Tamar and Judah in Genesis 38. Tamar, after being mistreated by Judah and his sons, went out and took what she was owed. As she was about to be punished for seizing the initiative, she asked Judah to “please recognize” that he was responsible for both her predicament and the solution that she had enacted. Judah indeed recognized his role and concluded, “She is more righteous than I” (Genesis 38:26). This week’s lectionary passages also ask us to “please recognize” the fullness of God’s anointed ones—David and Jesus—and to see them for who they really are.
In 2 Samuel 18, Absalom’s rebellion comes to an end. As a quick backstory, Absalom had been hostile to his father David for several years. When his half-brother, Amnon, raped his sister, Tamar (named after her ancestor above), David became angry but didn’t take any action. After Absalom avenged his sister by killing Amnon, he went into self-imposed exile for three years. David longed to see Absalom but didn’t take any steps to reconnect with him, even for years after his son returned from exile.
After this, Absalom, together with Bathsheba’s grandfather, Ahithophel, hatched a plot to remove David from power. These two were united in their fury against David for the rapes of Bathsheba and Tamar, which the king had committed and tolerated, respectively. In this unfortunate family, twisted by rage and revenge, Ahithophel advised that Absalom proclaim himself king in place of his father by publicly raping David’s secondary wives (2 Samuel 16:20-22), as predicted by Nathan the prophet (2 Samuel 12:11-12). This is a horrible, disgusting, evil family that simply digs deeper into violent revenge. This is no simple pursuit of power but the most deeply personal quest to hurt a man who hurt Absalom and Ahithophel, even as they practiced the very acts that they detested. We need to see that so we can recognize who David is.
Instead of building up fury within himself, David recognized that his actions regarding both Bathsheba and Tamar were wrong. He longed for the opportunity to end the war peacefully and be reconciled with his son, despite Absalom’s fiery fury toward his father. But Joab denied his uncle, King David, the opportunity for peace and mercilessly killed his own cousin when capture would have been easy. David sought peace in this deeply violent family. And when his own son wanted to murder him, David desired reconciliation. Out of his whole extended family, David practiced forgiveness and mercy, rather than revenge. It was his own passion for repentance when he sinned (and he did sin gravely!) that allowed David to recognize the opportunity to forgive others. That is why he was God’s anointed king.
Jesus challenges all those who would follow him to recognize both that his origins are from heaven, like no one else, and that digging into his material humanity is the only way to truly understand and partake in him as God’s anointed leader.
Hundreds of years later, Jesus challenged his followers to recognize him as God’s anointed. When he proclaimed himself as the bread from heaven, the first objection was not that he was somehow bread but that he was from heaven. How could Jesus come from God? After all, wasn’t he from Nazareth?
Jesus challenged the people by quoting from Isaiah 54:13: “And they all shall be taught by God” (John 6:45). The hopeful future that the prophets predicted during the dark days of deep alienation between the people and God was at hand—if the people would only recognize who Jesus was. The disciples had the opportunity to be taught God’s words directly from God’s Word!
Jesus went on to argue that the manna, as prior bread from heaven, gave life temporarily but those in the wilderness generation eventually died. Jesus as the Bread of Life who came from heaven brought life eternal. If Jesus’ interlocutors had a problem with him being the bread from heaven, he would also challenge them/us to grapple with his “breadiness.” Jesus insists in vulgar terms that his flesh is the bread from heaven. Jesus challenges all those who would follow him to recognize both that his origins are from heaven, like no one else, and that digging into his material humanity is the only way to truly understand and partake in him as God’s anointed leader.
This week, and every week, we are challenged to “please recognize” who Jesus is, and who we are as God’s people. Like David and Jesus, we are deeply immersed in contexts that do not support peaceful and merciful human flourishing. We are called to recognize what God is up to in our lives, our world and in our Messiah.
