Jim:
2 Samuel 18:19-33
Maybe it’s because I am a father, or maybe it’s because I have recently witnessed a father grieving at the death of his son; whatever the reason, I find a great poignancy in these verses today. David’s grief at the death of Absalom, despite Absalom’s treachery, is touching. For me, though, the real poignancy of David’s grief lies in it’s resonance with the grief that God suffers, not in the death of Jesus––though that surely grieved God as Father––but in the disobedience that we, God’s people, continue to demonstrate. In this context then, David’s words in verse 33 become a foreshadowing of God’s actions in Jesus Christ: “Would I had died instead of you…” That’s exactly what God does in the crucifixion.
Mark 12:13-27
Verses 24 and 27 struck me today: “Jesus said to them, ‘Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?…He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.’” The argument in this passage is about a very minor point in relation to the resurrection. Jesus quashes the conversation by claiming that his opponents are not well-informed about scripture or about the power of God. God is not at work in the minutia of arcane debate, but in the daily miracles of life and the grace that we experience. If we really paid attention to what God was doing we would not worry about issues such as this one (to whom will a woman be married in the resurrection?) but would rejoice and live in love and in community with God and with one another.
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