Second Sunday in Lent

I was struck this week by a passage in 2 Samuel 14. Absalom, David's rebellious son, has fled the capital city, estranged from his father, King David. David agonized over Absalom and longed to have him back. Reasons of pride and state seemed to make that impossible, however. David's aide and friend, Joab, discerned the king's agony and strategized with a "wise woman" from Tekoa to convince David to effect the return home of his beloved Absalom.

The wise woman seeks and is granted an audience with the king. She tells him a story, purportedly about herself and her son. He has killed his brother in a fight in the fields. The rest of the family wants to avenge the death of the one brother with the death of his murderer. The old lady pleads with David for the life of her remaining son, even though he is a murderer. David grants her request with a promise of protection.

The wise woman speaks again. With Nathan-like acuity she charges the king with duplicity for he is planning to do to Absalom just what he has sworn himself to prevent in the case of the woman's remaining son. she says,"For in giving this decision (about her son) the king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished one home again" (2 Samuel 14:13)!

David heard God's word in this woman's words and summoned Absalom back to Jerusalem, eventually forgiving him.

The potency of this passage for Lent lies in v.14 where the wise woman says: "we must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished forever from his presence."

what an astonishing saying. It is gospel if it is anything. As we move deeper into Lent our reflections turn away from ourselves and our disciplines of self-examination to intense reflections on the life and death of Jesus, Immanuel, God-with-us. What we see unfold in his life we have discovered are precisely the plans the Great King, God, has "devised" so as not to keep outsiders like us, like me, from his presence forever.

Herein lies the hidden hope of Lent. It is good, however - remembering that the Sundays in Lent are not themselves part of Lent but rather retain their character as "Little Easters" and thus invite us to acclaim and embrace the good news of the gospel even in the midst of Lent - it is good to allow this hope to surface so as to season of examinations and repentances with grace and gratitude. In other words, our Sunday celebrations of gospel in Lent transform the hard and painful work of examination and repentance into gifts. Such grace-seasoned gifts lead us not into condemnation and despair but rather deeper into the life and suffering of the One who blessed his tormentors at the cross with these words, which belong to us as well, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).

May such a blessing resonate deep in our hearts this second Sunday in Lent and may we go forth with courage, vision, and humor into the Lenten work that lies ahead!

Peace,
Lee Wyatt