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Thursday – Second Week – OT2
Readings: I Sam 18:6-9, 19:1-7; Mk 3:7-12.
1/ First Reading: RSV 1 Samuel 18:6 As they were coming home, when David returned from slaying the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with timbrels, with songs of joy, and with instruments of music. 7 And the women sang to one another as they made merry, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” 8 And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him; he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; and what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9 And Saul eyed David from that day on.19:1 And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted much in David. 2 And Jonathan told David, “Saul my father seeks to kill you; therefore take heed to yourself in the morning, stay in a secret place and hide yourself; 3 and I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you; and if I learn anything I will tell you.” 4 And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been of good service to you; 5 for he took his life in his hand and he slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced; why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?” 6 And Saul hearkened to the voice of Jonathan; Saul swore, “As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death.” 7 And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.
2/ Gospel: RSV Mark 3:7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed; also from Judea 8 and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from about Tyre and Sidon a great multitude, hearing all that he did, came to him. 9 And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they should crush him; 10 for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him. 11 And whenever the unclean spirits beheld him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12 And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.
I. THEME: Christ is God’s perfection.
In life, people must go through many trials and errors before they can be successful and perfect; as a Vietnamese adage says, “failure is the mother of success.” The author of the Letter to the Hebrews mentioned this concept right from the beginning of his Letter: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Heb 1:1-2). When the perfection comes, the imperfection passes. People need to recognize the perfection and follow it; not to stubbornly hold on the imperfection.
Today readings give us two examples of the perfection. In the first reading, Saul wanted to kill David out of jealousy, because the Israel’s women praised David more than him. But Saul’s son, Jonathan, advised him not to do that because David helped him to kill Philistines’ Goliath and to be victorious over their armies. In the Gospel, when people heard about what Jesus has done to many, they came to Jesus from everywhere to listen to his teachings and to be healed by Jesus.
II. ANALYSIS:
1/ Reading I: Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?
1.1/ Saul was jealous with David: Today passage continued after the event in which David killed Goliath of the Philistines and cut his head to bring home. As David was coming home, the women came out of all the cities of Israel and sang to one another as they made merry, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousand.” When Saul heard that he was very angry, he said to himself, “They have ascribed to David ten thousand, and to me they have ascribed thousands; and what more can he have but the kingdom?” And Saul planned to kill David from that day on.
When people are so familiar with richness, fame and power, they are easy to forget their past and the reason why they were advanced to their success. In Saul’s case, he belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest of the twelve tribes. He was also a lowly shepherd, but because of God’s love, he was anointed to be the Israelites’ king. Another truth Saul needs to be humbly recognized is that God gave him an opportunity to fulfill his mission as a king; but because he disobeyed God, he was dethroned by Him.
1.2/ Jonathan devised a plan to save David from his father: Saul’s jealousy led him to his intention to kill David. He spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted much in David. He did two things to save David.
– First, he revealed to David his father’s intention: “Saul my father seeks to kill you; therefore take heed to yourself in the morning, stay in a secret place and hide yourself; and I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you; and if I learn anything I will tell you.”
– Second, he tried to convince his father to recognize the truth and to forfeit his wicked intention: “Let not the king sin against his servant David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been of good service to you; for he took his life in his hand and he slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced; why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?”
Saul hearkened to the voice of Jonathan; Saul swore: “As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death.” And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.
People need to discard their pride and selfishness in order to respect and to protect common goods. David was courageous to fight with Goliath and to kill him to protect the nation’s safety which Saul couldn’t do it. Moreover, Saul needs to recognize that he can’t do everything by himself; every generation, God sends exceptional people to protect people’s common good. We should be courage to recognize when our time is due that and let the younger generation to continue our mission. We shall be suffered and unrest if we refused to accept this fact and stubbornly tried to hold on to our power and pride.
2/ Gospel: People from everywhere came to Jesus.
The beginning of Jesus’ ministry was very successful due partly to his new teaching and partly to his healing on people. The good new spread out and many people of the Ancient Near East flowed to Jesus, as Mark reported: “Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed; also from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from about Tyre and Sidon a great multitude, hearing all that he did, came to him.”
(1) Jesus healed people from all kind of diseases: What attracts people the most is to be healed from their sickness. People came to Jesus to be healed because Jesus has God’s power, so that “all who had diseases pressed upon him to touch him.” If Jesus let people press upon each other like that, some accidents might happen; moreover, he came not only to heal, but also to teach people about God’s revelation, Jesus wisely told his disciples “to have a boat ready for him.”
(2) The unclean spirits knew Jesus is the son of God: The title “son of God” isn’t necessary meant Jesus’ divine nature; because this title was used to indicate many different people: the angels (Gen 6:2), the Israel was “a child of God” (Hos 11:1), the Israel king is the son of God, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (2 Sam 7:14), the righteous is the son of God (Sir 4:10)… The unclean spirits might recognize a holy power coming from Jesus which opposed to their uncleanliness and were about to destroy them, so they tfell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.
III. APPLICATION IN LIFE:
– Jesus is God’s perfection. Let trust and learn from him to know about God.
– Since we shall not have much time to learn all interesting things in the world, we should use our limited time to learn the most important thing which is the knowledge about God.
– When God gave us an opportunity to lead His people, try the best as we can to fulfill our duty. If we failed, be content with the result so that we shall not be jealous of the person who success us.