Thirteenth Tuesday after Pentecost, Proper 15: Hanging responsible

Lessons: Psalm 121, 122, 123; 2 Samuel 18:9-18; Acts 23:12-24; Mark 11:27-12:12

Sometimes we betray ourselves.  That is Absalom’s situation today.  Having gotten lost in his own ego or privilege or anger at his father’s lack of care for Absalom’s sister, or something we do not fully see, he has placed himself above his father, David.  So successful is he that his father has abandoned the city of David, Jerusalem and taken to the hills.  Absalom has not calculated the loyalty that is toward his father and beyond him.  As he literally hangs by his hair between heaven and earth, his life is taken even though his father asks that he be spared. As he hung there, did he wonder at his actions that brought him to this vulnerable moment?

One has to wonder at David who does not seem keen on disciplining his sons.  Was he compassionate without teaching responsibility?  Is this the realm of royal privilege?  He will not deal well with this death.

Yet the truth is Absalom betrayed himself.  His arrogance left him hanging vulnerable to its rewards. Joab and his warriors have made it clear that Absalom will not cost anymore life in Israel. In a plot to hold no one guilty they kill him where he hangs.  All David’s hope for his son dies at their blows.  And yet as I read the story I cannot help but know this is his own doing.  He has taken things too far in his arrogance even as his father did with Bathsheba.

Jesus catches the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in a similar self betrayal.  They choose not to see in his wisdom and actions the deep wisdom of God.  They are presented to us as asking a question by which Jesus sees them not seeking the truth but trickery. He turns the moment.

“I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.” Mark 11:29-30

They will not answer because it will betray their hand. The answer that serves their purpose will rile the people.  They avoid an answer. Jesus in a story reveals the dilemma they live in avoiding costly signs of God’s will.  The message is that their arrogance is causing them to lose sight of God’s work and will.  Thus God’s favor will be removed from them and their privilege gone.

Knowing God’s will is not always easy and yet our acting will betray how and if we are seeking to grow toward this will.  We often think of Jesus as our principle model of compassion and he is.  But he also expects, articulates that God expects, responsibility as well.  If we are to err it perhaps should be toward compassion.  Yet without holding ourselves accountable, responsible for motivations and outcomes, our compassion can warp and not produce the full character we are capable of developing. 

Remember Jesus’ story of the man whose debt is forgiven and he is granted time to collect himself.  He tastes his relief and yet goes out and demands payment of another’s debt to him showing no understanding for the other’s plight. It is like his. Having been granted grace and learning, he was responsible to mirror it. As a result of his own selfish actions, the compassion of his master is removed.

Where has grace entered our lives?  Where has compassion shaped our hope?  Do our values and actions betray us as learning wise compassion, accountable compassion?  What does it look like for us to live reflective of this grace and compassion? How do we administer it such that the recipient is free to receive it and know enough to be responsible to pass it on?