Tragedy Into Art, Weakness Into Strength
June 20, 2018·Jon Berglund
“The king covered his face and cried aloud, ‘O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!’” – 2 Samuel 19:4
If you’ve been reading along with our Pause Bible Reading Plan, you’ve probably noticed that David’s life is filled with tragedy. By this point in the story, he’s already lost three sons. First, the child of his affair with Bathsheba died in infancy. Then his firstborn, Amnon, was murdered by David’s other son, Absalom, for raping their sister, Tamar. Most recently, Absalom was put to a gruesome death by David’s general, Joab.
I’ve never read “Game of Thrones,” but I’m pretty sure it goes something like that.
David, of course, was devastated. His household was in ruins, and the blame, for the most part, fell to him. If he hadn’t taken Bathsheba… if he had sought justice for Tamar… if he had reconciled with Absalom… if he….
I grew up thinking David was a real hero and, in some ways, he really was. The Book of Hebrews says that “through faith,” he and many other rulers of Israel “conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies” (see Hebrews 11:32-34).
But, as heroic as David often was, he did some really evil things, and there’s no way to overlook that or dismiss it. David represents, like so many of our Old Testament heroes, the mixture of good and evil we can find if we look no further than the end of our nose.
Almost a millennium later, another man entered Jerusalem from the east. This time, He wasn’t a king returning from exile; He was a rabbi coming to give up His life. He too would be crowned, but with thorns, not gold. He too would eventually die, but He would also rise from the grave.
The promise of Jesus is not that He will erase tragedy from our life canvas, but that He will turn it into art, just as He turned David’s weakness into strength. Tradition says that David wrote Psalm 51 when his child with Bathsheba fell ill and Psalm 3 when he was fleeing from Absalom. His sin and his suffering would become his song.
Sometime after David died, when the nation of Israel had experienced even more tragedy, a prophet looked ahead to Jesus and ascribed these words to Him:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendor.” – Isaiah 61:1-3
Where there are ashes, there will be beauty. Where there is tragedy, there will be art.
Pastor Jon Berglund
