Jesus is the king in whom mercy and justice meet (2 Samuel 18)

Which do you care about more, mercy or justice?  You might think that mercy is the answer I am looking for, but actually justice really matters.  When someone commits a crime and the courts give an overly lenient sentence, we should be angry.  Cliona Saidear, Executive Director of the Rape Crisis Network, says that lenient sentences can have a real impact on survivors.

However, I also think of David Wilkerson, the author of ‘The Cross and the Switchblade.’  David was watching a young man who was on trial for a terrible crime, and yet his heart went out to him.  He was filled with love for the criminal.  Mercy brought David to New York to work with street gangs.

In some countries, politicians on the right want to be tough on crime, and politicians on the left want prison to only be about rehabilitation (and not about punishment).  The left accuses the right of lacking mercy and the right accuses the left of being soft on crime.

But supposing you didn’t have to choose between mercy and justice.  What if Christianity doesn’t fit easily into the right or left of the political spectrum but is a challenge to the worst instincts of both.  What if we follow a king who works for justice now (and promises a day of ultimate justice), yet this king is also the most merciful person who has ever walked the face of this earth.

This morning’s passage is a story of mercy and justice failing to meet, Joab wants justice and David wants mercy for Absalom, and yet it points ahead to the king who can show mercy without sacrificing justice.

The Backstory

Everything seemed to be going well for David, until he saw Bathsheba bathing on her roof.  Rather than turning his eyes away, he gazed and lusted.  His lust led to adultery and murder.  While God brought him to repentance, his failure led to awful consequences.  Through the prophet Nathan, God said to David, ‘I will rise up evil out of your own house.’  David’s son Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar.  David ignores justice and does nothing.  So, Absalom takes matters into his own hands and murders Amnon.  Again, David does not see that justice is done.  However, there is now tension between David and Absalom.  Absalom turns the hearts of the people against David and sets himself up as king.  David has to leave Jerusalem and flee from Absalom.  Now David is about to take his kingdom back.

The kingdom centres on the king

David wants to go with the army.  But the men say, ‘You shall not go out.  For if we flee, they will not care about us.  But you are worth ten thousand of us.  Therefore, it is better that you send us help from the city’ (3).

The people realised that the king is the centre of the kingdom.  As Christians we are followers of a different king, Jesus.  Is King Jesus the centre of our little outpost of his kingdom?  It can be so easy for us to want to get our way in our local church.  I once heard someone say that ‘this is a Willis church’, because the Willis family dominated it.  But no family, pastor, elders, or long-term members are to be the core of who we are.  We are to submit and be guided by the word that points to King Jesus, to show the world how great King Jesus is, and to love one another in a way that brings King Jesus pleasure.

Later in this chapter, the commander, Joab, tells a certain man that he would have been glad to give him ten pieces of silver and a belt to have struck Absalom dead.  But the certain man replies, ‘Even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not reach out my hand against the king’s son, for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, “For my sake protect the young Absalom”’ (12).  This certain man will not disobey the king.  He doesn’t regret that his obedience may have cost him.  Those of us who love King Jesus should show our love through obedience.  As the apostle John writes, ‘This is love for God: to obey his commands.  And his commands are not burdensome (1 John 5:3).

The king is full of love

David’s love for his son Absalom is very touching.  Absalom is a traitor who deserves to die.  But David pleads with his three commanders, ‘Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom’ (5).  When he hears of Absalom’s death, he is heartbroken.  ‘And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom!  Would I have died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”’ (33).

Over the wicked city of Jerusalem, Jesus contemplates the judgement that is coming its way and weeps.  ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  (Matthew 23:37).  On the last day, if you end up facing the Son of David as your judge rather than your Saviour, it will not be because of any lack of mercy on his part, but because you spurned his grace. 

The kingdom is secured by God

Before we see how this passage points us to the kingdom that can unite mercy and justice, I want us to see one other thing about David’s kingdom: it was God who secured his kingdom!

You might remember all the way back to the story of David and Goliath.  David was keen for people to see that it was not his skill with the sling that gave him victory.  He said, ‘The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine’ (1 Samuel 17:37).  It is a principle that we see in the Old Testament that ‘the battle belongs to the Lord’ (1 Samuel 17:47).  It is seen in this morning reading in the fact that, ‘The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that da than the sword’ (8).  There were more accidents in the undergrowth than men killed by the sword.  When Absalom is caught it is the result of one of these accidents.  This is not a battle that the people could take great credit for, ‘the battle belonged to the Lord.’

We are called to speak about Jesus, but it will not be our words that will bring our friends to faith; it is Jesus who opens the hearts of women and men that they will believe (Acts 16:14).  As a church, we are privileged to pray love and act in away that draws people’s attention to Jesus, but it is not us who build the church.  Jesus says, ‘I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it’ (Matthew 16:18).  There are many things that can be learned at church-growth conferences, but I witnessed a couple who were used to grow a church through the simple God-dependent tools of prayer, love and confidence to teach the Bible.

Conclusion:  There is a kingdom where mercy and justice meet
There are things called defeater beliefs.   These are beliefs that people hold that stop them believing the gospel.  One defeater belief is: ‘how can a loving God send people to hell?’  But why not ask people this: who would you have in heaven and who would you have in hell?  Maybe they will reply, ‘I would have good people in heaven and evil people in hell?’  You can then tell them that Jesus is more loving and just than they are.

Jesus care more about justice in the fact that he not only judges our actions but also our motives.  He sees that all have rebelled against his kingdom and all deserve to be excluded from it.  Hell will see that perfect justice is served.

Jesus is also more merciful than they are.  They would invite those they consider good people, but Jesus calls those who he knows are evil.  There will be people in heaven that no one else would have thought of inviting.

But how can Jesus invite wicked people into his kingdom?  At infinite cost to himself.  Many people might be like David, who was willing to give his life for his son.  ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would I have died instead of you, O Absalom, my son my son!’  Yet while we were still sinners Christ died for us.  He died for us in order that he could be justice and the one who justifies those who place their faith in him.  In him justice and mercy meet!