Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, April 9, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Now we’re naming names. We’re directly connecting the rulership of Jesus to the kingship of David, his ancestor and the oft-cited proof that Jesus was/is God’s promised messiah—the fulfillment of this prophecy of Jeremiah’s. David was a beloved king, and God promised that his line would always rule Israel. That only lasted a few generations, of course, but God kept God’s promise (as God always does) in setting David’s descendant, Jesus, not on an earthly throne, but on high, as ruler of the whole earth.
This passage makes me think of Jesus’ humanness—his connection to flesh-and-blood people from history, the embodied-ness of God in the person of Jesus, which is way cool. But it also bears a striking contrast to the humanness of David.
David raped Bathsheba, had her husband, Uriah, assassinated, then married her. He had who-knows-how-many wives and sexual slaves, a slew of offspring, and a son, Ammon, who followed in his footsteps by raping a woman—Ammon’s sister, Tamar. David’s mishandling of his dysfunctional family led to a civil war. His disobedience to God (about a census, of all things) resulted in a pestilence that killed 70,000 innocent people. I could go on. David, a very, very human king, abused his power to the detriment of others.
This is something Jesus does not, would not, could not do. Jesus as the messiah is in many ways not only the fulfillment of God’s promise to David, but a resounding “no” to all the ways David screwed up. Jesus’ humanness showed us that being human doesn’t mean succumbing to our basest instincts, including abuse of power.
Do I believe in the concept of “human nature?” Why or why not?
