Scripture: 2 Samuel 9:1-13
There’s a special word in today’s scripture, which, in English, gets translated as “kindness”—as in verse 1: “And David said, ‘Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?’” The word shows up again in verses 3 and 7. While “kindness” is a wonderful virtue in and of itself, I worry that that word is a bit mild for conveying the true and full meaning of the Hebrew word underneath the English word “kindness.” In Hebrew the word is hesed.
Sally Lloyd-Jones, who wrote a wonderful illustrated children’s Bible I heartily recommend called the Jesus Storybook Bible, defines “hesed” as follows: It is “God’s never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.”[1] I think you’ll agree, that implies much more than mere “kindness.”
And that word “hesed”—or that concept—is at the heart of today’s scripture; indeed, it’s at the heart of God’s love for us. It’s practically the meaning of life! So this sermon is all about hesed.
And I want to make three points about it: Number One, the reason for hesed. Number Two, the recipient of hesed. And Number Three, the results of hesed. Reason, recipient, and results… But first, number one… the reason for it.
Years ago, in the early 2000s, there was a great TV show on NBC called Ed, starring Tom Cavanaugh and Julie Bowen. Ed is a lawyer who has recently moved back to his hometown—a small town in the midwest—after his career and marriage suddenly fall apart. The show is all about Ed rebuilding his life in his hometown and and reconnecting with people he grew up with.
In what is probably my favorite episode, Ed and his best friend Mike learn that a high school classmate of theirs—who, back in high school, was one of their dear friends—has died unexpectedly. As so often happens, both Ed and Mike had lost touch with their friend after graduation. But the friend’s death causes them to reminisce about the fun times they had together.
We learn, for instance, that the three of them were in a rock band together in high school. And as they’re reminiscing about that, Ed remembers something: when they were in eleventh grade, their deceased friend had written a song about a girl who broke his heart. And their friend loved this song so much that he made Ed and Mike promise him—way back then—that if he dies first, the band would play this song at his funeral. Because this song meant everything to him! In a flashback, we see the friend begging him, “Ed, you’ve got to promise me that you’ll do this!” And Ed promises him.
So Ed tries to persuade Mike and the other former band members to reunite and pay tribute to their former bandmate by playing this song at his funeral.
One problem, however: the song is about as embarrassingly bad as any rock song written by a 16-year-old kid. Even worse, the song’s chorus includes an expletive—a curse word—so it’s completely inappropriate for a funeral.
But Ed made a promise to his friend—doggone it—and even though no reasonable person would expect him to, Ed will do everything in his power to keep his promise—it doesn’t matter how embarrassing the song is!
And by the way, he does keep his promise; the band does reunite; and the band does perform the song! And everybody loves it of course.
Believe it or not, something a little like that is happening in today’s scripture…
Verse 1: “And David said, ‘Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?’”
The “house of Saul”—that is, the family of King Saul. And when David says, “for Jonathan’s sake,” he means, for the sake of a promise that he made to his dear friend Jonathan—a promise born out of David’s great love for him. Like Ed in the TV show, David intends to keep that promise… no matter how crazy it would surely seem to others!
See, Jonathan was the son of King Saul. Jonathan risked his life to save David from his father’s murderous jealousy.
By helping David, of course, Jonathan was also working against his own self-interest, and the interests of his own family. Because by rights, Jonathan, as Saul’s oldest son, would have succeeded his father on the throne. But Jonathan was a righteous man and wanted to please God; he knew that God had chosen and anointed David—not Jonathan—to succeed Jonathan’s father on the throne and become the next king. So Jonathan was committed to making sure David became king.
And he and David entered into a covenant—a sacred promise—with one another, which we find in 1 Samuel 20, verse 15: Jonathan said, “treat my family with this faithful love, even when the Lord destroys all your enemies from the face of the earth.”[2] And David promised to do so.
Today’s scripture is David’s effort to keep that promise.
So he summons Mephibosheth, the last living relative of Saul along with Mephibosheth’s son. And what happens next is completely unexpected.
See… Mephibosheth probably doesn’t know about the promise that David made to his father—he was only five years old when his father died. And besides, even if he did know about the promise, who would expect David to keep that promise now? Like Ed keeping that promise he made to his 16-year-old high school friend, it’s crazy!
Why? Because… for more than seven years after King Saul died, David and his troops fought a civil war against allies of Saul and his family—of which Mephibosheth is part. And now that David has finally secured his kingdom and conquered all his enemies, the last thing that Saul’s grandson should expect is that David would be summoning him in order to “show him hesed.”
Yeah, right! Let’s get real here! That’s not how life in the “real world” works! Mephibosheth goes into this meeting with David thinking he’s a dead man!
After all, throughout the history of Israel—as in the rest of the ancient world—when a new dynasty came to power, the surviving members of the previous king’s family were often killed in order to secure the throne. For example, when Baasha overthrew the house of Jeroboam, 1 Kings 15:29 says he “left to the house of Jeroboam not one that breathed.” Later, when Zimri seized power, he wiped out the entire family of Baasha.[3] 1 Kings 16:11. And when Jehu carried out his coup against the house of Ahab, 2 Kings 10:11 says he killed all who remained of Ahab’s household.
In the ancient Near East this was the brutal political logic of the day: if someone belonged to the previous royal family, they were seen as a potential rival and were usually executed.
With that in mind, David might have done the same to Mephibosheth, saying, “It’s nothing personal, Mephibosheth. But as long as you remain alive, loyalists to your family’s dynasty may try to make you king in place of me. They may convince others that you should be sitting on the throne. And they may take up arms to make that happen.”
After all, remember in the Christmas story the tragic lengths to which King Herod went to try to stop Jesus from becoming king! Kings tend to be fiercely jealous about potential rivals!
All that to say, when David summoned him, Mephibosheth feared being killed.
And yet… far from executing him, David tells him, in verse 7, “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan…”
For the sake of your father Jonathan.
That’s the reason the life of Mephibosheth, David’s enemy, is not only saved… but exalted to an unimaginably high position in David’s kingdom! It’s for the sake of his father Jonathan…
And something like that happens to us Christians…
You see, in God’s Word, when King David is operating at his very best, as he is here—and one scholar, John Goldingay, says that this chapter represents the high point of David’s life and reign[4]… when David is behaving at his best—when he is at his most faithful to God—we are meant to be reminded of our King Jesus. So David’s treatment of Mephibosheth is intended to point forward to Christ and his relationship with us.
And we see that throughout today’s scripture…
After all, Paul, in Romans chapter 5, says our natural human condition apart from God’s grace is a state of enmity between us and God. Our sin makes us enemies of God. Which makes sense… God is the ruler over all; we owe God everything. Yet all of us, apart from God’s grace, reject his rule over our lives. Left to our own devices, we are rebels and insurrectionists against our King. And apart from God’s grace, we refuse to submit to his kingship.
But Romans 5:8 offers us good news: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners”—that is, while we were still rebels against God, enemies of God, insurrectionists committing treason against God our King—“Christ died for us.”
And so… it’s for Christ’s sake that we’re saved.
And as with David and Jonathan, it’s also based on a promise: God’s promise. Remember the Last Supper: Jesus said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”[5] New covenant. We use that language in our Communion liturgy. A covenant is nothing other than a promise: Just as David promised Jonathan, so God promises us: Through faith in Christ, because of his atoning sacrifice on the cross, God promises to show us unimaginable favor—to give us eternal life… to forgive our sin… to give us the gift of his very Spirit living within us… to adopt us into his family forever.
It’s all for the sake of Christ… It’s all on account of his love and for the sake of his promise that God show us his hesed.
And that’s Point Number One… the reason for hesed.
Point Number Two: the recipient of hesed.
Let’s please notice this important detail from verse 1: David decides in advance to show hesed to Mephibosheth before he even knows the man’s name. Before he knows literally anything about him. Before he knows whether this member of Saul’s family even exists! Do you see that?
“Is there anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness?”
Notice David doesn’t say, “that I may show him kindness if…”
“If his resumé is sufficiently impressive… If his list of references checks out… If his credit score is okay… If he scored at least 1300 on the SAT… If he went to the right kind of college… If he passes the resumé screening, and then the Zoom interview, and then the in-person interview, and then the drug screening… then—and only then—will he receive my hesed.”
It would hardly be unreasonable for David to want get to know this person first… before he lavishes him with hesed.
After all, Mephibosheth is about to become immensely wealthy. He’s about to enjoy a lifetime of feasting on the most sumptuous meals, prepared by the world’s greatest chefs, served in the world’s finest palace dining rooms. He’s about to enjoy a lifetime of having servants at his beck and call. And look at verse 11: Even though the royal family of which he was part was overthrown, he’s about to become, practically speaking, a prince all over again… He’s about to be adopted into King David’s royal family, and membership in that family has lifelong privileges.
So shouldn’t we at least vet him first? Make sure he’s worthy of all these blessings?
I mean… who among us wouldn’t do that first?
I’m from Atlanta, as you know, which means I grew up a long-suffering fan of the Atlanta Falcons. And Falcons fans know something about disappointment.
In fact, now that the Texas Rangers finally won the World Series in 2023, the Falcons hold a very dubious distinction: among the four major American sports leagues, they are now the oldest franchise without a championship.
And some of you may remember the worst moment of all: the 2017 Super Bowl, when the Falcons somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against a team coached by Bill Belichick—a man with eight Super Bowl rings. Six as a head coach, two as an assistant… So many rings the man can hardly open door knobs with either hand!
A few years ago, the Falcons even interviewed Belichick for their head coaching job. Well, that’s a no-brainer, right? He’s a shoo-in!
No… Somehow… the Falcons decided he wasn’t good enough for them. Dang. The poor guy had to go coach the North Carolina Tar Heels instead! That’s the bottom of the barrel… except for Duke!
But think about that for a second. The worst franchise in professional sports deciding that the greatest coach in the history of the sport doesn’t meet their standards!
Which just proves something about human nature: we have very high standards when it comes to judging who is worthyand who isn’t… so long as we’re not holding ourselves to those standards!
Yet what David does for Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9 completely contradicts the way our world works.
Because David doesn’t evaluate Mephibosheth’s worthiness at all.
He simply shows him hesed.
And this is the kind of love that God shows those of us who’ve become part of God’s family through faith in his Son Jesus. It doesn’t depend on anything that we’ve done in the past, as I’ve already shown.
But get this: it won’t depend on anything we can do in the future… so long as we keep trusting in Christ.
Notice David doesn’t say, “I’m going to show Mephibosheth the hesed of God, but I’m going to do it only on a probationary basis. Yes, I’ve given him this hesed without respect to his performance, but before he becomes a permanent member of the family, well… I’ll make sure that he’s carrying his weight first.”
I know about this… The first step of ordination in the old UMC was to become a probationary elder first… The UMC said, “We’re going to be watching you for the next three years, to make sure your performance is up to our standards… to make sure you don’t mess up too badly!”
David doesn’t do anything like that. He doesn’t say, “I’m going to give Mephibosheth half his land now, and the other half ten years from now… after he proves himself worthy.” No, he gives him everything up front, without condition.
Of course, I suppose even Mephibosheth can say, “You know what, David, I don’t want to live here anymore. I don’t want to be treated like your son. I don’t want to be part of your family anymore.” Just like it’s possible that we Christians can backslide, that we can refuse to confess and repent of present-day sins, refuse to trust in Christ any longer for our salvation… That’s an option for us Christians at any point.
But I’m not planning on doing that, are you?
No… In Jesus Christ, God has given us his hesed… He’s given us his “never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.” It’s not based on what we’ve done in the past, and it’s not based on future performance.
It’s on the basis of grace alone. Amazing grace!
And that’s Point Number Two: the recipient of hesed.
Point Number Three: The results of hesed…
In verse 7, when David tells Mephibosheth, “You shall eat at my table always,” what is he really telling him? The answer is given in verse 11: “So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table, like one of the king’s sons.”
The invitation to eat at the king’s table was nothing less than an invitation to become a member of the royal family—to become a beloved child of the king.
Does that sound familiar?
The New Testament tells us that through faith in Jesus we are welcomed into God’s family as his children. As John 1:12 says, “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Paul says something similar in Romans 8:15, where he says we have received “the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” In other words, we are no longer outsiders or enemies—we are family.
In Galatians 4:4-7: through Christ we receive adoption as sons, so that we are no longer slaves but sons—and if sons, then heirs through God.
And that idea of adoption—of being welcomed into a family you didn’t deserve to belong to—is something I understand personally.
As many of you know, I was adopted. My mom died back in 2012. She told me not long before she died that after she and Dad adopted me, she lived in fear—for about two years… she lived in fear that someone from the government, someone from the adoption agency, was going to show up at the door, “I’m sorry, Mrs. White… There’s been a mistake. We’re going to have to take Brent back, to give him to someone else.”
For most of my life, I never knew that Mom wrestled with those kinds of fears. Maybe some of you who are adoptive parents know that feeling?
But then Mom said, “I don’t know why I was afraid that was going to happen. After all, I wasn’t going to let that happen. No one was going to take you away from me. I would have fought with all my might to keep you! If they tried to take you away from me, they would have to kill me first. Because that’s how much I love you.”
Those are almost the sweetest words anyone has ever spoken about me!
Almost…
Because, brothers and sisters, God says—in so many words—the same thing about you and me through his Son Jesus:
“No one is going to take you away from me. I will fight for you. Because I love you, I will even die for you.”
And then God, in the person of his Son Jesus, did exactly that.
That’s how much God loves you.
And because of that love—because of that hesed—God does for us what David did for Mephibosheth.
He brings us into the palace. He gives us a seat at the table.
Not because we deserve it.
Not because we earned it.
Not because we proved ourselves worthy—and not because we ever could.
No—it is for the sake of God’s Son Jesus that we are welcomed.
And that is the good news of the gospel:
In Jesus Christ, there is a place at the King’s table for people like us.
In Jesus Christ, we are beloved sons and daughters of our heavenly Father.
In Jesus Christ, we are the objects of God’s “never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.”
And… Here this good news: “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
[1] Sally Lloyd-Jones. The Jesus Storybook Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zonderkidz), 74.
[2] 1 Samuel 20:15 NLT
[3] 1 Kings 16:11
[4] John Goldingay, 1 & 2 Samuel for Everyone (Louisville: WJK, 2011), 139.
[5] Luke 22:20 ESV