"O ABSALOM, MY SON, MY SON!

Homily for February 4^th, 2014: 2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b ,25-25a, 30-19:3

          We heard last week of David’s great fall from grace: his adultery with Bathsheba, wife of the Gentile Uriah, who was away fighting for the King David; and David’s order for Uriah's arranged death when he refuses David’s plan to have him sleep with his wife, so that when Bathsheba’s child is born, everyone will think that Uriah is the father, and not David.

God sends the prophet Nathan to tell the king the heart-rending story of the rich man who stole the pet lamb of his poor neighbor rather than sacrifice a single animal from his vast flock to prepare a welcome meal for a visitor. Struck to the heart by this tale of injustice, David says, “The man who did this deserves to die.” Whereupon Nathan turns on him and says: “You are the man.”

Finally recognizing his grave double sin, David repents at once. Nathan assures the king of God’s forgiveness but tells him that though the guilt of his sin is taken away, the consequences remain. “The sword will never depart from your house,” Nathan says.  

The consequences of David’s great double sin, adultery and murder, are chaos and violence in his own family. The child born to Bathsheba dies, though David fasts and prays for the little one’s survival. David’s subjects start to turn against him. We heard yesterday about one of them openly cursing the king and pelting him with stones. When one of David’s servants wants to kill the man, David forbids it: perhaps God has told him to curse me, David says. By accepting abuse, David is doing penance for this sin.

Today we hear about a far worse consequence. One of David’s own sons, Absalom, raises a public rebellion against him. It fails. But when the news of Absalom’s death is brought to David, he utters the heart-broken lament that we have heard: “O Absalom, my son, my son. If only I had died for you!”

Our sins always have consequences, even after sincere repentance and forgiveness of their guilt. A college student who parties all semester and, with the knife at her throat at exam time, repents of her sin, is forgiven at once. But the consequences of her laziness remain: a failing grade in her exams, ignorance of the required subject matter, and bad study habits. These consequences must be repaired over time, which is why the theologians call them sin’s “temporal punishment.”