This passage is based on readings from 2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33, Ephesians 4:29-32, John 6:35, 41-51. You may want to read these passages before proceeding…

To hear an audio recording of this message, click here.

There are some things in life that I will never understand. Life is filled with so many heart wrenching things that are just impossible to understand. I looked at a newspaper Thursday for the first time in several months, and there were seven obituaries, five of the people who had passed on were under age 60. The majority had passed away suddenly in their early 50’s. Amy McMichael, who some of you know from the Wellsville area, was only 43. What tragedy for the families involved. To loose someone at such a young age. How do we make sense of this. It shows that life is so fragile, and we never know the number of our days. We might feel invincible, like nothing can happen to us, yet, this kind of tragedy happens to so many. And deep down, we know we aren’t immune. 

On a lighter note, still a true story, a man robbed an electronics store recently. He took some high end stereos, and several large screen TV’s, and he seemed to get away with it, but was easily apprehended later that same day. It seems that on the way out of the store, the thief took the time to complete an extended warranty form, including his name and home address. Why would he do such a dumb thing??? I just don’t understand.

Some time ago, I heard about a teenager who was very active in his church, he was in the church youth group, had a lot of things going for him. But he was convicted of killing a cab driver late one night. He was a good kid, a good son to his parents, but he got in with the wrong crowd. I don’t know all the circumstances, but it’s one of those things I just don’t understand. 

I do know his parents never stopped loving him. They certainly didn’t agree with what he did, or support what he did, but it hasn’t changed their love for him at all. Perhaps that helps us understand the first reading this morning from 2 Samuel. A little more history, Absalom was David’s third son, the first born to him through Abigail. Absalom might have been a bit of a trouble maker. For example, when he finds out that his half sister Tamar is raped by another half-brother, Absalom is the one that seeks revenge, killing his half-brother. 

Absalom was also quite upset over David’s affair with Bathsheba, and in the chapters leading up to our reading this morning, Absalom is seen engineering and attempting to carry out a coup that would kill David and make himself the new King of Israel. David spends quite some time in exile, hiding from his son. In our reading, we saw how soldiers loyal to David killed Absalom. We also saw that though Absalom had been trying to kill David, and steal the throne away, David never stopped loving him, and was deeply distressed at the news that Absalom had died. 

Let’s face it, when our children are born, they become a very big part of us. No matter how old they are, no matter how rebellious or out of sorts they may become, or how supportive they are, they are still you son or daughter. When our children do well, we celebrate their accomplishments. When they’re not so successful, we are sad for them. In other words, we are open and vulnerable to the children we love. Even though Absalom’s death is brought on in part by David’s own indiscretion with Bathsheba, and a resulting attempt to overthrow his reign, that doesn’t diminish David’s love for his son.

We can hurt one another, and we can be severely hurt by one another. In our reading in Ephesians, Paul addresses our ability to hurt one another and the need to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul advises us that the attitude of gratitude is one of love and adoration. 

Specifically, Paul tells us to watch what we say. We know our words have tremendous power, power to hurt, or to encourage and bring comfort. Watch what you say, and make sure that you’re bringing encouragement and comfort, and never hurt. If you’re words don’t uplift, they’re better off not spoken at all.

He goes on, get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every kind of malice. Whether we want to admit it or not, the Bible tells us that these are the fruits of human nature. This is who we are before Jesus. We might not want to admit that, but that’s what the Bible teaches. Without Christ, our hearts easily become filled with bitterness, rage, and anger. With Christ, these characteristics are transformed into the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Paul encourages each of us to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. That’s the beautiful thing about our life of faith. The standard is high, so high that we know we’ll fall short. We can’t possibly achieve it on our own. The beauty of it is, though, that when we fall short, and we confess that shortcoming to God our Father, and we seek forgiveness, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins. We’re all sinners, we all fall short.  And we can all be forgiven. 

The lesson is to strive toward perfection, and be quick to seek forgiveness when we sin, especially if we hurt someone in the process. But also realize that others will fall short as well, and sometimes they’ll hurt us, and we need to be just as quick to forgive them. That’s an important part of being compassionate, able to forgive others. 

Remember that God forgave you. And each time you pray the Lord’s Prayer, you ask Him to forgive us as we forgive others. Think about that for a minute… We’re asking Him to use the same standard on us that we use with others. Folks, if you aren’t always really quick to forgive others, that might not be a good thing to pray. It is really important that we be quick to forgive others. The reason this is so important is that we can’t love them, if we can’t forgive them.

Fortunately, God has provided the ultimate example of the kind of love we’re supposed to have for one another. In our last reading from the Gospel of John, Jesus has just given one His “I Am” statements. The Jews are grumbling because He said “I am the Bread of life.” “Who does he think he is?” “How can he say stuff like that?” “We know who he is, he’s nobody special.” “He came from Nazareth, he didn’t come down from heaven!” But Jesus knew what they were saying. 

And he responds just as Paul tells us we should respond. He is filled with compassion, loving those who are complaining and not believing in him. And He explains that He is the sacrifice for their sins. His flesh is the bread of life. That all who believe in Him will have eternal life. 

His purpose in coming to earth, His purpose for being born, was to make reconciliation possible between God’s people, and God. They had sinned. They had put too much faith in the law to save them. They followed the letter of the law, but neglected its purpose. Its purpose was to bring people closer to God. Instead, it had the effect of hardening people’s hearts, and actually drove them further from God. 

But because of God’s great love for them, because of God’s great love for you, he sent Jesus, His one and only Son, to be the sacrifice for your sins, for my sins. Because of what Jesus did for us, we can be right with God. We can be reconciled with God. We can have that close relationship with God that we were created to have. The relationship that Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden, before the serpent, before the apple, before sin entered the picture. That’s the relationship we were created to have, we were created to walk with God in the garden. That was His plan. 

When sin entered, the plan went out the window, because God can’t look at our sin. But with Jesus we have the restoration of the plan. The plan is again possible. We can again walk hand in hand with our creator God. We can again approach Him anytime. We can call on Him anytime. He loves to hear from us. Jesus made that possible. 

We’ve covered a lot this morning. We’ve seen the death of Absalom, David’s son, at the hands of David’s loyal soldiers. This happened in part because of David’s indiscretion with Bathsheba, and his disastrous attempts at a cover-up. And even though his son was trying to kill him, we saw how hurt he was when his son died. We’ve been there. We’ve been hurt. And what’s worse, in our insensitivity, we’ve hurt others. 

We’ve seen Paul’s encouragement and his advice for not only how not to hurt others, but in how to be quick to forgive others when we are hurt. And we’ve seen that through it all, God loves us anyway, despite our hurts, and despite our tendency to hurt. He loves us so much He sacrificed His only Son to make us right with Him, to restore us to Him. 

He paid such a great cost. We can never deserve it, we can never live up to it. It’s grace. Let’s accept that gift with the same grace and love with which it’s offered. Let’s truly believe in Jesus. Let’s truly turn to Him, love Him, and follow Him, and give ourselves to Him.