David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” “At your service,” he replied. The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”
Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.” “Where is he?” the king asked. Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.” So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.
When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, “Mephibosheth!” “At your service,” he replied.
“Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”
Mephibosheth bowed down and said, “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?”
Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s steward, and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons. (2 Samuel 9:1-11 NIV)
There is a battle going on inside every single one of us. Did you know that? I bet you can feel it. The Bible described that battle for us in one of our lessons today: “The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other” (Galatians 5:17). You have a sinful flesh. And you have the Holy Spirit. What are they doing? Fighting. “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like” (Galatians 5:19-20). But “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). See what I mean? There’s a battle going on inside every one of us.
Here’s one area where the battle is fiercest: Kindness. “What? Kindness? That’s simple, isn’t it?” Let’s see… You come to that four-way stop. You wait your turn. You start to pull out, when the car across from you makes a left turn right in front of you. And you think, “I love him!” I don’t think so! You do the very best job you can, and your co-worker picks out the one little thing you did wrong. And you say, “Thank you. You’re so wonderful!” Not. It’s a daily thing, isn’t it? Kindness or meanness. Forgiveness or revenge. Which side is winning the battle in your heart?
We’ve been hearing about David in our sermons this summer. With God’s help, David finally reached the place everyone wants to be: King! Know what that means? Time for revenge! Remember what Saul—the previous king—had done to David? For years, Saul had chased David around and tried to kill him. He had made his life miserable. Don’t you hate people like that? Now Saul was dead, David was in power, and do you know what everybody expected him to do? Kill them all. Saul’s family that is. That’s what you did in those days when a new regime took over. You killed off everybody from the previous king’s family. Time for revenge, right?
And we say, “People back then were so cruel. We’re not like that today, right? We’re so much more advanced. So much kinder.” Give me a break! When somebody wins, what do they do? Take down everybody else. If you lose, what do you try to do? Take down everybody else with you! The mocking. The condemning. The shaming. The tearing down. The destroying of reputations and lives. That’s just a thing of the past, right? No. If you had unlimited power right now, whom would you get revenge from? Don’t pretend like there’s nobody…
So when David finally got to be king, here’s what he said, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” What? David was supposed to say, “Who’s left to kill?” Instead, he called in Saul’s servant Ziba and said, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?” When was the last time you heard a leader say, “Now that I’m in power, please help me find my enemies so I can be kind to them!” There was one descendent of Saul left. His grandson, Mephibosheth, who was lame in both feet.
So Mephibosheth came before the king. He bowed down to David. I bet he was thinking, “How am I going to die? Beheaded? Stoned? Stabbed? Which way?” Instead, David said to Mephibosheth: “Don’t be afraid, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” Such kindness! Mephibosheth couldn’t believe it. I bet his mouth was open like this: “What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?” And David must have smiled and pulled up an extra chair at the table. “Whom can I show God’s kindness?”
What a powerful story! Actually, there’s a lot more to the story. David mentions Jonathan. Do you know who Jonathan was? It’s hard to think of a kinder person in the Bible than Jonathan. He was King Saul’s son. That means that Jonathan was supposed to be the next king. Except, who got anointed as the next king instead? David. So you’d expect Jonathan to hate David, right? To do everything he could to get rid of him. David was an imposter! But do you know what Jonathan did? He became David’s best friend. He supported him. He defended him. He never complained against him. He blessed him, “May the LORD be with you” (1 Samuel 20:13).
And David never forgot Jonathan’s kindness. Years had gone by. Jonathan had been dead for at least a decade. Time to move on, right? No. When someone shows that kind of kindness to you, it changes you. You can’t forget it. It changed David. “Whom can I show God’s kindness?”
Isn’t this great? This is the kind of message everybody loves today. “Be kind!” That’s what everybody is about, right? You don’t have to be a Christian to eat this up. We all want people to be kind. So we put it on billboards around the city: “Be kind.” We paint it in our hallways at school: “Be kind.” If there’s one thing that people agree on today, it’s: “Be kind.” “Whom can I show kindness?” Yes, that’s what it’s all about! But here’s the question: It is working?
Here’s what happens: You decide that you’re going to make a difference in the world. You’re going to be the change. So you head out into the world to be kind. And then that person snaps at you for no reason. It startles you. But you’re going to be kind! And then that other person completely ignores you. And your heart starts to hurt. But you’re going to be kind! And then another person rips you off. And you start to feel used. And then that other person makes fun of you. And you start to feel so empty. And then finally a person smiles at you, but you snap right back at them. “What in the world are you smiling about when everything is so awful?”
Can you relate? The kinder you try to be, the angrier you get. The angrier you get, the less kind you are. Am I just describing me? I don’t think so. I heard the story of a sociologist who spent her life trying to bring out the best in people. At the end of her career, she wrote about what she learned. “I spent forty years trying to make the world a better place by letting people’s goodness shine. But I realized something: People aren’t good.” She’s right! Just saying, “be kind,” doesn’t make anyone kind. By nature, none of us is kind! We have a sinful flesh. We’re downright mean to each other. So our world is filled with our bitterness and our anger and our revenge. Agree?
Because we skipped over something. David didn’t say: “Whom can I show kindness?” What did he say? “Whom can I show God’s kindness?” Who’s kindness? God’s kindness. If you and I are going to be truly kind, we need a source of kindness that is outside of ourselves. David never forgot God’s kindness to him. God chose David—a shepherd boy—to be the king. What do you call that? Kindness. God gave David the power to kill Goliath. What do you call that? Kindness. God saved David from all his enemies and promised that his love would never depart from him. What do you call that? Kindness. God’s kindness led David to show kindness to his enemies.
Because our God has a habit of showing kindness to those who don’t deserve it. Can you fill in this passage? “Christ Jesus came into the world to save _______ (sinners)” (1 Timothy 1:15). How about this one? “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the _______ (lost)” (Luke 19:10). How about this? “I have not come to call the righteous but _______ (sinners)” (Matthew 9:13). One more: “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he _______ (saved us), not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:5-6). See a pattern? God has a habit of showing kindness to those who don’t deserve it. Like sinners like us.
Mephibosheth wasn’t the last lame man in the Bible. Once, some men brought their lame friend to Jesus. There wasn’t any room, so they lowered him down through the roof. Remember what Jesus said to that lame man? “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Every single one of us has a need even greater than the need to walk. It’s the need to be forgiven of our sins—for every meanness and bitterness and anger and revenge. And what did Jesus do? He died on the cross to forgive every one of our sins. What do you call that? Kindness. Grace. The unfailing love of God.
When someone else shows that kind of kindness to you, it changes you. In this story, we’re told that Mephibosheth had been staying at the house of Makir. Makir must have been another relative or supporter of King Saul. Years after this, David himself needed kindness. His own son Absalom rebelled against him, and King David had to leave Jerusalem and flee for his life. Do you know who met him along the way? Makir. Suddenly, Makir shows up with wheat and beans and honey and cheese curds for David and his family to eat. It’s so unexpected! But that kindness went from God and Jonathan to David to Mephibosheth to Makir to David again… Like a chain.
You’re part of it. God has chosen you to be his. You. He loves you. What do you call that? Kindness. God has forgiven every one of your sins. By the blood of Jesus. What do you call that? Kindness. Jesus has prepared for you a place in heaven by faith in him. What do you call that? Kindness. When someone else shows that kind of kindness to you, it changes you. You can’t forget it. “Whom can I show God’s kindness?” The kindness of God changes us. The kindness of God fills us. The kindness of God motivates us. How can we not ask David’s question: Whom can I show God’s kindness? Whom can you show God’s kindness today?
Being kind isn’t natural. Being kind isn’t easy. There’s a battle going on inside of you, remember? That’s what sends us back to Jesus. That’s what sends us back to Jesus’ cross. There is no sin that Jesus’ cross didn’t forgive. There is no hurt that Jesus’ cross can’t heal. There is no relationship that Jesus’ cross can’t mend. We need our hearts to be filled up with Jesus again and again—with God’s kindness. So that we’re ready to ask: “Whom can I show God’s kindness?”
I heard a great illustration about kindness this week. It said, “The people Paul killed welcomed him into heaven.” Let’s think about that. Paul had started out as a persecutor of Christians. He killed Christians. But Jesus forgave him and sent him out to share his Word. Ultimately, Paul was put to death for his faith too. And “the people Paul killed welcomed him into heaven.” Despite what Paul had done to them, they were so happy he was there, forgiven, saved by the kindness of God, just like they had been. That’s the power of the gospel. That’s the power of God’s grace. That’s the depth of God’s forgiveness. “The people Paul killed welcomed him into heaven.” That’s what the kindness of God does for you. So, “whom can I show God’s kindness?”
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