Reflection -- Recovering A Love Story

There are many hidden stories in the Bible, seen only in intriguing fragments.  The full story was either never recorded to begin with or pieces of it were removed in editing as the writing was passed down to us through the centuries.  This is particularly true of the stories of marginalized people.  It is, after all, usually the majority and the powerful in any society who get to record its history.  For example, a number of writers in recent decades have begun to recover the stories of many women, told in this fragmentary way in biblical texts written in a world where women took second place.  But those are not the only hidden stories.

Today’s lectionary includes a text marking the end of a great love story, told in fragments in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel; the story of David and Jonathan.  The text also marks the end of a contentious relationship between David, who would soon be Israel’s greatest king, and the king who proceeded him; Jonathan’s father, King Saul.  That relationship was conflicted because the emotionally ill Saul was filled with constant, and unjustified, distrust of David.  As we will see, there may also have been tensions between Saul and David because of David’s relationship with Saul’s son.

The relationship between David and Jonathan was, as David says here at the end, one of “wonderful love.”  That relationship is where many people whose sexual orientation is in the minority find themselves and their own experience within the Bible’s pages ¾  a hidden treasure of affirmation.

If we read 1st and 2nd Samuel from the beginning, we will have already been introduced to both players in our story before they meet.  God had rejected Saul as king of Israel and used the prophet Samuel to find his successor.  While still a boy, David (described as ruddy and handsome, with beautiful eyes; 1 Samuel 16:12) was anointed as Israel’s future king.  We know of Jonathan as one of Israel’s early military heroes, bringing victory in an important battle with the Philistines. (1 Samuel 13:15-14:15)

Their stories come together in 1 Samuel 18.  The young shepherd David had just slain the huge Philistine warrior Goliath.  David was presented to King Saul in Jonathan’s presence.  1 Samuel 18:1 vividly describes his reaction to the young man.  “When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”  Jonathan was obviously smitten. 

The next fragment seems strange, but some commenters have observed that it was quite understandable in the culture of the time, inasmuch as it is like the presentation of a dowry in a betrothal.  “Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.  Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that he was wearing, and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.  (1 Samuel 18:3-4) 

David was taken into Saul’s household and went on the become another of Israel’s military heroes, wining victory after victory over her enemies; but his relationship with the ever more jealous Saul worsened.  Apart from his jealousy of David’s military prowess (and the popularity with the people that brought), Saul was also apparently not pleased about the nature of the close relationship between David and Jonathan:

Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan.  He said to him, "You son of a perverse, rebellious woman!  Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?  For as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established.  Now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die." 

Then Jonathan answered his father Saul, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" 

But Saul threw his spear at him to strike him; so Jonathan knew that it was the decision of his father to put David to death.  Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food on the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, and because his father had disgraced him. 

(I Samuel 20:30-34)

The situation became so stormy between Saul and David that David was forced to leave the court for his own safety.  Following a prearranged plan, Jonathan met David in a field to tell him the news that it is not safe for him to return to the court.  The companions are separated in a tender scene, described at 1 Samuel 20:41-42 and best told in the King James translation:

And as soon as the lad [a servant who had accompanied Jonathan] was gone, David arose out of a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded. 

And Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever.’”

And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city. 

They were never to be together again.  Both Saul and Jonathan were later killed in battle.

This takes us back to where we began; with David’s beautiful and moving eulogy, a eulogy that should remove any lingering doubt about the intimate nature of this bond.  “How the mighty have fallen in battle!  Jonathan lies slain on your heights.  I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me.  Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.”

There is also a postscript to the story.  David takes Jonathan’s child, a crippled boy, under his protection “for Jonathan’s sake.”  (All of 2 Samuel chapter 9 is devoted to this event.)

So, as with so many others, stories of people who are gay are to be found in the Bible.  It is time to claim that heritage.

revclay

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2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

After the death of Saul, David returned from defeating the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days. 

*  *  *

David took up this lament concerning Saul and his son Jonathan, and ordered that the men of Judah be taught this lament of the bow (it is written in the Book of Jashar): 

"Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your heights.  How the mighty have fallen! 

"Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice. 

"O mountains of Gilboa, may you have neither dew nor rain, nor fields that yield offerings of grain.  For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul - no longer rubbed with oil.  From the blood of the slain, from the flesh of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, the sword of Saul did not return unsatisfied. 

"Saul and Jonathan - in life they were loved and gracious, and in death they were not parted.  They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. 

"O daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and finery, who adorned your garments with ornaments of gold. 

"How the mighty have fallen in battle!  Jonathan lies slain on your heights.  I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me.  Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women. 

"How the mighty have fallen!  The weapons of war have perished!" 

[NIV]