The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for Ordinary Time
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Overview and Connections
Scripture always invites us to step outside our comfort zone, but today’s readings even more than usual. If you don’t feel at least a little uncomfortable after hearing these readings, you’re probably not really listening.
1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
Let’s begin by putting this passage into a much wider context. The books of Deuteronomy and Exodus focus on Moses. Then the book of Joshua tracks the nation as they enter the promised land under the leadership of Moses’ aide, Joshua. They begin life there with a theocracy, a society led by God through a series of judges. The book of Judges explores this. How well did it work? At the end of the book, in Judges 21:25, it says, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Knowing human nature, we can assume it was not working all that well.
The last judge was Samuel and scripture then moves briefly into his story. In 1 Samuel 8, the people declare, “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” And so God gives them King Saul and 1 Samuel is largely about that disaster. As early as 1 Samuel 16, however, David is anointed as the next king, held in reserve until the time is right. The rest of 1 Samuel focuses on Saul’s decline and David’s rise. The book concludes with the ultimate failure of Saul and his death. 2 Samuel brings us the golden age of the kingdom under David’s rule.
The lectionary reading is choppy but it gives the gist of the story. In it, we hear of David’s passive-aggressive confrontation of his archenemy Saul, and it is very similar to a story in chapter 24.
The passage talks about David as God’s anointed one. In the New Testament, this word will be translated into the Greek christos, or Christ. We might jump to thinking that this story, then, is somehow about Christ, perhaps not very relevant to us today. But recall 1 Corinthians 1: 21-22, “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” Remember, too, that at our baptism, we are anointed priest, prophet and king. This passage is relevant for us because we, too, are God’s anointed ones.
The passage features a man named Abishai, who is David’s nephew. You can trace that lineage in 1 Chronicles 2. In 1 Chronicles 11 and also 18, Abishai is listed as one of David’s mighty warriors.
V1 sets the stage, with David in hiding from Saul, who is on a campaign to kill David. Some men from the area go to Saul and tattle on David’s location. We know from previous chapters that David has about 600 men with him. In v2, Saul takes a considerably larger force of 3000 men to go hunt down David. In vv3-5, Saul camps out with his soldiers forming a protective ring around him. Rather than one large circle, imagine a very tight circle dozens of people deep. They are out in a remote location and no way are these soldiers going to let anything happen to their commander.
In v6, David sees Saul’s arrival and asks his men who wants to go down and attack Saul. Abishai signs up. Imagine two men sneaking in the complete darkness of a wilderness night through a camp of 3000 warriors. They tiptoe through the sleeping men and arrive right smack in the middle to find Saul asleep. V7 says that Saul’s spear was there, the spear that was the symbol of Saul’s kingship and authority.
Now, Abishai is a true warrior. He’s standing there looking down on a sleeping king and says to David in v8: you’ve been given the victory; let me do the honor, and it will only take one strike. The ultimate disgrace to a warrior, second only to dying bedridden, would be to die from your own weapon. Abishai not only wanted to kill Saul, he wanted it to be the most disgraceful death possible under the circumstances.
But David seems to have an attack of conscience in v9. Now, we know that David was far from perfect. But here he pauses. He doesn’t give in to the natural inclination to want to harm his enemy Saul. Vv10-11 expand on that. Only God can take a life. David says instead of Saul’s life, let’s take his spear (his symbol of power) and water (the only way to survive in the desert) and leave.
Interestingly, v12 tells us that God has caused an unnatural sleep to fall on the army to protect David. This might suggest that God had sanctioned this activity; that perhaps David would have been justified in killing Saul.
Vv14-16 then give us a more human face of David. He takes the spear and the water and, from a safe distance and presumably in the light of day, he begins to taunt the opposing army, questioning their loyalty to Saul and their ability to protect him. In particular, he taunts the general, Abner.
And then in vv17-20 David confronts Saul himself. David lays his case before Saul: that Saul and the Israelites are unjustly hunting David. In v21 Saul admits his guilt on that point, and tries to lure David back with promises. The story up to this point has given many instances where it is clear that these are empty promises and David doesn’t trust Saul anymore. David tells Saul instead to send someone to retrieve the symbol of authority and kingship.
Part of the point of the story is to show that David does not usurp the rightful king, even though he has cause (he has already been anointed king) and ability (the unnatural sleep seemed to invite it). In fact, in v23 David acknowledges that God had given him the opportunity, but he was too noble to take it.
This story is not about reconciliation. In its original context, the purpose of the story is to justify David’s rise to power: that he did so nobly and honorably. It is to say that, when David does become king, it will be God’s doing, not David’s.
One thing that really struck me from this passage is that David contemplates not only God’s plan for his own life, but for others as well. And David acts in the best interest of someone else rather than forcefully bringing about his own destiny. I am forced to ask myself how often do I really give thought to God’s plan for someone else and let that guide my actions?
1 Corinthians 15:45-49
In the previous passage, Paul established that belief in the resurrection is core and essential. The next question might be: what exactly does a resurrected body look like? Paul addresses this in vv33-44. In today’s passage, Paul then compares and contrasts the first Adam in Genesis with the “second Adam,” Jesus Christ.
Sometimes I run up against these complex passages in Paul, and I find I just don’t have what it takes to dig in and understand them well enough to comment on them the way I usually do. Instead, today I offer the rendering of this passage from The Message translation:
We follow this sequence in Scripture: The First Adam received life, the Last Adam is a life-giving Spirit. Physical life comes first, then spiritual—a firm base shaped from the earth, a final completion coming out of heaven. The First Man was made out of earth, and people since then are earthy; the Second Man was made out of heaven, and people now can be heavenly. In the same way that we’ve worked from our earthy origins, let’s embrace our heavenly ends.
1 Corinthians 15:45-49, The Message
I’ll also zero in on the last verse, here from New American Bible: “Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.”
We were born as physical, material beings, just as Adam was created from the earth. That is our starting point, one that Jesus himself embraced. But that is not the whole of the story. We bear the image and likeness of God, of Jesus, of the Heavenly One. As The Message puts it, “ In the same way that we’ve worked from our earthy origins, let’s embrace our heavenly ends.”
What does it mean for you to bear the image of Christ, to embrace your heavenly ends? What does that look like in daily life?
Luke 6:27-38
Last week we got Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, the great reversal, and this week is going to continue that teaching. The passage today is asking the question: what does it look like to live in that blessed state described by the Beatitudes? How exactly do we live out this teaching? Hint: it’s probably not what you wish it would be!
The teaching today revolves around a core human trait and universal urge: to retaliate. To give as good as you get. This is embodied by Abishai in the Samuel reading. Instead, Jesus tells us to embody David. It is the logic of violence versus the logic of redemption. This passage is not about merely tolerating enemies (which are any who are opposed to us), but, rather, actively taking them to heart. It’s about indiscriminate and unconditional love for all.
The Beatitudes last week might have left us feeling like it’s okay to be passive. If there are poor around us, that’s okay because they’re blessed; perhaps they should stay in that poor state. But then we recall Jesus’ manifesto from chapter 4:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free
Jesus did not set down a passive agenda! They are not alibis for noninvolvement.
So today we balance those Beatitudes, that fundamental stance towards life, with how it is lived out, what that sort of life looks like.
It’s probable that the Beatitudes, in some form, were actual historical teachings from Jesus. And then Luke uses the rest of this chapter to contemporize those teachings for his community. It’s as though he wrote down the Beatitudes, and then asked himself, so how do we live that out in the here and now?
We might think today’s reading is the revolutionary part of Jesus’ message, but it really wasn’t. We can look to any number of Old Testament passages that likely inspired him.
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the Lord will reward you.
Proverbs 25:21-22
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:17-18
Forgive your neighbor the wrong done to you;
then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.
Does anyone nourish anger against another
and expect healing from the LORD?
Sirach 28:2-3
All of what this chapter teaches is drawing on Jesus’ Jewish roots.
Jesus starts out in v27 by saying “to you who hear.” Remember, he’s talking to not only the inner group of disciples, but to a much larger group that is following him. Only some of that group are really ready to believe, ready to hear. This teaching is directed to those people.
I’ve always thought the only really comforting thing in v27-28 is that we are asked to love our enemies as our enemies. We don’t have to make friends with them. Just love them.
Vv29-30 address that tendency to retaliation. The verb tense in these verses is not just something that happens once and done. This is an action that continues: keep on turning the other cheek and keep on giving to everyone who asks.
The “golden rule” as expressed in v31 is universal to all the world’s religions. Every human being seems programmed at some level to know this is the best way to be in the world. Extrabiblical sources of the time knew this as a negative command: don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you. Jesus, of course, has to go beyond this: what you would like others to do, proactively do that for them. This is not about refraining from something, but actively giving.
That’s a tough one, so Jesus is going to interpret, clarify, and expand on that in vv32-38. Jesus says it’s easy to love people who love you. Or, if not easy, at least it doesn’t get you much credit. Even “sinners” can do that much. It’s the same with doing good to people who do good to you.
And then, in v34, let’s stretch that a little more. Even lending money to someone you know can pay you back; again, even “sinners” can do that much. In these verses, it might help to think of “sinners” as anyone not in your group, in your little tribe of thinking. Even those who don’t think like you or see the world as you do, understand life in this way.
So, loving people in a controlled environment, choosing to love those who are easy to love – that doesn’t mean a whole lot as far as the kingdom is concerned. Where you really get tested is when it comes to those who don’t love you at all and who don’t love you: your enemies. Or those who need something from you, but can give you nothing in return. If you can agape those people, then you’re a chop off the old block: that’s exactly what God does. All the time. For everyone. That’s the gist of v35.
V36 says the same as v35, just restates it in a different way: If you love your enemies you are being merciful. And loving and mercy are God-traits.
Vv37-38 remind us that the standard God will use to judge us is the same standard we use to judge others. Ouch.
With all this, Jesus is asking us to willingly relinquish that to which we might have a right to claim as our own. If someone hates me, I might have a legitimate right to not love them. If someone curses or mistreats me, I should at least be able to curse them back. If someone asks me for something and I know they can’t repay it, I should have the right to say no.
But to all this, Jesus says that kingdom ethics call us to give up our right to claim any of this, and in fact, to even go beyond that. We’re to return love, agape.
Let’s be quite frank and honest. This approach is extravagantly stupid! Nevertheless, this is our faith. This is the faith of the church. We are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But wait. Does this mean we lay down and become a doormat? Do we give evil free reign? If I love someone and I see they’re going down a bad path, does my love prohibit me from intervening? Or does it require me to intervene? Perhaps the most unloving thing I could do to someone is ignore them and let them go their own way into destruction. Perhaps the most loving thing I could do is intervene and steer them back to the right path.
I don’t have a blanket answer for this. And I don’t think there’s meant to be a rule that applies to every single situation. We live out our faith in the context of a relationship with God. And that relationship informs each and every action in the moment. The Beatitudes shape the way we love and relate to others, and the Spirit breathes in guidance for a specific moment, if we are open to that breath.
Consider using one or two verses of this passage this week as a daily examen. Ask God to show you the many ways you have loved and acted in these ways. Because we all have our finer moments, and we need to celebrate those. And then ask God to show you just one or two instances in which you have not lived the Beatitudes. It’s okay to sit for a while with the sorrow of that, but don’t let it be the end. Ask God to bring healing and show you the way forward.
Much of what passes as Christianity is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount.
Mahatma Gandhi
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© 2025 Kelly Sollinger