As Christians, we do go into a spiritual battle, and it’s anything but nostalgic if you’ve had to fight one. King David is an example of a moral failure in leadership, where he placed a friend in the front lines, then ordered his soldiers to withdraw from him, leaving him in isolation and therefore in a state of failure where he could not survive.
David turned his army against this friend, and gave him up to his enemies. Another oddity is that typically King David would go to battle with his soldiers in solidarity. Yet the King was seeking to hide his affairs, his secrets, his ungodly agenda from public view. So he stayed at home, which was originally how this whole mess began. Perhaps home represents staying home for us is an analogy to sloth. That is to be oppressed by a sadness at doing God’s will.
But let me appeal to the King Davids and Elis who do this (and with fear and pause I consider it possible for myself), you will cause yourself immense grief: you will lose your son. Let me appeal to the Eli who didn’t discipline his sons: you will lose the Ark.
The punishment or cost of not going to battle, of negligence of those on the front lines for nefarious decisions done to “protect ourselves” or avoid controversy and conflict: they lead to great loss. For Eli, in shock and surprise, because he didn’t have wisdom, and for David, sorrow, deep regret, and tears, because he delayed repentance.
Where I find hope is not in the threat of this punishment, nor in the abandonment we might experience on either side of the fence, but in that doing the will of God; in communion with His mystical body, our Lord is the first to go ahead of us. He is the point of the arrow, and He stands by those who choose to be on the front lines of the battle.
We therefore, more than ever, not in a political movement, but a deeply spiritual one, need all leaders of every sector to be the Kings of Christ (by baptism), and not David or mere prefigurement of Christ. We must be marching with the army, imitating Christ’s own example.
The hope I find is in that Christ has always been there. It’s merely up to us to not pull back from Him. We are all ready dead in this battle, our life is to be spent, and so because it is already given away, we have nothing else to lose or fear. And it’s because we assign ourselves to lose our life in the battle that we’ve truly gained it for eternity.
But please remember, this is not a political battle. It is a spiritual one. They are different, and the Gospel hinges on us understanding that difference.
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Photo: Jaime Spaniol, Unsplash / PD-US
