2 Samuel 9:1-13
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy preaching
July 19, 2026
I’ll bet many of us can’t recall ever hearing of Mephiposheth before – or, if we can, ever giving him a second thought. But it might pay us – even if we’ve never endured anything like the physical challenges he did or suffered anything like the hard times he did – to entertain the possibility that we’ve a lot in common with that broken, crippled, disadvantaged man who ended up, by God’s grace, feasting forever like a prince at the King’s table.
Today’s scripture relates a series of events that took place at the high point of David’s life. After God had thwarted the assassination attempts against him by Israel’s first king Saul, God put David on the throne of Israel, enabled him to bring Israel to an unprecedented level of glory and prominence among the nations, and promised him that a descendent of his would be the Messiah who’d rule in righteousness for endless ages.
Before David’s reign began, Mephibosheth was born to all the privilege and advantage that fell to him as the grandchild of King Saul and the son of Jonathan, Saul’s first born and the heir to the throne. Though Saul hated David, Jonathan became David’s best friend. Each loved the other as his own life, and together they swore “in the name of the Lord” a sacred covenant between them that they’d look after each other’s descendants “forever”.
For Mephibosheth, life changed for the worse when he was five. Father Jonathan and grandfather Saul went off to fight the Philistines, and both were killed in the war. That immediately made the palace, the only home Mephibosheth had ever known and until then a secure and safe haven, a place of grave danger. For in those days, it was standard procedure for a new regime to kill every member of the previous royal family lest one of them plot a coup to regain power.
In the terror and chaos of a frantic escape, a nurse grabbed five-year-old Mephibosheth and fled with the boy in a panicked rush. She tripped, and the boy fell and suffered severe injury. Because they were running for their lives, they couldn’t stop for medical treatment. As a result, he became permanently crippled in both feet and could never walk right again.
Further, this boy who’d spent his whole life in the luxury of a royal palace had to leave it all behind and go into hiding in a remote, desolate backwater where no one would think to look for a prince. He settled in an isolated barren land called Lo-debar, whose name literally means “no pasture” and, by extension, “no life”. Over the years, however, David never ceased to bear in mind his solemn oath before God to find and bless Jonathan’s descendants. David remained determined to keep his promise to provide for his beloved friend’s people.
One day King David asked his assistants, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul to whom I might show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” – implying he’d been doing his due diligence to locate and take care of every member of Jonathan’s family.
There are three things in David’s question that we need to pause over and appreciate. First, David wanted to do good, not for Mephibosheth’s sake (after all, at this point, David didn’t even know Mephibosheth existed), but “for Jonathan’s sake” – as a payment of his debt of gratitude for Jonathan’s love and loyalty, something that meant the world to him. It is reminiscent of how God the Father wants to do us good, not because of some quality in us, but because of the quality in Jesus. In ourselves, we’ve no right to anything from God, and we merit nothing from God. It’s from Christ’s goodness, and not from ours, that God is so good to us. It is a grace, an unearned generosity way out of proportion to our worthiness.
Second, David wanted to show “kindness”. The Hebrew word there is a strong and crucial word, rendered variously into English as “loving faithfulness”, “steadfast loyalty”, “mercy” and “grace”. Whatever the translation, it conveys that David, like God, meant to enact an abundant generosity that is based, not on any virtue in the recipient, but entirely on the unconditional, big-hearted benevolence of the Giver.
Third, David did not ask, “Is there anyone worthy?” or “Is there anyone with a justified claim?” but “Is there anyone left?” Like God, David wanted no one to miss out on the extravagant benefits he was committed to bestow on everyone his beloved would wish to be so blessed.
Therefore, David, like God, took the initiative and searched for someone he could have easily overlooked or forgotten about, in order to bring them into his open-hearted presence and open-handed benevolence. David made every effort to find and bless a stranger for no other reason than that the stranger was related to his closest companion and that he’d promised that friend he’d take care of everyone his friend cared about. Thus, the generosity was generated, not by something in the stranger, but by something in someone else, someone to whom the stranger’s welfare mattered mightily.
When Mephibosheth was brought before King David, he “fell on his face and did obeisance”. Mephibosheth knew what incoming kings did to members of the prior royal family. Hence, he was scared to death, and saw himself as “a dead dog”. So the first thing David did was assure him there was no need to be afraid. He only meant him good. In fact, he wanted to adopt him as his long-lost son and give him all the rights and privileges pertaining thereto, most especially a place at the family table as long as he lived. David likewise returned to Mephibosheth all the land he’d had to walk away from; and then provided for him, on his own dime, thirty-five servants to help him manage it.
I know it might strike some of you as odd, but I think I have much in common with Mephibosheth. I too suffered a fall – or rather a number of them – and I too became broken and lame, on the inside. Some of my falls were not my fault, as Mephibosheth’s was not. But some of them – in fact, the most damaging ones – were, and as a result I have no right to claim any kindness from God or anyone else. But, just as David searched for those he could bless for Jonathan’s sake, so God the Father searched to find and bless me for Jesus’ sake. He took me in as His adopted son and promised me a forever place at His table of grace.
My being so favored came about without any contribution from me to bring it about. The blessing was all God’s doing and became mine as an unmerited, unearned, undeserved gift of God’s gratuitous initiative and expansive generosity. I don’t have it by rights. I have it solely by a goodness of which I am unworthy.
I want then to continually thank God for such grace and continually acknowledge how infinitely great His grace is by sharing it with others without limit. I want to show my gratitude for God’s big heart by continually inviting others to join me at God’s big family table – where there’s always food enough to go around and room enough for more folks to pull up a chair. At this bountiful feast, no one is excluded and everyone is welcomed!
Write a comment: