Measure for Measure

The principal character in today’s first reading, Saul and David, are the leading figures in a heartbreaking story: a story of friendship, betrayal and misfortune; a story of ambition, power and madness. Saul is the first king of Israel. Before being marked as God’s anointed, Saul cared for his father’s animals; he was a shepherd, a simple countryman, who never aspired to rule over anyone. One day the prophet Samuel tells him that he is marked by destiny to become king; but from the first day of his kingship Saul seems afflicted by war and internal division. He becomes melancholy, isolated, withdrawn; he has no inherited experience to rely on, no trained mentor to teach him what to do. 

As Saul’s power gradually declines, so his melancholia increases. The one thing that calms him is the music of his new page, a shepherd boy called David. But if David disarms the king’s sadness, his many abilities and bravery on the field of battle provoke jealousy in Saul. David appears to steal the show; he is praised by the people at the expense of the king. Saul loves him, but he also hates this new talent who is now married to his youngest daughter. Worse still, David has been secretly anointed as king by the same prophet who anointed Saul. To be free of David, Saul decides to eliminate him, but members of the king’s own family warn David to make himself scare. 

In spite of being exiled and hunted everywhere, David still loves Saul and never seeks to harm him: all he wants to do is to sing the king out of his depression. Three times David has the opportunity to kill his father-in-law. In today’s first reading David steals into Saul’s tent and finds him asleep, his spear stuck in the ground beside his head. David’s companion offers to kill Saul with his own spear, but David commands him to leave the Lord’s anointed in peace. David takes the spear and the pitcher of water from beside Saul head. Their absence, he hopes, will speak its own message. 

Saul is puzzled by David’s loyalty and attachment, by his refusal to treat his father-in-law as an enemy. David believes that, even though Saul was put in his power, he has no right to raise his hand against the Lord’s anointed. Not only that, but since David himself is the Lord’s anointed and will occupy the throne of Israel, he is unwilling to justify assassination as a from of diplomacy. That could grow into a national habit, and David wants to die in his bed of old age! The future king has an eye to his own survival; thus, he treats the demented Saul in the way that he hopes his future subjects will treat him. A case of measure for measure. 

In the Gospel Jesus enjoins his disciples to follow the basic imperative of loving generously: ‘’Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly….. Give, and there will be gifts for you….. because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.’’ Jesus does not ask his disciples to fall in love with their enemies; that would be wholly unrealistic. The followers of Jesus are challenged to be determined about their enemy’s welfare, to be stubbornly gracious, and to refuse to pay back violence with violence. Hatred can be defeated only by love; injury can be healed only by forgiveness; evil can be controlled only by goodness. That may not reflect conventional wisdom, but it is Jesus’ wisdom in action. It was also David’s response to King Saul’s aggression. 

In his own life Jesus had to work hard at honoring his own ethic. That process was not a painless or bloodless affair: it cost Jesus everything. He offered love first, even though he knew that the return would never measure up to what was offered; he never bargained love for love; he never became involved in stocktaking returns. Above all, he made a habit of confusing his enemies with love. 

Jesus expects us, his followers, to share the gift we have received. Love is offered because someone somewhere is shuffling through a loveless life. Mercy is given because someone somewhere is cloistered in his or her wrongdoing. These are gifts which create worth in another person; they build temples in wasteland; they introduce people to the forgotten geography of paradise; they stop the contagion of meanness. Love creates its own reality, its own force for goodness. It enables us, time after time, to refuse the offer of putting a spear through the heart of our sleeping victim.