Radio Leicester Thought
for the Day
© John Denney 14 September 1998
I’ve been reading a lot about someone recently. Guess who?
He started life in a poor family in an
obscure and unimportant region of his country. Younger than
most who reached his position, he became Commander-in-chief of
his country’s armies, and went on to win a war against a
dangerous power in the Middle East. In his leisure time, he
was something of a musician. He was a very successful
politician, and made policies and laws which brought great
prosperity to his people. He brought in a “three
strikes and you’re out” law which gave his people
confidence that criminals would be brought to justice.
There was a down side to this great
success, however. This otherwise great man had a weakness.
He had a succession of mistresses and got into a lot of trouble
over one of them in particular. His sexual misdeeds became
the subject of scandal and caused some people to call for his
resignation. He lied about his sordid behaviour, but
eventually things got so bad that he repented in public for his
misdeeds.
Well, I guess you realise that I’m
talking about ….. King David, the King that the Jews look
back to as the establisher of their kingdom. Despite all
his wrongdoing, particularly in arranging for the husband of
a woman he lusted after to be killed in battle, he came to represent
a kingly ideal. The Israelites forgave King David and went
on to regard him as one of the greatest Jews of all time. They
saw in him many of the qualities they believed their Messiah
would have.
Christians believe that Jesus was the
Messiah that the Jews were looking for. And Jesus had
something to say about sexual misconduct. Some Jewish
leaders wanted to stone a woman caught in the act of adultery to
death. Jesus told them “the sinless one among you, go
first: throw the stone” – and the men went away
ashamed. And he turned to the woman and said “Where
are they? Does no one condemn you?” “No
one, master.” “Neither do I,” said Jesus,
“Go on your way, but from now on, don’t sin.”
President Clinton has asked for
forgiveness for his grubby conduct. It remains to be seen whether
the American people will forgive him for betraying the high
ideals of his office.
But perhaps we might start
forgiving those who have sinned against us, not because they
deserve it, but because we are all sinners too.