The Plan

Midweek Lent 3, II Sam. 16:23-17:4; John 11:45-53
 It has probably been 20 years since we heard the advertising slogan that, “When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen.”
 Ahithophel was such a man and more.  People not only listened, but they equated his word with the word of God.  He was one of David’s long time advisors.  He may also have been the grandfather of Bathsheba, which may help explain his actions and advice.
 Ahithophel had betrayed David.  He joined Absalom’s rebellion.  Perhaps he saw Absalom as the new blood needed to replace the old king.  Perhaps he wanted a measure of revenge on David for taking his granddaughter, Bathsheba for himself and engineering the death of her husband Uriah.  We do not know his reasoning and motivation; however, we do know his actions and his words.
 Absalom held him in high esteem too.  Ahithophel advised, “Take the concubines whom David has left in charge of the palace and have sexual relations with them.  Then all Israel will hear that you’ve become odious to your father and everyone on your side will gain strength.”  So on the very roof from which, years ago, David had spied Bathsheba bathing, Absalom took for himself those who belonged to David.  Once again, a smoldering memory ran amuck in the present.
 Meanwhile, east of Jerusalem David and his forces approached the Jordan River worn out and exhausted.  Absalom could have trapped David and his men before they crossed the Jordan.  However, Ahithophel had a plan that would save shedding the blood of many.  “I will surprise David when his guard is down and kill the king alone.”  All he needed to do was kill one man, David, and then all the army would be brought back to Jerusalem like a bride returning to her rightful husband.  Ahithophel, would be God’s instrument in uniting all Israel under Absalom.  Shed one man’s blood and there would be peace.
 A perfect plan, except for one fatal flaw.  He forgot about God.  He advised the death of God’s anointed - God’s chosen king.  If there is one lesson to be learned in following the life of David - God frustrates anyone who seeks to harm His chosen one.  There is both comfort and warning in that statement.
 We too are God’s anointed in baptism.  Therefore, we take comfort when we read Psalm 27, “For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling, he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me on a high rock.”
 However there is warning too lest we, like Ahithophel, forget who we are, to whom we belong and who is in control.  To forget that God is in charge is to become wise in our own eyes.  The Lord says through the prophet Jeremiah, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom or the strong man boast in his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.”  God is working in and through all that happens to us and about us.  He has chosen us to be his instrument to unite people under his rule in Jesus Christ.
 In our personal daily lives, we do well to heed the words from James, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’  Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’”
 Ahithophel had a plan to save the nation of Israel through the death of one man, David.  A thousand years later there was another man in Israel who had a plan involving the shedding of one man’s blood to save the nation.  He also was a man who spoke for God.  His name was Caiaphas, the high priest.  He thought he knew exactly how God was working in his world.  He too underestimated the working of God.  He too advocated the death of the One whom God had anointed as king, the Chosen of God.  His name was Jesus.  Jesus had just shouted into the tomb of his friend Lazarus.  “Lazarus, come forth,” he called.  Lazarus did indeed come forth.  Because of Lazarus’ resurrection, many believed in Jesus.  However, others were tattle tales.  They told the Pharisees what Jesus had done.  An urgent meeting of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council in Jerusalem, convened.  Jesus was the only item on the agenda.  “What are we going to do?” they asked.  “If we don’t deal with him soon, everyone will follow him.  He will lead a rebellion and the Romans will come and destroy the temple and the nation.” In the midst of much hand wringing and worrying about the religious and political crisis facing the nation, Caiaphas offered a plan.  “It’s better for you that one man dies for the people than that the whole nation perish,” he counseled.  The Sanhedrin listened to him.
 Caiaphas was correct.  The death of Jesus would save the nation from destruction.  Yet what Caiaphas did not know was that Jesus would die not only in behalf of the nation, but also in place of the nation.  Caiaphas was saying more than he suspected.  God used Caiaphas’ plan for the salvation of his people Israel, not from the Romans, but from their sins - even the sin of plotting the death of God.   More than that, Jesus was the means by which God would bring in all people and nations, scattered over the face of the earth, like a bride returning to her husband.  Jesus was the chosen and anointed King to be a ransom for many.  When he was lifted up on his throne of the cross, he drew all people to himself.  He is the payment for our sins, not ours only, but also those of the world.  As Paul writes to the Romans, “For as by ones man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
 Jesus is the One to whom we are called to listen.  His word is the very Word of God, in truth and in grace.  The power of God is such that he is able to take the best and the most sensible plans that Ahithophel laid out against David, God’s anointed, and to frustrate and bring those plans to naught.   God is also powerful and so loving toward us people here on earth that he used the plans that Caiaphas laid out for the saving of the nation - to save the nation of Israel and indeed the whole world from our rebellion against our king and ruler.  The death of the one man, Jesus Christ, was able to accomplish all that we need to live in forgiveness now and in the glory of eternity.