Jonathan and David

I was preaching a prophetic sermon last Sunday. In my house church Mosaik we have been covering the Kingdom of God and the coming of the King in the Old Testament, and I was sitting in the kitchen figuring out what to speak about. My community brother Andreas entered and I asked him “What should I preach about, it must be from the Old Testament about the Kingdom of God?” “Jonathan”, Andreas answered. “Speak about Jonathan. You know what, I think that’s a prophetic word.”

Now what Andreas didn’t know was that I was actually looking at the texts about David, Jonathan and Saul in 1 Samuel 16-31, so it was prophetic allright. And a few hours later when the church gathered in our apartment I talked about how Jonathan made an enormous sacrifice.

As the son of Saul, Jonathan would eventually be the king of Israel. Instead, he helped and saved David simply because he loved him and recognized the power of God upon his life. He realized that the anointing of the Spirit isn’t static – it isn’t necessarily passing on to the next generation and it isn’t necessarily remaining on someone who once has received it – Jonathan clearly saw how his father became possessed and crazy.

It’s hard to admit that the king who once was anointed by the prophet shouldn’t be king anymore, but it’s even harder if that king is your father and you’re supposed to be the next one. To let go of a whole kingdom is a huge bad-ass sacrifice that requires a lot of faith and altruism. What are we willing to sacrifice?

When I finished my short sermon and listened to what thoughts the other church members had about the texts (which was really inspiring, all churches should do that) we went out on the streets to hand out coffee to people, pray for them and testify about God’s grace. This is a natural part of our church service, we call it “Come in, go out” service, and even though I personally think it’s really fun for many shy Swedes it is a sacrifice to talk to strangers about Jesus.

Furthermore, I think it’s time that we do even greater sacrifices than that. Selling everything we have, going out to the darkest, poorest places, preaching Christ when we will get punished for it. Jonathan gave up his earthly kingdom for the Heavenly Kingdom, what are you able to give up?