Saturday, September 10, 2005
1 Samuel 21:13-15 Now David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard.
FOOLS FOR CHRIST
King Saul was determined to kill David, his own son-in-law. So we find David actually seeking refuge with a Philistine king by the name of Achish. But the Philistines remembered him as the man who had killed their hero Goliath. When David realized that the Philistines recognized him, he knew he was in serious danger.
In his danger David came up with a plan that worked. He pretended to be out of his mind so that Achish did not want to have anything to do with him. It was a convincing performance, and Achish was eager to send him away.
But now let us jump ahead 1,000 years and take a look at David's Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Of course Jesus never pretended to be insane in order to save His own life. Nevertheless, there was at least one occasion when He was called insane. In fact it was Jesus' own family who took a look at their Relative in action in His healing and preaching ministry and came to the conclusion that Jesus was really insane. Why, the crowds were surrounding Him from morning till night, and He did not even have time to sit down and eat a meal. "When His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, 'He is out of His mind.'"
He was willing to endure such name-calling for our sakes as He carried out the will of His Father, doing the will of His Father even to the point of allowing Himself to be nailed to a cross as a wicked criminal, in order to save us from our sins. Especially there on the cross Jesus must have looked like a man out of His mind as His enemies taunted Him.
Now it is for us, His followers, to thank and praise Him and live our lives for Him with such intensity and devotion that people will consider us insane and out of our minds. As the apostle Paul said, it is an honor for us to be "fools for Christ's sake." May God give us the strength.
