Saul

1 Samuel 9:1-19New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish son of Abiel son of Zeror son of Becorath son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. He had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders above everyone else.

Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, had strayed. So Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the boys with you; go and look for the donkeys.” He passed through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they did not find them. And they passed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then he passed through the land of Benjamin, but they did not find them.

When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the boy who was with him, “Let us turn back, or my father will stop worrying about the donkeys and worry about us.” But he said to him, “There is a man of God in this town; he is a man held in honor. Whatever he says always comes true. Let us go there now; perhaps he will tell us about the journey on which we have set out.” Then Saul replied to the boy, “But if we go, what can we bring the man? For the bread in our sacks is gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What have we?” The boy answered Saul again, “Here, I have with me a quarter shekel of silver; I will give it to the man of God, to tell us our way.” (Formerly in Israel, anyone who went to inquire of God would say, “Come, let us go to the seer”; for the one who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.) Saul said to the boy, “Good; come, let us go.” So they went to the town where the man of God was.

As they went up the hill to the town, they met some girls coming out to draw water, and said to them, “Is the seer here?” They answered, “Yes, there he is just ahead of you. Hurry; he has come just now to the town, because the people have a sacrifice today at the shrine. As soon as you enter the town, you will find him, before he goes up to the shrine to eat. For the people will not eat until he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice; afterward those eat who are invited. Now go up, for you will meet him immediately.” So they went up to the town. As they were entering the town, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the shrine.

Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel: “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be ruler over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines; for I have seen the suffering of my people, because their outcry has come to me.” When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, “Here is the man of whom I spoke to you. He it is who shall rule over my people.” Then Saul approached Samuel inside the gate, and said, “Tell me, please, where is the house of the seer?” Samuel answered Saul, “I am the seer; go up before me to the shrine, for today you shall eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is on your mind.

Ridley Scott is making yet another film about Moses.  That's all well and good, I suppose, but really everything I want to see in a Biblical epic happens in I Samuel.

Because this story has it all.

Enter today the best villain in the Bible for my money: Saul.  Villain in a "love to hate him because he's so complex" way.  Not one of those one-dimensional James Bond type villains.  

Saul makes a great villain because he starts out so innocently.  He's got hero written all over him.  He's Shakespearean. He's the flawed noble youth whose life falls apart because of power, pride, corruption and madness.  

He's MacBeth, Darth Vader, and Walter White all rolled into one.

Today when we meet Saul he's the hope of the future.  He's young, handsome, earnest, and obedient.

And that's what will make his fall so hard to see.

In Saul we see how easy it is for things to fall apart.  In Saul we begin to understand the old cliche about the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

In Saul we see that just like the parable of the wheat and weeds from Jesus that was in the Lectionary this Sunday, the wheat and the weeds grow together and sometimes their roots become entangled.

Saul will become entangled.  He'll lose his way and forget the path he's on and who put him there.

It's all too easy.

Saul's is a tale that begins with such promise.  Yet, for all his failings, Saul remains to me a figure of compassion.  He will lose his way, and yet we know that the way is still being paved.  We know that while we might sometimes forget God, God does not forget us.

And I don't think God forgot Saul.

God of mercy, sometimes it is all to easy to lose my way: to forget your promises and try to seek my own path.  When I stray, bring me back again.  Set my roots firmly in your path.  Amen.