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1 Samuel 16:1-13
Earlier in the week I searched my files to see if I had ever preached on this passage before and oddly, I couldn’t find anything. Verse seven of this passage is so popular when it comes to the topic of choosing leadership, it surprises me I haven’t brought it out when elder elections were upon us or during civic elections. “For the LORD does not see as mortals see; for they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” The world would be a different place this morning if we elected leaders on the quality of their character rather than on how well our ears get tickled by their spiel or by their party affiliation. Good people will do their best to do what is peaceable and right. Bad people…well that one’s obvious. There’s that maxim Jesus said: Good trees bear good fruit. Bad trees bear bad fruit. You’ll know them by their fruit.
Unfortunately, a person’s true character is difficult to discern because it involves seeing what so often can’t be seen outwardly. The heart we wear on our sleeves is too often not our true heart. Yet, true character shows up in what a person does when no one is looking. We need to see how they treat animals, how they treat children, how generously they tip even when the service is bad. Do they have moments of worship? Do they know humility? This may sound crude but it is a character tell, will they clean a toilet. Maybe it’s more important to know if they even know how to clean a toilet. I can think of at least one world leader out there starting wars who has never had to clean a toilet and wouldn’t know where to start. I think it was Jesus who said: “The greatest among them will be servant of all.” If only that were the way of the world instead of this delusion that the greatest must be served by all.
I may never have given a sermon on this passage but I’ve used it quite often for a youth group study. I would assign roles to each of the youth and we would act it old. I would have the biggest and oldest in the group be the first brother and so on down the line to the youngest and scrawniest and hopefully nerdiest kid being David. After we acted it out, we would talk about things like how it felt to be picked over and it’s especially poignant if whoever played the eldest brother was someone who always got picked. We would talk about judging people by appearances and how just because someone looks the part doesn’t mean they have what it takes.
The lesson ended with talking about the true qualities of David that would make him fit to be a king. He definitely did not fit the bill for what one would expect a king to be like. He was the youngest of the brothers, kind of scrawny, and for all shapes and purposes rosy-cheeked and “pretty” like an 80's big-hair heavy metal star. He may have even been red-headed. He shepherded the family flocks. Back then, shepherds were on the bottom rung of society as far as public esteem went. They were always dirty and smelled like sheep, usually had no education, and had reputations for being crude and rude. His brothers didn’t think too highly of him. If you look at the story of David and Goliath there’s a conversation between David and his brothers that reveals that they thought he was arrogant and irresponsible, nothing more than their father’s errand boy. He was too puny to fight the Philistines and they accused him of only coming to the battle to watch the Israelites lose like those people who go to NASCAR races just to see a crash.
But there was more to David’s character than what we would deduce from appearances. The Bible’s overall picture of David was that he was a man after God’s own heart. Even after the affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah, he remained a man after God’s own heart. He wanted to please God above anything else. He was a poet. He wrote worship songs. The 23rd Psalm is probably the most often recited poem in history. David the shepherd wrote, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” There is something more to this shepherd thing than the stigmas attached to it. In the writings of the Old Testament prophets, God calls himself the shepherd of Israel and referred to the leaders of Israel as shepherds. What his brothers called arrogance was actually courage. In his work of shepherding, he had had to kill lions and bears often having to go hand to paw with them. Goliath the giant was nothing to be afraid of. David wasn’t coming to the battles to watch. He was there bringing supplies in obedience to his father. David knew what it was to serve. He knew humility. So, David was worshipful, creative, courageous, and humble and did what he was asked to do. He didn’t abandon the sheep when there was danger. All of these qualities could have easily been looked over if he were judged by the outward appearances of being the youngest and a shepherd.
If I could pontificate for just a moment on what I think was David’s greatest quality. I would say it was his humility. He didn’t act like the kings around him. The one time that he did, the affair with Bathsheba which led to him having her husband murdered, in the end served to reveal his humility. He was deeply remorseful knowing he had trampled on God’s little lambs. He did not grasp at power nor did he wield it for his own sake. He was simply a shepherd who cared for his sheep. Everything he needed to know about being king he learned from tending the flock. Humility.
I am reminded of a man from my childhood named Charlie. He was the janitor at my elementary school. He was a quiet man who always had a smile and a “Hello” and he would have a brief chat with us kids when paths crossed. If he saw you crying in the hall he wouldn’t walk on by. He kept the classrooms, the hallways clean, and especially the bathrooms. Sometimes those bathrooms could be a bit trying especially when you get little boys seeing who could stand the furthest from the urinal and still hit it. Or, when the mischievous boys in the higher grades made wads of water-soaked toilet paper stick to the ceiling, he was the one to get the ladder and scrape it off. When we threw up, he was the one who came to clean it up and he would be sure to speak kindly to the little one who got sick. Charlie was an African American man looking after an all-white student body at a time when many of those white children would have been silently taught by parents and grandparents to be wary of black men. Regardless, we all loved Charlie and he loved us. When Charlie died the local paper prominently displayed his obituary. As you would expect, Charlie never went to high school. He was deeply loved by his family and his community. Charlie went to church every Sunday. Charlie was one of those in whom we caught a glimpse of Jesus. He had a heart of humility.
Applying this passage to real life situations where we are choosing leaders whether it be for the church or for the nation, I think one question to consider is whether a particular candidate measures up to the standard Charlie set. Heck, do each of us measure up to the standard Charlie set. Let us remember what Jesus said in Luke’s Gospel when his disciples were arguing over which of them was the greatest. He said: “The kings of the gentiles lord it over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather, the greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves” (Lk 22:25-27). If the royal scepter a leader wields is a toilet brush or a broom or a basin and towel, we’ve likely got the right person in charge. Amen.
