Brotherhood




2nd Sam 1:26

I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.

The last couple of weeks, I have had the pleasure of hanging out with brothers. My own, three brothers, and two brothers. The latter two sets I have known since college. My biological brother, since birth. I really appreciate being granted a place in other families' brotherhood. It is an honor. We can tease each other, bust each others chops, have thoughtful conversations, do cool stuff, laugh, and have fun. We got each others' backs too. That is the most important thing for sure. In an often indifferent world that is sometimes out-and-out bad news, loyal brothers are better than a million dollars in the bank. I will take people over paper any day.

The verse above has been seriously misused by those trying to build the biblical case for a sexual relationships man-to-man. There is no evidence in the text or elsewhere in Scripture that suggests this in the least, and plenty of evidence that David was entirely heterosexual, and quite destructively at that. One may try to justify homoerotic relationships through other means, but the Bible is not the place, without seriously reading into the text one's own agenda. I can love deeply my brother, and my sister I might add, all humanity, without a scent of sexual attraction. 

The so very cool thing about the deep friendship between David and Jonathan is, that based on biology and family lineage, they should have been enemies and competitors for the King's crown. Jonathan instead recognized David's lawful appointment to the throne as of God and abandoned his own flesh and blood father murderous Saul who was an unfit leader. That is true brotherhood. When Jonathan died in battle, David wept deep tears from his soul.

The other day, I was walking through the local supermarket. I don't shop at a fancy store. It is for people of modest means, no Mercedes in the parking lot. I observed people going about their business and it kind of struck me that all of us are just trying to get by, live life, find some love, while spending our days on this Earth. Some looked burdened and beat-up. I don't know what caused me to get philosophical on the way to the eggs and butter, but I just thought to myself that everyone is either on the path to heaven or hell.  And as my brothers and sisters, maybe I should just care a lot more about that.

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