Pentecost 5 July 1, 2007

“The LORD Washes Away the Dirt”

2 Samuel 12:1-10, 13, 14

1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

4 Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.

5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity. 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.

13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.”

So what’s the first thing you do when you come home after a CAMPING vacation? You take a shower. You don’t want to stay dirty for very long. Dirt can be embarrassing – try showing up for an important job interview with dirt caked on your face. Dirt can be revolting - who wants to sit next to someone on an airplane who is immediately returning from camping? Dirt ruins computer chips and clogs oil filters. Dirt causes infection and havoc if you find it during surgical procedures. That’s why when you are in a hospital you might see a sign that says, “Dirt-free area.” All in all, dirt makes you uncomfortable. When you are dirty, all you want is to be clean.

Our sermon today is about dirt, not the kind in your hands or hair, but the kind in your heart. Another name for this heart-dirt is sin – harboring dirty thoughts, doing dirty things and then feeling dirty afterwards. Today we get to watch as David harbors dirty thoughts, does dirty things, feels very dirty about it all and tries unsuccessfully to wash it all away.

If you were listening to the first and second lessons from this morning, you know why David was feeling so dirty.

• One night he went for a stroll and his dirty thoughts for Bathsheba turned into adultery.
• Weeks later, he receives word that she is pregnant. David knows the child is his and feels dirty about it so he tries to wash himself by bringing Uriah home from war, hoping he’ll sleep with his wife and discover later that they are pregnant.
• Note that Uriah was one of David’s most loyal and honest soldiers. When David was running for his life from Saul for ten years, before he was even king, Uriah went running with him and protected him. Uriah had David’s back. He was like a Navy SEAL or an Army Ranger. He was the best of the best in every way. But when he came to Jerusalem, he refused to go home. David’s plan did not work.
• David tried the same thing, except this time he got Uriah drunk. But it backfired again.
• So David stubbornly tried again to wash away the dirt. In coldhearted blood, he wrote out orders for Uriah to be killed and then callously gave the written orders to Uriah to give to the general! Uriah was so honest he didn’t open the letter on the way.
• And finally, when word gets back to David that Uriah had been killed, his true colors show through. He shows no pity as he says, “Oh well, that happens in war.” So Bathsheba became his wife and David had successfully washed away his dirt…or had he?

He had tried to wash away his sin through scheming, cruelty and backstabbing. But that’s showering in the sand! Not only had David failed to wash away his dirt – after the cover-ups he was dirtier than ever.

The outside spectator would never have known. To that person, everything seemed happy. Perhaps some in Israel even lauded kindhearted David for taking in this poor and helpless widow whose husband had been tragically killed in battle. We don’t know because the Scripture doesn’t say. But we do know that on the inside, David was dirty. He was tortured by his conscience; his heart was screaming in agony; he was crying out with regret. And the worst part is that he couldn’t wash any of it away. He couldn’t make the torture stop.

David needed outside help. David needed the LORD to wash it all away. In order for David to have his dirt washed away, he first needed to see exactly how dirty he had become. So the LORD sent the prophet Nathan to show David how dirty he was.

It’s not fun to be told that you are dirty; it’s also not fun to tell someone else they are dirty. I marvel at Nathan’s courage here. I wonder if he prayed as he rang the palace doorbell, “Please, Lord, let the king not be home today.” Kings don’t like it when you criticize them. Kings don’t like it when you tell them they are dirty people. Kings don’t like it when you uncover their secrets. They can order up your head on a platter – hadn’t David just done that to Uriah? But Nathan was not afraid of David. He was courageous because he trusted God’s Word would not return empty. He knew how important it was for David to recognize his dirt. For people who recognize their dirty sin always come to the same conclusion: more than anything else, they want to be rid of it and they want to be clean.

So Nathan told a story about a rich man and a poor man. It was the perfect story for David. He could relate to both sides. He knew what it was like to be a rich man with far more than enough. He knew what it was like to be a shepherd boy with a lamb who was like a daughter to him. For David had grown up on his Dad’s farm, taking care of sheep and protecting them from all kinds of danger. Listen to how special this one lamb was to the poor man… He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. The poor man’s lamb was like Marissa to me; or like your sweet little daughter is to you.

Then something shocking happened. The rich man coldly killed the lamb that was a daughter to the poor man to feed it to his company. Could he have done anything more cruel? David’s heart reacted to this rich man. He was angry! “As surely as the LORD lives, that man deserves to die!” And then Nathan pointed his bony finger directly into David’s belly and showed him his dirt. “YOU are the man!” he exclaimed.

And David was caught. Wonderfully caught. It was the best thing that could have ever happened to him. He stopped making excuses; he stopped lying; he stopped putting others into a bad position; he stopped trying to make himself clean. He was tired – and he said quietly, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Immediately Nathan responded, “The LORD has taken away your sin. Our gentle Lord does not let the repentant sinner agonize any more than necessary. And finally, at long last, the LORD had done what David could never do. His dirty heart had its sin washed away.

There are a few applications that we are able to pull from this account. The first is that nobody is above falling into deep, dark, complicated sin. Do not think you are immune. Who would have thought that godly David would be so deceptive and evil? You and I are capable of the same. As the apostle Paul wrote, “If you think you are standing firm – be careful that you don’t fall!”

A second application is to realize how futile it is to wash away your own sin. You might tell a lie, and then when caught you tell another and another and try to talk your way out of anything. But that’s showering in dirt. Or you might feel dirty from your own sins and blame someone else. “It’s all HIS fault I fell terrible!” you might insist. “If he hadn’t said this, I wouldn’t be hurting right now.” But that is not making anyone clean; that’s showering in dirt.

And then there’s the sin of silence. Instead of being Nathan pointing, “YOU are the man!” when a loved one falls into sin we cover up for them. We know they need to change; we know they need to see their dirt for what it is; we know that what they need the most is a Christian friend to point that out…yet we are afraid and stay silent. That’s showering in the dirt AND helping a loved one shower in the dirt too. We make war on the LORD and deserve his punishment forever.

How do we change? What do we do with all of this dirt? It’s an overwhelming problem. We do nothing; we only say, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And thankfully, even though we have spent days and even months making war on the LORD, he has brought us his Word and brought us to repentance. He has given us the wisdom to stop talking and listen. He helps us see that the problem is not anyone or anything else – the problem is me, myself and I. The LORD shows us how foolish it is to shower in the dirt trying to wash away our sins. And he promises that he has a solution – that the blood of Jesus is an acceptable solvent (and the only solvent) that can officially wash away all the dirt in our lives – every dirty thought, every dirty action, and every dirty minute we have spent being tortured by our conscience. The blood of Jesus washes it all away, for “there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”

The Lord’s Supper is one way God has decided to communicate his forgiveness to us. In a few minutes, we will walk up to the table and have Jesus look us in the eye, place a gentle hand on our shoulders, and announce, “Be at rest; I don’t condemn you either.”

It doesn’t matter how shameful your sin has been. It doesn’t matter how dirty you’ve made yourself trying to cover up. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been tortured by your conscience. Grace covers all of that too. You are safe in the LORD’s forgiveness. Instead of being full of regret, be full of peace. Instead of being dirty, you are clean – even spotless.

And that’s even better than a good, hot 20-minute shower after a camping trip. Amen.