Art Reading Scripture

You are the Man, Plaque over a Confessional Door at the Stockholm Cathedral, Sweden

Nathan said to David, "You are the man!" 2 Samuel 12:7

Over the doors of the Confessional at the Stockholm Cathedral are two plaques of biblical scenes of being confronted by sin. One focuses on the story of King David's sins against Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. The other shows the Gospel parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. They are significant in part because the Cathedral serves as the Church of Sweden's Royal Court and is located beside the Royal Palace. The scenes confront those with power, wealth, and prestige with the realities of their sin and responsibility as they enter the door to confess their sins.

Imagine the King, or Queen, of Sweden going into the confessional. Imagine other royalty or persons of wealth, privilege, or power who looked up at this scene before confessing their lives seeking forgiveness. Before they entered they gazed up to consider the sins of King's and the sins of power. These matters were not the sins of "the worst of the worst,"(those who lived on the shady side of Stockholm ports, dark narrow streets, and inns.) These were matters of those with the greatest responsibility to do what was right for the nation they governed and oversaw. The sins of those who were supposed to be "the best of the best" but whose power and wealth often shielded them from responsibility. When they saw King David at the moment of knowing his sin, they knew they also would meet the priest to confess their sins.

The story of David and Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite begins, "In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem." David's failings are revealed immediately. As king it was his responsibility to go out to battle with his troops rather than send someone else to fight his battles. But he remained behind. Things went downhill from there. Idle in Jerusalem and the palace he espied a beautiful young woman across the way taking her bath. He had her brought to him, lay with her and she became pregnant. The swiftness and brevity of the encounter reek of an abuse of power. "David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her." It sounds as though he did not even offer her dinner. The story goes on to say that she was purifying herself after her period which was a time in which she is not to be around others. Having sex with her made David unclean, compounding the sin of adultery. No matter, David figured he could get away with whatever and without consequence. Finally the incident ends with, "Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived, and she sent and told David, 'I am pregnant."

David immediately sought to hide his failings. He conspired with Joab to send Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, back so that Uriah might sleep with his wife and be presumed as the father. Unfortunately, Uriah, a foreigner, a simple foot soldier, proved to be more faithful and righteous than the king of Israel. He refused. Failing at his first attempt to avoid confession of sin and the consequences, David arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle. Joab, at David request, put Uriah "in the forefront of the fighting, and then drew back from him, so that he (was) struck down and (died.)" Add murder, assassination to David's sin. When David found out that Uriah was dead he thought the issue was settled. He sent word to Joab, "Do not let the matter trouble you." After a bit David brought Bathsheba into his household. "But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD..."

The prophet Nathan told David a parable about a rich man with many sheep who stole a poor man's lamb in order to celebrate a feast. David was blindly, obliviously incensed by the injustice of it. He was blind to his own sin until Nathan said, "You are the man!" David's failure to confess and take responsibility would plague his reign for the rest of his life. Bathsheba's child would die. The sword would never depart from David's house. Only belatedly did David offer a desperate prayer with fasting for his sins.

True, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Also true, "From everyone to whom much is given, much will be required; and from on to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded." David, the royalty of Sweden, all those with power, wealth and prestige are called to face the confessional with the rest us and those who are too often labeled the worst of the worst, the ones who need to repent. With wealth and power one can assert denial, hire lawyers, pay money without admission of guilt, and seek to avoid or delay indefinitely the consequences of their actions. David's story and the plaque above the royal confessional call the best of the best to kneel with the rest of humanity and acknowledge their need for mercy and the weight of their responsibility.

Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Love like Jesus.

Pastor Tim Bauer