Lesson and the Arts: 2 Samuel 11-12

Aug 5, 2012

There are times when fictional stories can really pack a punch. In the passage from 2 Samuel (11:26-12:13a), the prophet Nathan confronts King David about his role in Uriah’s death and his affair with Bathsheba without ever mentioning their names nor even implicating David directly. Rather, Nathan tells a story, and not just any story. Nathan tells a parable about a rich man who commits an injustice against a poor man. Although Nathan does not claim to be advocating for a particular person, neither does he identify his tale as fiction – and it is the kind of situation one might bring before a king for his intervention and judgment. Indeed, this seems to be exactly what David assumes is happening for he is quick to render judgment against the rich man and demand retribution for the poor man. As soon as David’s judgment is made, Nathan reveals his story for the Trojan horse that it is and confronts David with his crime. It is a strategy that would make any crime-solving detective proud: an ingenious way to get someone to admit to a crime (or in this case simply acknowledge that his actions were a crime) without ever tipping them off that this is what you are doing.

The story of David and Bathsheba is one that has inspired and impacted the arts throughout the centuries. From the paintings of Rembrandt to the music of Leonard Cohen and the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne, their relationship has been depicted, referenced and used as an archetype in both classical and modern art. But in this particular segment of the story, their relationship fades to the background as the morality of David’s actions is highlighted by the prophet Nathan and the parable he tells. In this particular passage, the scripture not only inspires the arts, it makes use of them.

In her young adult novel, The Giver, Lois Lowry tells the story of a society in which pain and confusion have been erased. In their place, a regimented life has been crafted, but it is one that lacks color, choice, and memory. The story follows one boy, Jonah, as he comes of age and is chosen for a particular task within the community – that of the memory keeper. In this unique role, Jonah becomes the recipient of the society’s memories. He is the only one who remembers colors and snow. He is the only one who remembers war and pain. Jonah’s sole job is to hold these memories for the community so that they do not have to remember.

Lowry’s dystopian world is clearly fictional, yet the book has been popular with youth and adults alike, and won multiple awards, not only because it entertains, but also because it challenges. Confronted with Lowry’s story (and others like it, most recently The Hunger Games), it is easy to pass judgment – to look with scorn on those in her fictional society who so easily give up their freedoms and their histories simply to avoid the possibility of pain. Yet, as with Nathan and his parable, the story carries weight because it too hits too close to home. Like King David, on first hearing we often tend not to recognize ourselves in stories such as these; but like Nathan good authors are able to use the fictional worlds they create to hold a mirror up to our own world – to force us to look more critically at our own society and our own choices.

Indeed, many of us who preach and teach use Scripture in this way. Although the world of the Bible looks very different from twenty-first century America, the stories of Scripture have a powerful ability to bring us face to face with our own realities. As Wendell Berry writes, “we have much reason to think that [imagination] is a way of knowing things not otherwise knowable … it is the power to make us see, and to see, moreover, things that without it would be unseeable … It is also the power by which we see the place, the predicament, or the story we are in” (“God, Science, and Imagination” in Imagination in Place, 186-187).

Good stories, good art, and good music have the ability to hold up a mirror to our own lives, our own stories, so that we might see them again as if for the first time. Good authors, and good storytellers such as Nathan, are able to tell us these stories in ways that captivate and entertain us while at the same time helping us to see our own actions in a new light.

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