Before We Were Kings

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. – 2 Samuel 1:26

* dedicated to Christlife Men’s Group

---------------------/Before We Were Kings; David’s Last Words to Jonathan

I will always remember, my friend, when we
were just two men face to face in a field
almost whispering, wary of the din of our adversary,
clanging swords of certain calamity,
sandals sinking in mud steeped
between our toes, the soil of affliction,
predisposed to embrace death together. 
Our tears articulating the thousand word speeches
residing in our hearts that our mouths
had stubbornly forsworn to speak,
a noble subconscious sedition of the soul, saying
what needs to be said when one lives in denial
of the inevitable, because sometimes
life isn’t all that fair and it hurts to forever live
with regret, scars of the heart that never scab.
We talked briefly about what lie ahead
when we both reach glory at the end of our
winding paths, our chariots
pulled by horses of the  divine order,
on bejeweled spoke wheels
two kings sharing a banquet hall both
beloved of the people…the songs…the dance,
goblets full of wine in the next life, on your arm
the wife you never had smiling as an angel. 
Ironically, neither of us ever wanted the crown
just to raise sheep
and hunt for our fathers,
maybe plunge into an estuary on a brisk autumn noon,
two rustic fisherman competing fiercely
 for the most prodigious haul.
In retrospect, perhaps, our naiveté, hallmark of the chosen, 
destined us for these drastically divergent fates,
me to rule unwittingly in your place and you to die for it
giving up the kingdom you were bequeathed,
and laying your life down willingly,
to answer all the exigent questions
a man ever needed to know about a true friend
affirmatively:

will you stay beside me, and will you love me
even when the world
burns?

(I love you my friend. Until we meet again….)

-------------------1 Samuel 18:1-5; 1 Samuel 20:33-43
As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.  And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants; Then Saul cast a spear at him to kill him, by which Jonathan knew that it was determined by his father to kill David. So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, because his father had treated him shamefully. And so it was, in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad was with him. Then he said to his lad, “Now run, find the arrows which I shoot.” As the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.  When the lad had come to the place where the arrow was which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried out after the lad and said, “Is not the arrow beyond you?”  And Jonathan cried out after the lad, “Make haste, hurry, do not delay!” So Jonathan’s lad gathered up the arrows and came back to his master.  But the lad did not know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew of the matter.  Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad, and said to him, “Go, carry them to the city.” As soon as the lad had gone, David arose from a place toward the south, fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down three times. And they kissed one another; and they wept together, but David more so.  Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘May the Lord be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants, forever.’” So he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.