In 1 Samuel 24, while Saul is hunting David to put him to death, the LORD delivers Saul into David’s grasp. David has the opportunity to take Saul’s life, and thus to be freed from the unjust persecution that David has been suffering. Instead, all that David does is to stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s mantle—an act that he even has qualms about, since he recognizes Saul as his king.
We should reflect on what it means for the LORD to have delivered Saul into David’s grasp. Just because David can now kill Saul—because God allows him the opportunity to do so—does not mean that David should kill Saul. God wishes for us to do God’s will freely, which also means that God can present to us occasions where we have the opportunity to take some other path. God does this not to tempt us to another path, but so that we can exercise our freedom to choose that better path that God would wish for us. In this case, David freely chooses to spare and honor Saul, which is what God wishes for David. Even Saul recognizes that David’s choice is godly, much to Saul’s chagrin: “Great is the generosity you showed me today, when the LORD delivered me into your grasp and you did not kill me… And now, I know that you shall surely be king and that sovereignty over Israel shall come into your possession” (1 Sam 24:18, 20). Saul knows that if he were to have been given the same choice by God, he would not have chosen the part that God would have willed, and therefore David’s choice was the one more fitting for the king over God’s people.
It is not so much what we can do that reveals who we are, but what we choose to do within that realm of possibilities that does so. David’s free choice to spare Saul when he could have done otherwise points to that supremely free choice through which Jesus reveals his divine life through his life as a man among us. When Jesus’ disciples try to protect Jesus from his passion, Jesus responds, “do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Mt 26:53) At any moment, Jesus could have said no to his passion and could have called it off. But he never does: he loves us to the very end, never refusing to bear the burden of sin that we lay upon him, even though, as Jesus himself declares, the Father would send legions of angels to defend him if Jesus but asked. In our lives, too, God gives us possibilities where he allows us to freely choose between the good that he offers and another life that might seem more superficially attractive. Let us reflect on the greatness of this choice, and then choose the path that more closely resembles that path that Jesus freely chose for himself, which alone truly merits the name of Love.