Reading 51 • November 3
Today's Scripture
1 Kings 3:16–28
Later, two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. The one woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house. Then this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, clearly it was not the son I had borne.” But the other woman said, “No, the living son is mine, and the dead son is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead son is yours, and the living son is mine.” So they argued before the king. Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; while the other says, ‘Not so! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king. The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one, and half to the other.” But the woman whose son was alive said to the king — because compassion for her son burned within her — “Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” The other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.” Then the king responded: “Give the first woman the living boy; do not kill him. She is his mother.” All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to execute justice. (NRSV)
Reflection
Let’s get the easy part over: Solomon was a wise king.
His decision to split a baby because two women disputed who birthed the son was a clever way to determine the boy’s true mother. The birth mother, who acted with unconditional love, told Solomon she would rather have the baby raised by the woman who stole her son than have one-half of a dead son.
Now the tough part; I apologize for the biblical divergence.
My wife and I were in Madrid three weeks ago, and we visited the Reina Sofia Museum. Normally, I’m a sixty-minute-max museum person. Yet at the Reina Sofia, I was dumbstruck, staring for what seemed like hours at Picasso’s Guernica. The painting shows the horrors of the bombing of civilians in the Guernica town square during the Spanish Civil War. Women and animals in the painting scream out in pain. Nearby is a Picasso postscript, Mother with Dead Child (I); it shows a mother in monstrous pain from losing a child.
These images from Picasso haunted me as I read today’s scripture.
The biblical story presents two deeply pained mothers. One mother has a dead child and is so grieved that she “steals” her housemate’s newborn son. The other mother loves her son so much that she is willing to give him up, so he is not split. I envision each mother weeping and in monstrous pain over her loss.
Only love embodies real power. King Solomon understood this. A mother knows this. I hope leaders today are wise enough to also know it.
Prayer
Dear God, please help us settle differences with love so we will have fewer mothers weeping over dead children. Amen.
Written by Phil Calian, Member of Fourth Presbyterian Church
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
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