2 Samuel 11:1-17
In the name of ✠ Jesus
Today we continue our journey through the seven deadly sins by confronting two them which are often closely related: sloth and lust. A sadly perfect example of how these two vices are connected is given to us in today’s first reading.
King David had faithfully led the armies of Israel through many battles over the preceding years. From defeating Goliath, to escaping the envious attempts of Saul to murder him, to winning victories over the Ammonites and other enemies, David had been through a lot and had accomplished much as commander-in-chief. So you can almost understand why it is that this spring he decided to just stay home and let Joab and the other generals handle the military stuff. However, this was a central duty of the king. By not going out with his armies, he was failing to do his job. And by not remaining focused on his God-given vocation, he opened himself up to even greater sin.
This is the first important thing for us to understand about sloth, or acedia as it’s sometimes called. It’s not just laziness. Better said, it’s spiritual apathy and inattention to the good things God has given. One could even define it as boredom with the gifts of God and the callings He has placed you into. It’s a refusal to love what is already before you from the Lord and to look for something more stimulating and exciting elsewhere.
So there are two ways to be slothful. The most common, of course, is a sluggish failure to do what you should. In our day this usually takes the form of distraction. You could have a meaningful conversation with your spouse or children, but instead you scroll. You could check a few things off of the “to do” list, but instead you numb yourself with spiritually thinning entertainment and game-watching. You could take on a hobby or learn a skill that would bless your family or your neighbors or your church, but instead you find comfortable ways of avoiding that. Above all, you could have time in the Word of God and prayer, either individually or with your family, but instead you find other things that take priority.
However, there is also another way to be slothful, and that is to always be busy. Busyness can also be a way of avoiding your actual God-given callings. You can feel like you’re doing good when actually you’re forsaking your primary duty of being a church member, a husband or wife, a father or mother, a citizen, a worker, a neighbor, as these things are all spelled out for us from Scripture in the Catechism’s Table of Duties. This is the person who is out there trying to change the world while their marriage is falling apart or their kids are wandering away from the faith. What they’ve done is fill their life with a lot of things they prefer to be occupied with that are not their first and fundamental callings. Busyness can be the more dangerous sloth temptation, because you don’t feel like you’re being lazy at all.
Either way, it’s clear with David that sloth is how his troubles began. “David remained at Jerusalem.” Notice the details here: It’s late in the afternoon, and David arises from his “couch,” a word that can also be translated as a “bed.” He was resting, maybe taking a nap, taking it easy. He goes for a stroll on the roof of his palace to take a look around. And that’s when the big temptation strikes. But note that he had already sinned well before that; a sin of omission. He wasn’t yet doing evil, but he was failing to do good and fulfill the vocation God had given him. When we aren’t doing the good things God has given us to do, that’s often when we open ourselves up to doing the bad things God has forbidden us to do. Into that vacuum where good should be, evil rushes in. When you are not seeking the good, the evil will seek you.
Which brings us, then, to the sin of lust. David sees beautiful Bathsheba bathing, the wife of Uriah. But rather than turning his eyes away from what he should not be seeing, he indulges his eyes. You know Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, how He said that whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And of course the same thing is true also for women. Desiring sexual or romantic fulfillment from one whom God has not given you in marriage is sin, plain and simple.
Lust takes godly desire for the opposite sex and perverts it. It treats another human being as a means to a self-serving end, rather than as one to love self-sacrificially. It reduces a person made in the image of God into something that can be used and manipulated in order to satisfy a selfish craving.
So be on guard against all the ways the world tries to stir up those corrupting desires in you, whether through books enticing the heart to stray or screens enticing the eyes to stray. As king, David had no outward forces to stop him. He could get what he wanted, to his own grave harm. Sadly, the prevalence of pornography does the same thing, both to men and women. So find ways to put barriers in the way of what might incite lust in you; find people who will help to hold you accountable. And in particular regarding pornography, learn to be saddened at how the people on camera are destroying their souls, and to despise those who engage in trafficking and abuse. Learn to see the viewing of pornography as behaving like an ugly hyena craving to have his part in what the lion caught. Pray for those who are ensnared in the vice of lust, that they may be set free.
For there is freedom from this and all sin in Christ. That’s what forgiveness is: being released from sin’s enslaving power. What do we do about sloth and lust? The first thing to do is to name it and acknowledge it for what it is, to bring it out of the dark and into the light of Christ through confession and absolution. It’s often painful to do so, but evil thrives best in the shadows, like mold. In the shining sun of God’s mercy in Christ it dries up and dies. We prayed it in Psalm 32, “I did not cover my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” The prophet Nathan would later proclaim to King David, “The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.” Blessed indeed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered by the Lord.
Your sins of sloth and lust are forgiven for the sake of Christ. The Lord does not look upon that ugliness and abandon you; instead the Son of David takes your sin upon Himself and purges it away by virtue of His holy life and His saving death on the cross, to make you beautiful and noble again. When it comes to sloth, Jesus was not lazy about fulfilling the Father’s will, but was diligent to do it in every respect. He wasn’t distracted by the prospect of what His popularity could accomplish for Himself politically. Neither did He turn aside from His mission and say, “You know, I just need a break for a while.” Instead, He said in John 9, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” That light of Christ cleanses you and builds you up. He has fulfilled His calling for your good, for your life and your salvation.
Jesus is the King who does not give in to the lust of the eyes but rather sets His sights on going up to Jerusalem, walking the way to Calvary. He does so to lay down His life for His elect Lady. He does not pursue any self-seeking desire, only the desire to rescue and restore you to fellowship with God again. With our Lord it is the passion of self-disciplined love, not self-satisfying lust, that drives Him. He gives of Himself completely for His church to set all of you free from the prison house of sin, to clothe you in the beautiful garments of His righteousness, to give you a place in the household, dwelling with the God who is perfect love, the blessed Holy Trinity.
You are a new creation in Christ; you have been given a clean heart and new eyes. Therefore, let us lay aside the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2). Let that divine, beatific vision be your priority and the goal that you live for.
In the name of ✠ Jesus