One of Aesop’s fables tells of two men who were traveling in company through a forest when, all at once, a huge Bear crashed out of the brush near them. One of the Men, thinking of his own safety, climbed a tree. The other, unable to fight the savage beast alone, threw himself on the ground and lay still, as if he were dead. He had heard that a Bear will not touch a dead body. It must have been true, for the Bear snuffed at the Man’s head awhile, and then, seeming to be satisfied that he was dead, walked away. The Man in the tree climbed down. “It looked just as if that Bear whispered in your ear,” he said. “What did he tell you?” “He said,” answered the other, “that it was not at all wise to keep company with a fellow who would desert his friend in a moment of danger.”
Reflecting on our Gospel lesson this morning led me to consider the loyalty we owe to God. This thought, in turn, brought me to the Hebrew word for loyalty: hesed.
To explore the meaning of hesed further, I turned to Strong’s Concordance. If you haven’t heard of it, Strong’s is essentially a very in-depth dictionary of the words in the Bible. It states, “חֵסֵד (chesed) saturates the Hebrew Scriptures as the hallmark of God’s covenantal character and the standard for covenantal response among His people… Of its approximately 247 occurrences, over half lie in the Psalms, yet it shapes every major section of the Old Testament, from the Torah to the Post-Exilic books.” (Source)
Despite at least 25 years of serious study of Holy Scripture, I would have come across such an important concept, but… not that I remember.
But as I dug in, I realized that the trouble with the word hesed is that there is no single English word that fully captures its meaning. Loyalty is only one aspect; so, in scripture, we often find it rendered as steadfast love, loving kindness, mercy, faithfulness, and loyalty. One of the most popular verses where the word appears is Psalm 23:6,
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.”
Given the richness of hesed, we can now see that this verse offers far more than we may have realized at first. ‘Surely God’s goodness and God’s steadfast love, God’s loving kindness, God’s mercy, God’s faithfulness, God’s loyalty shall follow me all the days of my life.’ Still, for God’s mercy or faithfulness to count as hesed, it must not only reflect these qualities but also be specifically connected to the covenant relationship God has with his people. The covenant is beautifully expressed in Deuteronomy: ‘Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.’ (Deuteronomy 7:9)
This all points towards the covenant relationship that God has made with his people. In other words, God’s mercy, loyalty, faithfulness, and the like are not just words. These attributes come with action and proof. God says, “I’m not only going to tell you that I am faithful, but I am also going to show you that I am faithful. I am not only going to tell you I am loyal, but I’m also going to show you. I’m not only going to tell you that I love you, but I will show you that I love you.” And we know that he has—“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
That single verse, I believe, is at the heart of God’s hesed toward his people. It is love, faithfulness, mercy—in action. This action is not cheap; it is very costly. For us, it is not earned, bought, or demanded; instead, it is freely given as a grace because God chose us as recipients of his love and grace. That is the covenant he has made with us.
Yes, this week’s Gospel reading got me thinking about loyalty—just a few of the things I learned. We’ve been speaking of God’s hesed toward us, but what about our hesed toward God?
Our Gospel lesson from Matthew 10 does not use the word hesed, but as I learned more about its meaning, what Jesus describes looks remarkably like the covenant loyalty the Old Testament often calls hesed—showing steadfast love and kindness—in our relationship with him.
Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword…. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
Luke’s Gospel puts this in even harder words, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27)
In both passages, Jesus insists our relationship with Him goes beyond lip service. It must be accompanied by real action and commitment.
Last week, we explored how our baptism brings us into a new allegiance, a new identity, and a new life with Christ Jesus as King, savior, and master. This week, we see what that covenant demands of us—it demands nothing less than what God demands of Himself. God says, ‘I will show you unwavering faithfulness; therefore, you must show me unwavering faithfulness.’ God says, ‘I will show you 100% loving kindness, loyalty, all these things; therefore, to be in a covenantal relationship with me demands that you show me 100% loving kindness, loyalty, etc.’
When Luke says we are to ‘hate’ father, mother, wife, and children, he is using exaggeration to emphasize a point: we must place God above all else. By doing this, God can then teach us and give us the grace necessary to ‘love one another,’ as He has loved us. So, being in this covenant relationship with God 100% also enables us to be in a covenant relationship with each other. In this way, hesed becomes not only a word that defines a relationship but also the defining characteristic of a life lived to the glory of God.
But here’s the rub. I said that God demands 100% loving-kindness, loyalty, and the rest from us, but the reality is we never do. I believe we try, but we fail. Adam and Eve failed, David failed, Peter failed, we fail. There’s no excuse, but when we fail to fulfill this covenant with God and one another, there is hesed again—there is mercy, God’s mercy to us. As the Psalmist says, God’s “mercy…His hesed endures forever.” (Psalm 136) As God shows us covenantal mercy, we show it to each other.
Aesop’s bear made a very good point: It is “not at all wise to keep company with a fellow who deserts his friend in a moment of danger.” This speaks to one aspect of what we should look for in a friend, but it also speaks to our understanding of God’s relationship with us, as proven time and again. Jesus has called us friends (John 15:15). Ask yourself, “Am I the kind of friend to Jesus who would abandon him under any circumstances, or regardless of the cost, would I remain faithful?”
In discovering the answer, we begin to see whether we are worthy of Him, whether we are His disciples. And, if necessary, we rely on His unfailing mercy to restore us to Him and seek to fulfill our part of the covenant—the hesed—we have entered into.
Let us pray:
May the Strength of God guide us.
May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us.
May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us.
May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Angels of God guard us.
Against the snares of the evil one.
May Thy Grace, Lord,
Always be ours,
This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.
Candle in a Cave 