A BRIEF MEDITATION ON THE BROOK KIDRON
2 Samuel 15:19-26 (NASB)
19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why will you also go with us? Return and remain with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile; return to your own place.
20 "You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander with us, while I go where I will? Return and take back your brothers; mercy and truth be with you."
21 But Ittai answered the king and said, "As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely wherever my lord the king may be, whether for death or for life, there also your servant will be."
22 Therefore David said to Ittai, "Go and pass over." So Ittai the Gittite passed over with all his men and all the little ones who were with him.
23 While all the country was weeping with a loud voice, all the people passed over. The king also passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness.
24 Now behold, Zadok also came, and all the Levites with him carrying the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar came up until all the people had finished passing from the city.
25 The king said to Zadok, "Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the sight of the LORD, then He will bring me back again and show me both it and His habitation.
26 "But if He should say thus, 'I have no delight in you,' behold, here I am, let Him do to me as seems good to Him."
John’s Gospel is rich with Old Testament imagery and even the Passion account begins with a reference to the Brook Kidron. Why does our Lord go out over the Brook Kidron? Often people jump over this because of the very important reference to the garden and the fact that this garden frames the whole narrative of John 18 and 19. Surely, we cannot pass over this so quickly because the Holy Spirit has caused the Brook Kidron to be mentioned only twice in the Scriptures. It is the lengthy David and Absalom narrative that forms a backdrop for the events in John.
While there are many connections to 2 Samuel 13-18, let us note what has gone before David’s flight. David has forgiven Absalom and kissed him as a mark of that forgiveness. John has omitted a reference to the kiss of Judas to remind us that our Lord loves them to the end, even Judas who betrays Him. The conspiracy grew and those with King Absalom increased in number just as in the close of the trial before Pilate the crowd cries out, “We have no king but Caesar.” As they rejected David, co they rejected the Son of David, but even more so they have rejected God as their King (1 Samuel 8:6-8). Fittingly, it is Pilate who declares, “Behold your King!”
For the sake of the city, David gathers His servants to leave so that the city would not be struck with the sword. Likewise, our Lord is concerned for His servants and does not desire to lose any of them. In Ittai the Gittite we see the confession of those who follow Christ particularly in the crossing over water for we are all reminded of the way of Baptism, the water that brings us life in following the Son of David. Have we not had the John 3-6 references to water to serve as background for this? We are called to be the Ittais, born again in the living waters with the Spirit of God directing us to cross to whatever place our Lord leads us in the storms of this life. Though we were foreigners, we seek mercy and truth in the household of the Son of David.
Let us consider one last thing in our brief meditation. How are Zadok the priest and the ark connected to the Passion? Note that it is in John that we hear Caiaphas has advised that it is expedient that one man die for the sins of the people. Zadok and the ark return to the city to see if the Lord delights in David. David will return after Absalom, the son of David, hangs in the tree. So David finds favor while another dies. Of course, we remember that Absalom was not dead initially in the tree and Joab could not get a man to raise his hand against the king’s son, but Joab puts three spears into his heart. Then, there are ten young men who strike and kill Absalom. Now we take comfort that the True Son of David has been hung in the tree and died there that we might all know the Lord has found favor with us and brings us into the heavenly Jerusalem. Our Lord was killed not by ten men, but bearing the burden of the Ten Commandments and crushed by all our iniquities. He was pierced in the side and out came blood to sprinkle us with life in the water of baptism and to feed us in the Blessed Sacrament. There He bears witness to the Truth for He is the King and those who are in His kingdom hear the Voice of Truth.