SOLOMON AND JESUS CHRIST


FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME   

1 Kings 11:29-32,12:19; Ps 81:10-15; Mk 7:31-37

Solomon and the Mystery of Christ

King Solomon started off very well and ended not so well. We say not so well because he realised his mistakes and sins and confessed them before his death. As we noted earlier in the week, in the early part of his reign, Solomon was a type of Jesus Christ, the man of peace and the Son of David. He had the good examples of his father, David, and his mother, Beersheba; though nothing much is written about her, her son witnessed to her unsung virtues. King Solomon foreshadowed the life of Jesus Christ. He was the son of David and the one who inherited the Davidic dynasty directly from David himself. He ruled the people of God in wisdom and peace for the greater part of his reign. His rule brought so much wealth, fame, and visibility to Israel as a nation. A central role of his functioning as a type of the Son of Man is the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem. That was the one function God did not allow David to take up; He informed him that it would be done by a son of his who would succeed him. The literal meaning of God’s word was fulfilled by King Solomon when he constructed the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem that awed the Queen of Sheba. But the mystical or spiritual meaning awaited the coming of the spiritual Son of David, the Messiah.

Subsequently, we can understand King Solomon to be a messiah of Israel to a certain degree. In a sociopolitical sense, he expanded and glorified the Davidic kingdom of Israel; for never was there another king so wise, so peaceful, famous, and loved by all, like Solomon. But he wrecked the mystical aspect of the kingdom of David. This is not surprising at all, because no corrupted human nature can be a foundation for the heavenly kingdom which God intends to build on the foundation of the Davidic kingdom. This means that the foundation of the Davidic kingdom is not David, but the faith he had in the word of God that promised him the everlasting kingdom. This faith kept David connected to God and His word until his death. After Solomon had fulfilled the material aspect of the promise of God to David, that is, achieving everything that is within the human power to achieve in temporal fulfilment of God’s promise, he disintegrated under the weight of the divine expectation. The weakness he inherited from his parents manifested in his relations with women. The fact that no fallen human nature can fulfil the divine will or commandment is true in his case, showing that rulership of the kingdom of God belongs to the Son of Man. All who came before him were means leading to his appearance. “I am going to tear the kingdom from Solomon’s hand and give ten tribes to you. He shall keep one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.” Solomon’s failures demonstrated his need for salvation, just as our failures bring us to encounter Jesus Christ, the Son of David.

Only Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, has the pure nature of man, which he assumed at his Incarnation. As the Eternal Word of God, he is the foundation of the Davidic kingdom, which has become the kingdom of heaven; and as the Son of Man, he is the Messiah, the King of Salem, who delivers his brothers and sisters from the corruption of sin, that they may inherit the everlasting kingdom of God. By assuming our nature, he fixes our deafness to the word of God and restores our power of speech that we may confess and glorify the name and the saving grace of our God. The Gospel illustrates these salvific powers of the Son of Man. “And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with spittle Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And his ears were opened, and the ligament of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly.” The fall of Solomon and every one of us into sin only shows that we are not the Christ, but only a type of him. Every type must give way to reality when it appears. Our failures and sinfulness only beckon us to submit to Jesus Christ; to decrease, so that He would increase in us. He will rebuild us into a magnificent temple of God in spirit. In this regard, He is the reality, and Solomon was a type.

Let us pray: Keep your family safe, O Lord, with unfailing care, that, relying solely on the hope of heavenly grace, they may be defended always by your protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.        

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