Read: 2 Samuel 17:1-29, John 19:23-42, Psalm 119:129-152, Proverbs 16:12-13

When Ahithophel realized that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey, went to his hometown,
set his affairs in order, and hanged himself. He died there and was buried in the family tomb.
2 Samuel 17:23

Relate:

After their surrender in World War 2, many within Japanese culture found themselves at a crossroads. The American soldiers and those others from the West who came to help restore and rebuild a country that had virtually cannibalized itself both economically and socially to try and stay in a doomed war. Those raised during the war years were indoctrinated under the most aggressive form of brainwashing any culture inflicted on itself in the modern era. And then they lost. While many tried their best to throw everything overboard in an attempt to start over and rise to the top as quickly as possible (a typical Japanese response seen multiple other times in their history), others simply could not do so. They were trapped between the idealism of the past and the reality of the present.

One such person was Yukio Mishima. Mishima was probably one of the most popular and successful authors of the postwar era in Japan. He was so because he was able to pull on the heart strings of those caught in the turmoil of the transition. He wrote of the ideals of Shintoism and reverence for the Emperor as he imagined them to be in an idyllic past. Unfortunately, he didn’t just write of these things. Mishima gathered around him an “army” of disaffected youth who called themselves the Tatenokai (shield society). On November 25, 1970, he entered a military installation with some of these youth and took a general hostage. He then gave an impassioned address from a balcony to the soldiers gathered around.

The address did not go as hoped. These soldiers had all been trained and enculturated by their American counterparts. Instead of listening and joining Mishima, they mocked and ridiculed him. Fearing this might happen, Mishima had planned ahead. He had studied the ancient art of seppuku and trained one of his followers how to carry it out. But in the tension of the moment, they botched it. Rather than becoming a glorious deed that would shock the masses and inspire them to return to some glorious past, Mishima became a byword and a cautionary tale.

React:

As he should be. Voluntary suicide is never a glorious or noble act. Anyone cowardly enough to take this out deserves at best our pity, at other times our scorn and derision (I’m looking at you, Hitler), and at all times our repulsion. Save our sympathy and our empathy for the unfortunate individuals left behind to try and pick up the pieces of the train wreck of this selfish act.

There are five people the Bible records as committing suicide, and Ahithophel is by far the least negative of these cases. I see him as an ancient Judean version of Mishima. David as king was bringing change to the land both religiously and culturally. In supporting the son over the father, Ahithophel was publicly announcing that he was not on board with those changes. Or perhaps he just saw the son as someone he could more easily manipulate than the father. Whatever the case, when he realized that his expectations were not true, he took the coward’s way out. Suicide is not the act of nobility or of courage. Real courage would face up to our mistakes and failures and find a way through them. Real nobility seeks to inspire the change they would like to see rather than escape the changes they fear. The better person will capture people’s attention through their courageous life, not through their cowardly death.

Respond:

Dear God,
First and foremost, I pray for anyone who might be considering the supposedly easy way out. Give them the moral courage and tenacity to stick it out. Let them remember that if things are not yet good, then You are not yet finished with them. I pray also for those who have been left with the wreckage of another person’s sin of suicide. I pray for any guilt or recrimination they place on themselves wondering if there was something more they could have said or different they could have done. I pray against the social stigma placed on them by others because of this tragedy outside of their control. I pray most of all that You would be with them and comfort them as they deal with the pain left by someone they love.
This world is full of brokenness, hurt, and false promises. Help us to be the ones to bring healing and hope and Your faithfulness. Let us never be the ones who add to the pain by seeking to escape.
Amen