1 Kings 21:1-15

Some time later there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.”

But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors.”

So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my ancestors.” He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.

His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, “Why are you so sullen? Why won’t you eat?”

He answered her, “Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, ‘Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’”

Jezebel his wife said, “Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I’ll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city with him. In those letters she wrote:

“Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. But seat two liars opposite him and have them bring charges that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.”

So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them. They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people. Then two liars came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned to death.”

As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, “Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead.” When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard.

INHALE

Lord, give me strength

EXHALE

To embody your love

The Weight of Complicity

Lamma Mansour

Questions

  • Dr Lamma Mansour, a Palestinian Christian from Nazareth, bears witness to the deep wounds experienced by Palestinian Christians amid violence and displacement. Wounds compounded by the response from their global siblings in Christ.

    While some Christians have shown solidarity, others have supported, justified and enabled the ongoing atrocities in Gaza and Palestine, while others still have remained silent. This complicity in all its forms is the open wound that Palestinian Christians carry.

    Using the biblical story of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 21), Lamma explores how injustice is sustained through a network of participants rather than a single perpetrator. King Ahab represents those who benefit from injustice without direct involvement; Jezebel symbolizes those who actively orchestrate violence and cloak it in religious justification; and the town elders embody passive compliance, carrying out injustice through obedience, bureaucracy, and silence. Lamma draws parallels between each biblical character’s complicity in this injustice and the actions of Christians today who knowingly or unknowingly enable Israel’s ongoing violence towards Palestinians.

    But Lamma shows us there is another way. She raises up the Hebrew midwives of Exodus 1, who refused to be recruited to Pharaoh’s machinery of death, despite knowing that their refusal could result in their own deaths. The midwives show us there is another choice: that we too, can be midwives of justice and mercy, protecting life in a world that tramples on its sacredness and resisting systems of violence, domination and destruction. 

    Ultimately, Lamma concludes, these choices are not about Palestinians but the integrity of our faith: the example we choose to follow testifies to the kind of church we want to be.

1. What challenged you in this message? What resonated?

2. If you were to place yourself in the story of Naboth’s vineyard, where would you be? Which player do your lived experience and your actions best reflect?

3. Dr Martin Luther King wrote, “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.” What does your church or family (collectively and as individuals) need to repent of? 

4. Consider the example of the midwives in Exodus 1:15-21. Who are the midwives of justice and mercy today? 

Exodus 1:15-21

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.

1. Identify who God is calling you to stand in solidarity with. Locally? Nationally? Globally?

2. What might it cost you?

3. Identify three things you can do to strengthen your resolve when the costs of solidarity are counted (for example: community, accountability).

Almighty God,

We repent of our complicity in injustice. Of the ways in which our actions and inactions, our words and our silences, have enabled and emboldened those who deal in the machinery of death.

Help us become midwives of justice and mercy, instilling in us the strength to resist systems that dehumanize your beloveds and violate the sacredness of life.

Amen.

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