The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
*Arise and Eat* Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen! In today’s Old Testament, God’s prophet Elijah decided that he was done. He’d had enough. “*Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers*.” God responded to Elijah’s prayer by sending an angel who said to Elijah, “*Arise and eat*.” Essentially the angel was saying to the prophet, “Don’t be ridiculous.” Dear Christian friends, We should NOT think of God’s Old Testament prophets as mighty men or heroes of the faith. Many of the prophets were more pathetic than anything else. Moses preferred to hide behind Aaron (Exodus 4:14, 30). Amos complained that he did not even want the job; he would much rather return to the farm (Amos 7:14-15). Jonah stubbornly refused to preach in Nineveh until God made him an offer he could not refuse. Then we have Elijah, who assumes the fetal position and boo-hoos for us in today’s Old Testament. It seems surprising that one of the most significant prophets in all of ancient history would act in such a flimsy way. Prior to today’s Old Testament, · Elijah performed many great miracles. At God’s command, Elijah spoke a Word and created a severe famine in the land, in order to call the people to repentance (1 Kings 17:1). The famine later ended in the same way that it began—by a Word from this prophet (1 Kings 18:41). During the famine, Elijah also took on a mob of 450 idolatrous prophets, challenging them to offer sacrifices to their demonic go, and Elijah won (1 Kings 18:20-40). Were this not enough divine power in the prophet’s mouth, God also used Elijah to raise a man from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-24). · Aside from these miracles, the Lord God had repeatedly demonstrated grace toward Elijah and protection over him. Not once, but twice prior to today’s Old Testament, God provided miraculous food to keep Elijah alive during the famine (1 Kings 17:4-6, 11-16). Not once, but twice prior to today’s Old Testament, Elijah had spoken prophecies to Ahab, the apostate king of Israel, and lived to tell about it. Here in today’s Old Testament, despite all of God’s overflowing grace and power in Elijah’s life, Elijah feels ready to shrivel up and die. “*It is enough; no, O Lord, take away my life*.” What had happened to Elijah? The answer to that question can be stated in a variety of ways—and each various answer will provide help to you and to me. We know that today’s Old Testament will provide help and nourishment to us because our God has promised us in His book of Romans, For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4). What happened to Elijah, so that he would fall into such despair? · On the surface of things, somebody had threatened Elijah, making Elijah feel afraid. Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, had decided that she was not going to tolerate this prophet and his preaching. As you heard in today’s Old Testament, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then Elijah was afraid… Nothing actually happened to Elijah. It was merely threat and fear that doubled him over. Isn’t that often the way it goes for us Christians today? When trouble comes, we always move straight to fearing the worst. the question “What if? What if? What if?” continually runs in circles through the brain. If you have ever worried about the decision you must make; if you have ever obsessed whether your plans will work out; if you have ever lost sleep because you are thinking too much, then you are not too far away from that rock that held Elijah curled body in today’s Old Testament. Look again at that prophet and learn from him that the fear in your mind is usually greater than the reality. Elijah feared Jezebel’s wrath, but she never was able to lay a hand upon him. How much do you fear, and how much of it actually comes to pass? · Elijah minimized and forgot the powerful Words and promises of God. The very Word this man had once preached was now allowed to escape him. The miracles that once seemed so mighty now must have seemed to fizzle. Elijah did not flop down on the ground and say, “No matter what happens to me, I believe in the resurrection.” Nor did Elijah say, “Live or die, I belong to the Lord.” In the hour of his trouble and despair, Elijah’s best confession of faith was essentially, “Game over! The best thing for me is to die!” Lately I have been hearing a lot of Elijah-like hand-wringing and complaining, especially as a result of this silly Supreme Court decision concerning marriage. People seem to think that nothing this evil has ever happened before in the history of the world. Some people are declaring that there is only one way out of this, and it has to do with Jesus returning to us on the Last Day. “Game over!” God’s Christians upon the earth absolutely desire and pray for the glorious return of our Lord. The closing Words of the New Testament should be the closing prayer that gets prayed by every Christian in the shade of every evening: “*Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!*” (Revelation 22:20). Today’s Old Testament raises for us the possibility that the Last Day is NOT our God’s only solution, either for our unrealized fears or for the place of the Holy Christian Church in a pagan land such as these United States. “Game over!” declared Elijah. “Don’t be ridiculous!” declared the Lord. Translated a bit more closely, Elijah asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. How did God respond to Elijah’s despair? · First, God repeatedly spoke His Word to Elijah, “*Arise and eat*.” With these Words, God looked beyond Elijah’s pitiful condition. God does exactly the same thing for you and for me! For Elijah, the Words were “*Arise and eat*.” For you and for me, the Words are, “I forgive you all your sins.” As He did with Elijah, God’s Words of forgiveness in Christ Jesus likewise look beyond our pitiful condition and our distress. God’s Words of forgiveness have power to drag us up onto our feet again, calming our fears and relieving our distress. When God’s messenger said to Elijah, “*Arise and eat*,” Elijah could reason to himself, “Well, God must want me alive, even though I feel as though I am better off dead.” When God’s messenger says to you, “*Your sins are forgiven*,” you can reason to yourself as Elijah could. “God wants me alive, even though my guilt and my regret and my fears and my anxieties all make me wish I were dead.” The Words, “*Arise and eat*” are the promise of life. The Words, “I forgive you all your sins” likewise promise you life! · Second, God provided Elijah with a miraculous meal. As you heard, “*Elijah arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights*.” Neither Subway nor mommas’ home cooking will not give you that sort of strength. Such supernatural strength is only available to those who eat the meal that God Himself provides. For Elijah, it was “*a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water*.” Should you and I think less of the Holy Communion in our midst? Far more than mere bread and water, this is the crucified body and spilled blood of our Lord Jesus, given for you for the forgiveness of your sins. And where there is forgiveness, there also is life and salvation. The bad thing about Elijah’s meal is that it only carried him for forty days. The meal God serves you will carry you to eternal life. Elijah’s miraculous meal strengthened him for the journey “*to Horeb, the mountain of God*.” Your miraculous meal will take you beyond Horeb to a much greater mountain, to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect (Hebrews 12:22-23). Do not curl up in fear, Elijah, but lift up your head, for your redemption has already drawn near! (Luke 21:28). Let the Supreme Court make whatever decisions it insolently needs to make. Let our entire society grow in its toleration of depravity and intolerance toward the truth. Let your own personal fears dance upon the walls in the shadows of the night. Let the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea (Psalm 46:2). It is not time to curl up and die, Elijah! “*Arise and eat*!” Live on the strength that has been promised to you by the Lord of hosts. We are, indeed, no better than our fathers. But the God of our Fathers has glorified His servant Jesus (Acts 3:13). “*Arise and eat*,” for our Lord Jesus has sworn to us His oath, as you heard in the Gospel of the Day, I am the Bread of life… All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:35, 37-40)
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