Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.” (1 Kings 17:17-24 NIV)
When I was serving a church in Houston, two of our newest members came up to me one Sunday after our church service. “Pastor,” they said, “we need to talk to you.” Oh boy. That never sounds good. This couple had miraculously come to our church out of the blue one Sunday. They hadn’t missed a Sunday since. Now, what was wrong? They said, “Pastor, we want you to know that ever since we started attending your church, everything in our lives has gone wrong. Everything has gotten worse. Our health has crashed. Our adult children are having all sorts of issues. People close to us have died. Ever since we started attending your church, everything has gone wrong.”
Do you ever feel that way? Life so often doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to go! Our church family has seen that firsthand this week. Our dear friend John Christ suddenly suffered another massive stroke. This isn’t what was supposed to happen. John had made such a miraculous recovery from his previous stroke. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction. When, suddenly, “Bam!” Everything changed. We say, “God, that’s not what was supposed to happen!” I bet you have your own examples of that. Life so often doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to go.
We see that play out again and again in the Bible. If you were here last week, we heard how God miraculously provided for a widow and her son. In the middle of a drought, God sent his prophet Elijah to a widow from the town of Zarephath in the foreign country of Sidon. That widow didn’t have anything. In fact, she was about to starve to death! But the LORD promised that her jar of flour would not be used up and her jug of oil would not run dry. And it didn’t! Every single day was a miracle of God’s grace. She and her family were all set, right? Except, “Some time later the son of the woman … became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.”
This was totally unexpected. After miraculously providing food for this widow and her son, the next thing God did was have her son die. That’s not how it’s supposed to go! The widow herself couldn’t understand it. She went to Elijah and said, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” I think it’s easy to understand her feelings. “Why did you get my hopes up?” Her son’s death hit her so hard. Just like John’s stroke has hit a lot of us hard this past week. So unexpected. “God, why did you get our hopes up?”
The woman, however, takes us deeper. She reveals an amazing level of theological insight. She understood the ultimate cause of death. What is it? Sin! “Did you come to remind me of my sin?” Her son’s death reminded her of her sin. This woman was not an Israelite. She didn’t know the Old Testament of the Bible. Yet, she understood something: People die because of sin.
Was she right? Yes. If life doesn’t seem like it’s supposed to end in death, it’s not. God created human beings to live forever. That’s why every one of us has a desire inside to keep on living, to never grow old, to never die. We’re not supposed to! So why do we die? Sin. After Adam and Eve sinned, God told them, “Dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19). This is one of the Bible’s truths that we especially remember in Lent. We are all sinners, and all sinners die. You can’t avoid it. Death is the worst and greatest reminder of our sins and what we deserve from God. “Did you come to remind me of my sin?” Death always reminds us of our sins.
But sin and death aren’t the end of the story. Elijah took the boy from his mother’s arms and carried him to his room. He prayed, “LORD my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” The boy’s death didn’t make sense to Elijah either! But Elijah still had hope: He knew God could raise the boy from the dead. You might think, “Duh! Of course, Elijah believed God could raise him from the dead!” But up to this point in the Bible, do you know how many people had been raised from the dead? Zero. As far as we know, no one had ever been raised from the dead before, but Elijah still trusted in the LORD.
So he stretch himself out on the boy three times and prayed, “LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him! LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him! LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” Isn’t that the prayer of everyone facing death? Isn’t that the prayer of everyone whose loved one has died? Life always seems too short. Life doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to go. When death comes, we pray, “LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
And God did. “The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.” Wow! Elijah carried the boy back to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!” The woman exclaimed, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.” Even with the all-you-can-eat flour and oil, there had still been doubts in her mind. But this? This was amazing! No one has power to bring life from death. No one but the LORD! This poor widow from a foreign country recognized what God wants all people of all nations to know and believe: The LORD brings life from death. Even in death, we trust in him.
As we’ve studied Elijah’s life, we’ve heard about the ancient struggle between the LORD and the false god Baal. Do you know what Baal was not able to do? Bring people back to life. Even believers in Baal knew he couldn’t bring people back to life. In ancient Canaanite religion, there was another god who was more powerful than Baal: The god of death. His name was Mot. According to their myths, Mot defeated Baal every year. That’s why winter came. The death god defeated the rain god. So everything died for a while. Even Baal had to submit to Mot—to death. But do you know who is even more powerful than Mot—than death? The LORD!
But God doesn’t always keep his people from dying. Isn’t that what we expect? “Sure, people die. But not me. Not us. God’s going to keep me and the people I love from dying!” True? No. That’s not God’s promise. Because what’s the ultimate cause of death? Sin. How many people have sinned? Everybody. So how many people die? Everybody. In our gospel lesson today, even Jesus’ close friend Lazarus got sick and died. Sometimes God allows little boys to die. Sometimes God allows people to recover from a stroke just to have another stroke. It doesn’t always make sense from our perspective. God doesn’t always keep his people from dying.
But God does provide the solution for death. In the story, Elijah lay on the boy. It’s as if Elijah took the place of the boy. He puts himself in the boy’s position to pray to God for him. That’s what Jesus did for us. He put himself in our position to pray to God for us. Except, Jesus took it way further than Elijah did. Jesus actually died in our place. Why? So he could rise and defeat death for us. Remember how powerful Mot—the god of death—seemed? Jesus is more powerful. After Jesus rose from the dead, the apostle Paul wrote, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).
Jesus’ resurrection is what gives us hope and peace in the face of death. When Lazarus died, Jesus told his sister Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:23-24). It’s amazing to see her faith! She didn’t say, “What? I’ve never heard of a resurrection before!” Martha knew that believers in God rise! That’s always been God’s people’s hope. But Jesus added, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). Whoever believes in Jesus will live, even though they die. That was true for Lazarus. That’s true for John Christ. That’s true for you and me.
We have a God who brings life from death. Just notice the order: Life from death. We’d like to hear, “Jesus brings life!” Here’s the reality: “Jesus brings life from death!” For this boy to be raised to life, what had to happen first? He had to die. It sounds heartbreaking, at least for his mother. “He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.” For Lazarus to be raised to life, what had to happen first? He had to die. A terrible sickness, followed by days of mourning by his friends and relatives. For Jesus to rise from the dead, what had to happen first? He had to die. To pay for our sins once and for all. For you and me to rise to eternal life in heaven, unless Jesus comes back first, what has to happen first? We have to die. Jesus brings life from death.
But when you face death, when your loved ones face death, God’s promises give you hope. As we studied Revelation earlier this year, we heard this verse, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on” (Revelation 14:13). What? Blessed are the dead? That doesn’t make any sense! Of course it does. This is the faith of a Christian. Paul wrote, “To die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Through Jesus, your sins are forgiven. Death is already defeated. Heaven is waiting for you. So, “Blessed are the dead…” Here’s an interesting thought: When people in the Bible were raised from the dead, were they actually a little disappointed? Did they come back to life and think, “Oh. Heaven is so much better!” It is! “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”
But what if it’s just a little boy? This week, I watched the college indoor track championships on TV. First, I saw the one-mile race. Eight men raced eight laps around the track. When they finished, they were all happy to be done. All of them. Nobody kept on running. Next, I saw the 60-meter race. It’s the shortest race. Just one length of the track. Yet, when they finished, they were all happy to be done. All of them. Nobody kept on running. No matter how long the race was, when their race was over, all the runners were happy to be done. God has mapped out each of our races. Maybe your race is going to be a long marathon. Or maybe it’s a short sprint. Know what? Either way, short or long, you’re going to be happy when you’ve finished your race.
As that couple years ago talked with me after church, I struggled in my mind to think of what to tell them. “Pastor, ever since we joined your church, everything has gone wrong.” Before I could spit anything out, however, they just kept talking. “But even though life has gotten really hard, we want you to know, Pastor, that we’re not going to stop coming to church. This is the devil trying to drive us away from God. But the opposite is happening. The more we learn about Jesus, the more convinced we are of God’s love and salvation. The harder life gets, the more we’re learning to trust in Jesus as our Savior. Pastor, ever since we joined your church, everything has gone wrong, but we’re not going to stop, because what Jesus offers us is worth it.” Isn’t that the truth? Life so often doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to, but Jesus brings life from death.
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