When Jesus looked at the crowd, he had compassion on them,
and he asked his disciples to feed them. It was impossible, of course, because
they only had two fish and five loaves of bread, but Jesus fed 5000 men… and
the women and children who accompanied them… proving that with God all things
are possible AND that, if we offer God all that we have- no matter how
little- it is more than enough! God is more than able to make life out of
nothing, but he often chooses to partner with us.
He invites us to join him in the miracle-making business,
and we see this again in our first passage this morning (1 Kings 17:8ff).
Elijah, the Tishbite, has just been introduced, and he became a prophet of such
importance that faithful Jews save a seat at Passover for him to this day. In
any event, there was a great drought in Israel and Elijah was desperate for a
source of food and water. For a while, God sent ravens to give him food and drink,
but then, in his sovereignty, God sent Elijah to a widow who lived in Zarephath,
which was on the Mediterranean shore, north of Tyre. Why Zarephath? Who knows.
Why this widow? Why not? In any event, Elijah obeyed, and soon the great
prophet met the widow, who was desperately poor. Of course, widows were
predictably poor because they had no source of support. It was a man’s world,
and if a woman was widowed, she lost her breadwinner and her protector. Most
people just eked out a daily living at the time, but a widow was much worse
off, and there was a serious drought in the region. She was dying, and she had
given up. She was planning to make one last meal for her son and her- with her last
bit of flour and olive oil- and die, but Elijah offered her a promise: make
me a loaf of bread with what you have left- put everything you have
on the line- and God will feed you and your son throughout the entire drought,
no matter how long it lasts. And so it was- the Lord provided and the widow
thrived- because God as a special place in His heart for the powerless.
There are other truths in this passage- God can do anything,
God takes care of his prophets, God blesses us when we obey- but the Bible is
quite clear that God has a special place in his heart for the widow, the
orphan, and the alien. Consider these
verses among many others: Oppress not the widow, or the orphan, or the
stranger, or the poor (Zech. 7:10); God is a father to the fatherless and a
judge of the widows (Ps. 68:5); pure and undefiled religion is this: to visit
the orphans and the widows in their affliction and to keep yourself unspotted
from the world. (James 1:27) I could go
on, but perhaps there is no greater evidence of how much God cares for the
widow than our gospel passage today. (Luke 7:11-17) Listen, after he had praised the centurion’s
faith, Jesus went to Nain, aka Naim, ( a small village 25 miles southwest of
Capernaum), where he encountered a funeral procession leaving town. Since it
was against the law to bury the dead within the city walls, a solitary widow followed
her son’s casket through the gates on the way to the burial site. There was a
large crowd with her, and since she couldn’t afford to hire mourners, as the
rich often did, we take it that most of the village was caught up in her grief
as well. She had lost her husband and now, her only son, leaving her with
nothing to hang on to. She was a “nothing in a nowhere,” but she was everything
to Jesus. In fact, when he saw her, his heart broke, and he said, “Don’t cry,”
just as he became “deeply moved” and asked, “Where have you laid him?” when he
stood at Lazarus’ grave. He said, “Don’t cry,” and raised her son to life- not
because she was more deserving that any other widow, not because of her faith,
and not even because he wanted to make a point about God’s power, but simply
because he was overcome with her pain.
Friends, life’s stage is not level. Some people have steep
hills to climb, and without help they cannot make it to the top, or even to a decent
resting place. The hands that we’ve been dealt are not the same. Some people seem to have all the wild cards
and the rest are certain to lose unless they get a little help. As God in the
flesh, Jesus knew these things. Injustice and vulnerability were part of his
daily life- part of his personal life- and he took it all in. He condemned
those who would take a widow’s last mite. He lashed out at those who placed
burdens on the poor, but more than that, their pain broke his heart. Last week,
our stereotypes were challenged by Jesus when he praised the Roman centurion’s
faith, and they were challenged by the centurion also, when he cared about his
slave. They were even challenged by the Jewish leaders who praised the
centurion’s character. In short, no one treated the other as if he (or she) was
just a label. No one dismissed another’s need because of their ethnicity,
faith, or status because there are no barriers to God’s love (other than the
refusal to accept it).
Last week, we came face to face with justice, and now today,
we are asked to stare at mercy. There is
a widow here with abject poverty and she’s running out of food… and hope.
There’s a widow here who has lost her son. Her grief is palpable- her situation
is dire. Are we able to feel their emptiness? Can we taste their tears? Are we
able to feel the pain of those who have less joy in a lifetime than some of us
do in a season? Do we get a lump in our throats when others lose everything
they have and find themselves in need of shelter and food? Do we support our
Drop-In Center, which provides a sanctuary for junior high kids- the ones who
don’t make all the teams and need a place to go? Do we support our meal site,
where we have the privilege of feeding people who will not be deciding which
steak house dine in this weekend? Friends, from the Levitical codes to the
gospels, God could not be clearer: our love for Him is measured by the love we
show to the hungry, the sick, the vulnerable, the imprisoned, the disabled, and
all of those who are not able to make it to the mountaintop, or who aren’t even
allowed to try!
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