“Imagine, if you will, a gift. It’s not big. You could wrap it in a golf ball-size box. This gift can do incredible things for you however. It will bring all of your family together. You will feel loved and appreciated like never before and reconnect with friends and acquaintances you haven’t heard from in years. Adoration and admiration will overwhelm you. And this gift will recalibrate what’s most important in your life. Does Amazon carry this item? Does it have the Apple logo on it? Is there a waiting list for this thing? No, not for hemangioblastoma. Heman-gio-blas-toma. That’s a brain tumor, the gift that I received.”
If you’re a fan of TED talks on the internet, you may have seen that speech (slightly adapted) by Stacey Kramer. She wanted her audience to understand how she came to see as a gift the brain tumor she survived. I don’t know if Kramer is a Christian, but she certainly described her brain tumor experience in a way a mature Christian might. Whenever something unexpected, unwanted, and uncertain comes into our lives, we Christians can still consider it a gift. I want to explain why as we continue our sermon series on Elisha – that bald ‘n’ bold prophet who, in today’s sermon, serves a widow who had to deal with something unexpected, unwanted, and uncertain and yet would come to see it as a gift.
The last time we left Elisha, he had been giving counsel to kings. Elisha was a man who moved in distinguished circles yet he wasn’t stuck up. In today’s sermon text the widow of a prophet felt comfortable approaching Elisha with a serious problem. Her husband had not only died, he had left her in debt and now the creditor was coming to take her two sons as slaves for payment of the debt. When she approached Elisha for help, he asked what she had in the house. “Nothing,” she replied, “well, except for a small jar of oil.”
Is that really all her husband had left her – a small jar of oil? Not at all! That now-deceased prophet had left something worth more than a million dollars. He had left his family with a working faith in God’s promises. So while this widow was certainly concerned, even panicked about her situation, she knew where to turn for help: to the Lord. We’ll also see how this woman’s sons were respectful and obedient. They didn’t grumble or complain (that we know of) about what they would be asked to do even though it may have seemed foolish to them. They supported and encouraged their mother. They had been taught well by their father and no doubt had seen such a spirit of humility demonstrated in the way he had served others.
For the last few weeks now I’ve taken the opportunity to stress the importance of Christian parenting. Here’s yet another example of what a blessing it is to be a god-fearing parent. This prophet who passed away had not, earthly speaking, left a whole lot for his family. He had actually saddled them with a debt that threatened to separate mother and children, but he had also left them with a heavenly treasure that would not fail them: faith in God’s promises.
What legacy will you leave your family? What good is it to leave them money and property if your children let go of their claim of heaven because they don’t learn from you the importance of continuing to feed their faith with the study of God’s Word? What good is it to make sure that your kids know how to ski and skate, but they don’t know how to be devoted in prayer or be good stewards of the talents and treasures they have? What is there to boast about if your children know how to zip through algebra problems but struggle to find comforting and empowering passages in the Bible? Do you suppose you’ll always have time to get serious about the spiritual nurturing of your family? That doesn’t seem to be what that nameless prophet in our text thought. The impression we’re given is that the sons he left behind were quite young. So just how many more years, how many more days do you have left to make a spiritual impact on your family?
Because we don’t know how long God will give us to teach and nurture our family we will want to take advantage of every opportunity we have to train them in God’s Word and model for them servant-like humility. Your ability and desire to do this will not come from any guilt trip I give you. It comes from knowing and believing how Jesus has already forgiven you for often having your parenting priorities mixed up. As forgiven children of God let’s encourage one another to stand firmly on the spiritual rock Jesus and to teach our children to do the same.
It was great that her husband had taught well the family God’s Word, but that didn’t remove the widow’s serious problem. How was she going to keep her sons from becoming slaves? At first glance it doesn’t seem as if Elisha was much help. Instead of handing the widow a check which would have immediately taken care of the problem, he directed her to gather all the empty jars she could from her neighbors. She was then to go into her house, close the doors, and pour the oil from her little jar into the jars that she had collected. She then could sell that oil and pay her debts. What would you have done if you were this woman? Would you have bothered to gather all the jars you could? Or would that have seemed like a waste of time, not to mention embarrassing when you tried to explain to your neighbors why you needed their empty jars – because Elisha promised that you would be able to fill them all with oil from your little jar?
Do you see how this unexpected, unwanted, and uncertain challenge was a gift? Through it God was exercising this woman’s faith. When the oil kept flowing, as Elisha said it would, this woman and her two sons would not only have a head-knowledge that God’s promises could be trusted, they would experience his faithfulness in a memorable way. Don’t you suppose that experience would help them through other challenges they would no doubt face down the road?
It’s the same reason God allows unexpected, unwanted, and uncertain challenges into your lives. They are a gift from him so that your faith may be exercised and therefore strengthened. God doesn’t just want you to know that he is good, he wants you to taste and see that he is good and that those who trust in him will never be put to shame (Psalm 34). He delights in giving you opportunities to learn firsthand that he will, as the Apostle Paul told the Philippian Christians, supply all your needs (though not necessarily all your wants) through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
How can we be certain that God really cares about us that much? Well we too like the widow have a creditor who is eager to enslave us. His name is Satan. Think of how Satan doesn’t just tempt us into sin, he loves to remind us how we sinners are not deserving of God’s love. In fact he’s eager to haul us before God to make his case that we deserve an eternity in hell. But then God’s Son, Jesus, steps in and intervenes. He points to the payment he made at the cross. A payment which covers the debt we owe God. Jesus assures us of this payment through the sacrament of Holy Communion. With the bread and wine Jesus gives us his body and blood and the guarantee that our entire sin-debt has been paid. This is how we know that God really loves us.
But some have asked, “How can Jesus’ body and blood really be present with the wine and bread? How can the body and blood be ‘stretched’ so that Christians for the last two thousand years have been receiving it?” Don’t you suppose the widow wondered how oil kept pouring out of her little jar to fill the many empty pots, and jugs, and pitchers her boys had gathered? I’m sure she didn’t understand the “how” of the miracle, but she knew that it was a miracle and that God meant to bless her through it, and that was good enough for her. So she kept pouring the oil as long as she had empty jars to fill.
Likewise we don’t have to understand the miracle of Holy Communion to benefit from it. I don’t know how Jesus’ body and blood is present in that little wafer and with that sip of wine, but Jesus says that it is and that should be good enough for us. And as vessels that are empty of any goodness, we will want to keep coming to Holy Communion so that through it God may fill us with his forgiveness and with his power so that we can live a life that pleases him and serves others.
Stacey Kramer spoke about her brain tumor as a gift. She saw how it brought her closer to her family and helped her appreciate again what’s really important in life. But would Kramer’s family have given the same speech had Stacey not survived the tumor? Would they have called that tumor a gift? I don’t know the Kramer family so I can’t say. What I do know is that a Bible-believing family can speak of any unexpected, unwanted, and uncertain challenge as a gift because what God does through such challenges like sickness and financial trouble is empty us of ourselves so that he may fill us with his love, his grace, and his power.
So the next time you’re going through hardship and someone asks: “How are you doing?” you could respond, “Oh, pretty well under the circumstances.” But here’s the thing: you are not under circumstances; you are under God’s grace and therefore under his loving power which he is using to control your circumstances. Trust him, as did the widow who seemed to have nothing more than a jar of oil, but in reality had everything she needed, for she had God’s love just as we do. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
What wonderful legacy had an unnamed prophet left behind for his family?
What kind of legacy are you leaving for your family? Do your daytimer and your checkbook agree with the answer you just gave? If not, what kind of changes can you start making this week?
Why do you suppose Elisha didn’t just hand the widow a check so she could pay her debts?
God obviously cared very much for the widow and her sons. How can you be sure that God cares for you that much?
In what ways(s) is the miracle in today’s text like the miracle of Holy Communion?
“I’m doing pretty well under the circumstances.” That’s often the response we give when we’re dealing with an unexpected and unwelcome problem. However, our text today gives us a better way to handle our stress. What is it?
