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Come and Die
I Kings 17:8-16
Grace to you and peace from
God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “When
Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” Though these are hard
words to hear, they could not be more true. Four times in the Gospels, our Lord
tells His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him. Our view of the
cross is shaped by two thousand years of history. We think of what Jesus
accomplished with His death on the cross, and that perhaps allows us to think
of it as something less than a cruel instrument of execution. Only criminals
who had been sentenced to die for the most heinous crimes carried crosses. And
so, what Bonhoeffer said is absolutely correct, even as stark and abrupt as it
sounds. When Jesus tells us to take up our cross, He is calling us to come and
die.
Elijah’s words to the widow at Zarephath
probably sounded just as harsh. He saw that the widow and her son were
starving. He knew that little oil and flour remained. He knew that he was
asking her to give him all that she had. Still, he said to her, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
And for her part, the widow knew that the prophet’s command was the Lord’s
command. In her ears, it must have seemed like he was saying, “Obey my words even though they will kill
you.” The Word of the Lord often seems that way. His holy Word of
Law kills us whenever we hear it. We never live up to its perfect standard of
holiness and love. If we were truly obedient to the Law of God, we would never
put our own life before the lives of others; we would never doubt God’s love or
worry about the future. But too often, we seek our own good first. We doubt
God’s love; we look to our friends, our family, our jobs, our bank accounts for
the peace and security that can really only come from God. And in these
difficult economic times, our lives are often clouded by fears about the
future, and we can sometimes wonder if we really will be provided with all that
we need.
God’s Word of Law can only kill us. Not
only are we not God; sinners that we are, we oppose
God’s will at every turn, and our doubts and fears make it clear how little we
actually believe what the Lord has promised in His Word. Our bodies of sin and
doubt and fear must die. They must be nailed with Jesus to His cross. When
Christ calls a man, He truly bids him to come and die. Our sinful flesh must
die with Jesus on the cross. It must be buried with Him in His tomb.
All of this is bound up in Holy Baptism.
It is in Baptism that your sinful flesh has been put to death. The word
to the widow of Zarephath does not end with, “Bring me a morsel of bread.” After the widow honestly lays
out her fears before the prophet, Elijah says, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not
be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord
sends rain upon the earth.’” Nor does the Word that God speaks to you
end there, either. Just as the Lord drowned your sinful flesh in the waters of
your Baptism, so also He has raised you to new life in Christ.
When you are facing death, it is hard to
see God as your creator who loves you, who sustains you, who provides for all
your needs. Death makes the love of God seem like a lie. We are always coming
before God, asking, “What have you
done for me lately?” When we say this, we are forgetting that every
breath we breathe is a gift from God. But even in our unbelief and ingratitude,
God is still gracious to us. Elijah’s answer to the widow was the promise that the Lord would provide for her. It
was more than she could expect; it was more than she deserved. But that is
God’s way: He simply gives the gift because of who He is. He is loving and
merciful. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He provides for
the birds. He clothes the lilies of the field in splendor. There is nothing
that falls outside the protection of His gracious and generous hand.
It is absolutely certain that God will
always give us what we need. What is not so certain is what that generosity will
look like in the end. When we suffer, God’s provision for us is still there, though
it often seems hidden. Sometimes it is not revealed until years later, and
sometimes we are not allowed to see at all the good God works for us through
the evil we experience. But all things that are needful for us our God has provided. God
has taken all your sin, all of your suffering, and all of your fear and doubt,
and He laid them on the shoulders of Jesus. And your Savior has taken all of
those things to the cross and has suffered and died to dispose of them.
In place of your fear and doubt, Christ
has won for you life and salvation and forgiveness. All of these things are
certain because God Himself has accomplished them for you. There is nothing for
you to fear. There is nothing for you to doubt. There is only Jesus, Your
Savior, who has borne your sin to the cross and has given to you the anointing
oil of Holy Baptism and the bread of His Holy Supper. And these gifts, with all
their blessing, will not run out until you are safely with all the saints, the
angels, and with God Himself, forever and ever. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The
peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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