Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Elijah came and sat down under a
broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, ‘It is enough, now, O Lord,
take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.’”
A broom tree is scraggly tree that
grows in the middle east. It’s scientific name is Retama
raetam. It’s valuable for shade to spare you from the midday heat,
the sweet smell of it’s flowers will encourage you, fuel from dead and broken
branches will keep you warm at night, and the roots are edible in hard times.
Think of something like a mesquite or weesatch tree, size-wise, but with
pretty, yellow flowers instead of the prickly thorns. A broom tree will keep
you alive when there is nothing else and no one else around.
Maybe that’s why Elijah plopped
himself down under the broom tree. He had no one else around and nothing else
to give. Go home this afternoon and read 1 Kings chapters 17 and 18 – it’ll
take you fifteen, twenty minutes – and you’ll read of Elijah and his work. Reader’s
Digest Version: After Solomon’s unfaithfulness to God by allowing the worship
of false gods in Jerusalem and around the nation, God withdrew His favor. The
nation split apart, becoming Israel to the north and Judah to the south. What
followed in Israel was, as one wise guy said, “Nothing is so bad as it can’t
get worse.” A series of bad-to-worse kings were sent to cause the people to
repent and return to Him. Instead, hearts grew even harder toward God and their
kings and queens became even more wicked. You’ve at least heard the name
Jezebel? She and her husband, King Ahab ruled with an iron fist, and they
hunted down as many faithful worshippers of God as they could.
Things came to a head at Mount Caramel. Elijah challenged the
prophets of Baal to a contest, a sacrifice-off, if you will: whose god/God
would answer and send fire from heaven to consume their sacrifice. Baal remained silent – of course! He’s not
real! – and, no matter what the priests did, there was no fire. Then it was
Elijah’s turn. His instructions were followed: twelve stones, stacked;
trench, dug; wood, arranged; bull, slaughtered, cut and placed; water, poured.
And when he prayed, God sent fire from heaven and consumed it all – stones,
dust, wood, bull and water – and at the command of Elijah, the prophets
were seized, and they were slaughtered at that very site. He may not
have been on top of the world, but he was certainly on the top of Mt.
Caramel.
The victory was short-lived. Word comes that he was now public
enemy number one. Jezebel hung his photo on the wall of every post office in
ancient Israel and, like an old western, he had to get out of Dodge by this
time tomorrow. Doubt sets in: what good was he? Anger: he had done what
the Lord asked. Frustration: he had done battle against Baal in
the Word of the Lord. Justification: he had stood against Jezebel and
Ahab with the name of the Lord. Pity: he was to be hunted down and
executed. Defeat: What was the use? If this was all there was to life… He
parked himself under a bush and prayed, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away
my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
And our Lord, Elijah’s Lord, He heard the cries of this faithful
man of God, this prophet of God who was as used up as the surrounding desert,
who had nothing left to give. The Lord heard his prayer and the Lord answered.
And the Lord took Elijah’s life, but not as Elijah had hoped.
Elijah’s life had gotten turned in on itself. All he could see was
his himself. Thinking he was done, a waste of air, water and food, he prayed to
die. “Take my life…” The Lord takes Elijah’s life and turns it back in the
right direction – towards the Lord. An angel of the Lord appears to strengthen
Elijah in his body with food from heaven. Once, twice, the angel wakes Elijah
to eat and drink; once, twice Elijah rises and eats at the angel’s urging. And,
with that simple food, the Lord takes Elijah’s life and restores it. If
you want to know how the rest of the narrative plays out, read the rest of
chapter 19. Simply, with his life taken, and with life given, Elijah continues
to speak “Thus saith the Lord,” both to Israel and to her enemies.
“It is enough, O Lord; take my life.” I think we have all had
those moments in the life – again, not suicidal, but take this
life of hurt, and pain, and concern, and being consumed. It
happens to Christians in all vocations: teachers, lawyers, truck
drivers, construction workers, engineers, farmers, ranchers, machinists,
seamstresses, cooks, bakers, plumbers, students, coaches and parents.
It happens to pastors, too. Ask people why they feel burned out and you
get a myriad of reasons: low pay, poor job satisfaction, high stress,
insurmountable expectations, feeling inadequately prepared,
a boss that turned against an employee add fuel to the fire.
Depression, loneliness, and anger rare their ugly heads. And
as mental and physical health suffers, families and marriages
suffer as well.
Here’s why this is important for Christians. Burn out is bad
enough, but then the devil takes all of those feelings and
emotions and whatever else he can to lead a child of
God to fear, despair and other great shame or vice. He makes you
doubt the promises of God for you, that if you were a good enough
Christian, this wouldn’t be happening to you. He makes you doubt your
faithfulness in your vocation, in your home, and even in your relationship to
Jesus. Satan means “father of lies,” remember, and he’ll lie however he can to
make you take your eyes off of Jesus. Maybe this was you, or
this may even be you right now, where you sit and pray, “It’s enough, O
Lord…take my life.”
So, the Lord does. He places you under a tree. Not a
broom tree, but under the Tree that we call the cross. He places you under the
cross of Jesus, and there, He takes your life from you. Your Lord takes your
life from you and drowns it in the font, burying your life with Christ and
raising it to life in Christ as well. Your Lord Jesus, who loves you
more than He loved Himself, took all of your life’s frustrations and
anger and shame and guilt and peeled them all away from your life and attached
them to Himself. He doesn’t shake you with an earthquake, He doesn’t knock you
down with a windstorm, He doesn’t burn you up in fire. Instead, He
takes each and every one of your doubts and disbeliefs and moments of
despair and He turns to you and lovingly says, with a still small voice, “Let
me take that from you.”
Under the tree of the cross, He takes your life away and gives you
His: His life, His perfection, His holiness, His sinlessness is imparted to
you. And, in that moment, you can join Paul in saying, “it is no longer
I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me,”
(Gal 2:20).
Again, today, your life was taken from
you; again, today, His life is given for you. He
has gathered you under this tree. He feeds you. He clothes you. He strengthens
you to leave this place and return to your own place of life and service
to your neighbor in the name of Christ.
And, to you, the one from whom the Lord has taken life and to whom
the Lord has given life, so you don’t leave here wanting, still hungering
and thirsting for righteousness, to you He speaks again, through the still
small voice, speaking to you His love and mercy, reminding you that indeed all
of your sins have been washed away in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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