What a strange thing! A selfish thing perhaps? Elijah needs taking care of, so the Lord sends him to a widow who is about to bake the last bit of bread she has before she and her son sit down to starve to death. And Elijah, rather than helping her and giving her some food or some money instead tells her: “Make me some bread first.” Who does Elijah think he is? Well, of course, he's a prophet. He's a man of God. She's just a poor gentile woman. Of course she ought to provide for him. No, that's not what's going on. Rather, the Lord is making sure this woman has a preacher of God's Word. And He is making sure the preacher is taken care of. The Lord wants His Word to be proclaimed in Israel so he makes sure Elijah is provided for. But He also makes sure that the woman is able to provide for him. And so there is the promise: the flour and oil will not run out. And they didn't. There was always more. Enough for Elijah and the widow and her son. The Lord provides.
Let's make sure we understand what's going on here. The woman teaches us faith. St. Paul says to share all good things with the one who teaches us the Word. Jesus says to seek first God's kingdom and righteousness and all the other stuff will follow. Elijah and the widow are NOT demonstrating TV preacher theology. That's the kind of preaching that says IF you give God something, He'll give you even more back. IF you are faithful, then God will repay your faith with lots of blessings. It's on you. You give it up for God and He'll look out for you. That's not what giving offerings and supporting God's preachers is all about! Rather, it's the exercise of faith. The widow doesn't feed Elijah because she'll get a new car out of the deal. She feeds him, trusting that if she gives up that little bit of flour and oil, He'll still provide for her. It's the same way with our offerings. We don't support the church because we hope to get something in return. We do it to exercise faith, trusting that if I give my ten percent to the Lord's work, He'll make sure the rest will be enough to provide for me. And notice that the widow doesn't get all kinds of riches and material things. She just gets enough flour and oil to take care of her each day. Her daily bread and Elijah's.
But this story is more than just a nice story about offerings. No, we look closer to see in this the picture of Christ caring for His church. Here you have a woman and her son and the Lord makes sure that the flour and oil never run out. When our Lord goes to the cross for our sins, the blood and water that flow from His side don't dry up! Rather, He provides for His church water and blood that continue to flow into the font and into the cup to feed us until the famine of this life is over. With the Lord, there is always more. Always more of the forgiveness and promises of our baptism. Your baptism doesn't expire, just as that jar of flour didn't run out! Always more Jesus in His body and blood. The body and blood of Christ never get used up. They are always here and available to feed and strengthen us, to forgive our sins and to give us the promise of being raised up on the Last Day.
Look at the situation with Elijah and the widow. There was a famine in Israel. Elijah was one of the few left who preached the Lord's word faithfully. During that time, the Lord made sure Israel had a preachers and the preacher was taken care of and that the woman had her daily bread. Whether it was Elijah or the woman and her son, the Lord was the one taking care of them. Just so today Christ's church finds itself in the midst of a famine where God's Word is hardly heard in the world and the world hates those who preach the Gospel. And just as the Lord provided for the widow and her son, so He provides for the church and her sons and daughters—you! The Lord sent His Son to die for your sins and even if the world doesn't care one bit, the Lord makes sure that forgiveness is being given out in His holy church. Here in the church is the place where the Jesus who died and rose for you makes sure you have enough forgiveness to last for forever. While the world around us hates Christ and has nothing to do with God's word, the Lord provides for His people. While outside His church, there is a famine of God's Word, nothing to give the world life and keep it alive, yet in His church, the Lord provides flour and oil, that is, forgiveness and life through His Word and Sacraments to give us such food as to forgive our sins and strengthen us even unto life everlasting.
The widow caring for Elijah is reminiscent of when the Lord, on the cross, gave His mother into the care of St. John and John into His mother's care. There is a picture of Christ caring for His church and preachers. The preachers preach the Gospel to the church, delivering to her the gifts of forgiveness that Christ has won for her. The church, in turn, cares for her preachers, providing for them and caring for them. In this way, the Lord is taking care of all of His people. That's why we don't have to worry about what we eat and drink and all that, as Jesus said in the Gospel lesson. After all, if God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not make sure we've got some daily bread to keep us going? This, dear Christians, is what our Lord has in mind for us: not to worry and get all worked up over the stuff of this world because He gives to us eternal gifts which last long after this world has passed away!
It seems rude or even crazy that Elijah would ask a starving woman to feed him first. And yet what's even more unbelievable is that she does! That is the faith that comes from the Lord's promises. Sure, she's not so certain at first; she tells Elijah she's got nothing. That's a great confession. I've got nothing. The Lord teaches her and us to say, “I've got nothing.” And then He makes sure the flour and oil never run out, the forgiveness never quits, never runs out, never dries up. Yes, with the Lord there is always more and He is always making sure we have enough. Enough for this life. Enough for the life to come. The Lord grant us faith as this widow to trust in our Lord to provide, knowing He does provide all things to us in His Son, knowing that the Lord's gifts never run out. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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