“Get up and eat”: that was the buzzing alarm clock that awakened the Prophet Elijah as he slept under a broom tree. He had just come back from the magnificent victory at Mt. Carmel, where fire blazed down from heaven, and 450 prophets of Baal were put to the sword. What a heroic day for Yahweh, and for the prophet of the Lord!
So, there was Elijah, flush with victory, now expecting God to oust Queen Jezebel, the murderous wife of King Ahab. Finally, there would an end to the worship of Baal! Finally, the people of Israel would return to the right worship of Yahweh!
But what happened was a different turn of events. Queen Jezebel sent a message to Elijah: “May the gods punish me, and do so severely, if I don’t make your life like the [prophets of Baal]” (1 Kings 19:2). Jezebel meant business.
Suddenly, Elijah lost his focus and feared for his life. To Elijah, it looked as if God had lost interest. Where was the follow-through after defeating the prophets of Baal?
So, Elijah fled into the wilderness, depressed and disillusioned, and found a shaded place to sit under a broom tree. He prayed and asked God to let him die. “It’s enough. I can’t take it anymore.” Exhausted, he fell asleep.
But who hasn’t been there? We’ve all been under that broom tree–feeling useless, washed up, ineffective, and weary to the bone. We want to do what God has given us to do, but the Jezebels of this world impede and frustrate us. Even worse, God seems powerless, distant, and disinterested. Like Elijah, we feel alone and isolated.
What an enormous let down for Elijah. In the past, God had always come through–there never was a time when God hadn’t taken care of Elijah. God once used ravens to deliver bread and meat to Elijah in the wilderness. That lasted for an entire year! When Elijah went to stay with a widow and her son for more than three years, her flour and oil never ran out. There was never a shortage of bread, even amid a serious famine!
Yet, you could almost see this crisis brewing for Elijah. When he was at Mt. Carmel for the showdown between Yahweh and Baal, he shouted to the people, “I’m the only remaining prophet of the Lord, but Baal has 450 prophets” (1 Kings 18:22). Later, when Elijah arrived was atMt.Horeb, after his broom-tree experience, he said it again–this time to God.
I have been zealous for the Lord God Almighty, but the Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they also seek my life, to take it away (1 Kings 19:10).
How long does it take us to learn? It’s a set up for failure when you try to do it alone, when you think that success or failure is riding on your shoulders. That’s where Elijah got it wrong. And that’s where we often get it wrong, for there are no soloists in the kingdom of God. Christ’s Church is a symphony of salvation. She is a harmony of many instruments playing the new song of Christ crucified for the life of the world.
Elijah would learn that when he finally reachedMt.Horebfor his meeting with God. Elijah would learn that he was not alone. God had at least 7,000 faithful inIsraelwho had not bowed their knee to Baal. God always has his 7,000.
Like Elijah, have you spent time under the broom tree? Have you been despairing of God, saying, “I just want to die”? Elijah has been there before you, convinced that everything depended on him. Know this: your shoulders aren’t broad enough, and mine aren’t either.
As God’s people, we can’t live as if everything depends only on us–because it doesn’t. We aren’t the only tools in God’s toolbox. If we think that way, we’ll wind up under a broom tree in the wilderness–confused, lost, weary, and broken.
The problem with Elijah wasn’t Jezebel. God could handle Jezebel, and He would in His own time and way. The problem with Elijah was Elijah. The problem with us is ourselves. We don’t trust God’s Word to do its work. We don’t trust God’s timing and His ways. And we drive ourselves to despair because we think that God has abandoned us to our enemies, to death.
But God is merciful. He wouldn’t let Elijah die in the wilderness. He sent an angel to touch him and wake him up: “Get up and eat.” Next to his head, Elijah saw freshly baked bread and water. And then the angel came and touched him a second time. “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.”
You also are on a journey, which is more arduous than you think, and more difficult than you imagine. And for that journey you also must eat what God has to give to you.
“The journey will be too much for you.” God is saying that to each of us. It’s too much for us to journey through this life, this wilderness, without God’s food and drink. It’s too much for us, to battle sin, death, and devil, unless we eat and drink from the table God prepares. It’s too much for us to journey from baptism to the resurrection on a starvation diet.
But how often do we try to get through the day without God’s Word? We try to get through the week without God’s Word and Sacrament. Some are even so foolish to go for weeks at a time without so much as a morsel of the Bread of Life come down from heaven.
And then we wonder why we sit under our broom trees, exhausted and depressed. It isn’t God’s fault; it’s our own. The food and drink have been here all along, waiting for us. Or do we need an angel to poke us in the ribs every Sunday morning and say, “Get up and eat”?
Jesus says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Jesus offers true refreshment. He says, “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). Jesus is living water. He is living bread, baked over the burning coals of God’s love. He is food and drink, a food and drink that will carry you through to eternal life.
Jesus is food to strengthen you for the journey. He is drink to refresh and strengthen you on your way to eternal life. He will fortify, nourish, and build you up, so you reach God’s holy mountain on the day you rise from the dead. “The one who eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:51).
There is no other food like this in the world. Every other food you eat, you eat to your death. Only Jesus is food you eat to eternal life. Eat of His bread and you will live forever. No other food or drink can dare make that claim.
And Christ’s Church is the dispenser of such food, where the people of God believe Jesus’ words: “This is my body; this is my blood.” The Church is the breadbasket for the world, dispensing living bread to dying sinners, bringing them life with the life of Jesus.
So, come and eat living bread, the food for eternal life. This is nothing less than the flesh of the Son of God, which He gave “for the life of the world.” The cross was Jesus’ broom tree in the wilderness, where abandoned by His Father, the sinless Son died for the life of the world.
The world’s salvation rested on His shoulders, and they were broad enough to bear that load. The sin of the world was put on His flesh: His body broken and His blood shed. He is your Substitute, your Sacrifice–and your food.
Jesus says to us today, “Get up and eat. Believe in me. Feed on me. Without me as your living bread, this journey will be too much for you. So, take this bread, which I give you, and eat it. This is my body given up for you. Take this cup, which I give you, and drink it. This is my blood shed for you.”
In the strength of this food, we journey from baptism through the wilderness to the mountain of God. We are led by Jesus, fed by Jesus, and fed with Jesus. It doesn’t get any better than that.
So, get up and eat the Bread of Life. Get up and eat the living bread come down from heaven. Get up and eat, trusting Jesus, who gives His flesh for your life and for your food. And you will live forever. Amen.
