After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.” 1 Kings 17:17-24

People through the years have asked me, “What is the hardest part of ministry?” Unfortunately, it is an easy question to answer. It is the death of a child. Many times the death of a believer even in the midst of sorrow and a sense of loss can still be a time of Christian joy and victory. But the death of a child is hard because children are not supposed to die and the grief is the bitterest. Think about it. A wife who loses a husband is called a widow. A husband who loses a wife is called a widower. A child who loses his parents is called an orphan. But there is no word for a parent who loses a child. That is how awful the loss is.

Today in two of our readings you and I meet mothers who have lost their children; in fact, in both cases it is the only child they have. The widow at Nain lost her older son; probably her only source of income in her old age. So she lost a lot when he died. But the widow with whom Elijah is staying in the Old Testament reading has lost a young child, a child that could be carried in arms. , Again, he is an only son.

The background to the story is that Elijah was sent to her by God Himself during a time of famine in Israel. He is travelling in Gentile country in a region called Sidon and specifically the town where this widow lives is called Zarephath. When Elijah met her they were starving from the famine and it was through a miracle of God that this prophet literally rescued the woman and her boy from death. But then in an irony of sorts, her son becomes ill. Eventually, as 1 Kings says, he had no breath left in him. In the ancient world this was the sign that someone had died.

It’s funny how this story occurred almost 3000 years ago. But you and I can immediately relate to the woman. Children are not supposed to die. Parents expect to see their children grow and mature. Ultimately, parents expect to die and leave their children behind because that is the natural course of life. But the loss of a child is the loss of innocence and affects someone in our lives who is the most vulnerable and dependent on us. This death here and any death of a little one has with it the loss of the future and of hopes and dreams and strength.

So we understand when she hits Elijah with a “Why me?” response. “You are supposed to be a man of God.” You and I can almost hear the sarcasm dripping from her voice. “So this is the way your God works? He sends you to me to spare us from starvation only to kill my son with illness?” And then the other emotions hit her as she blames herself. You and I could say it is irrational to think that way but something in our hearts understands where all these feelings come from. “You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance.” It must be because God has something against her. If the loss of her husband was not enough this was more punishment from God for something sinful she had done or failed to do for God. And ultimately by her words, even though she hits the prophet with them, it is really God Whom she sees as the cause of the death of her son.

The funny thing is that Elijah almost seems to agree with her. When he is by himself with the child’s lifeless body he cries out to God. “Have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn?” and Elijah too accuses God of killing her son. He seems to be saying to God, “Everywhere I go trouble and disaster seems to follow. But did you have to bring it here, Lord?”

But he still has faith. When Elijah stretches himself out over the body of the child it is a kind of play on words; in fact, his own name. The name “Elijah” in Hebrew means “My God is the Lord.” He cries out to God in prayer, “O Lord, my God.”. And when he does something occurs that has never happened before. The life of the child came back to the boy. It might not have been easy for Elijah to be part of this. It took three times. He might have given up after one try or even two. But he continually goes to the Lord His God in the midst of his sorrow and anger and lack of understanding of why God does what He does and allows what He allows.

And maybe his faith grows as much as the woman’s when he is able to show her the boy alive with the words, “See, your son lives.” Her faith certainly grew. Now she knows that this man of God really is from God and that the words of his mouth were truth. Maybe faith really does grow the most not from being on the mountaintops with the Lord but from walking at times in the valley of the shadow of death with Him.

But is there also a word of comfort here for those who have lost a child? Someone could turn to me and say, “Pastor Yeadon, have you ever experienced this hurt in your life? Have you ever lost a child?” And I would have to say, “No, I have not.” And the response might be: “Then you don’t know what you are talking about.” There exists a truth in that, if it were I and I alone who was doing the talking here. It would be easy for me to slip into pontificating and giving pious platitudes about life and death and God. But I am not the one doing the talking and the comforting. My prayer throughout this sermon is that it would be God who speaks to our hearts.