"Elijah was sent…to a widow at Zarephath" (Luke 4:26).
I have been thinking lately of the widow of Zarephath and the wonderful visit of Elijah – a story recorded in 1 Kings 17. A photo-essay in the New York Times reminded me of the woman.
In the Times I met Selma Dawood, the auntie of infamous Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister of Iraq. She is a Christian, a sister of mine, living in Qaraqosh, Iraq. We are told that she is also a crotchety, baritone-voiced, deeply wrinkled, seventy-five year old widow (April 21, 2003, p. A-11).
In 1 Kings we meet a similar character. She, too, was a widow living in the Middle East. I am not sure that she was crotchety, but she was certainly desperately poor. It is impossible to know anything about the quality of her voice. But I am guessing that it sounded despairing.
The woman lived with her son in Zarephath – a small town midway between Tyre and Sidon. It was part of ancient Phoenicia, what is today the nation of Lebanon. It was a no-account sort of town, I think, unremarkable in almost every way – except that the mission of God swept into the village one day.
Elijah the prophet – God’s ambassador to the people of Israel – was sent to find this very woman and ask her for a room. It would seem an illogical strategy. The woman and her son, in their own estimation at least, were zeroes. They had absolutely nothing, apparently, to contribute to the mission of God in the world. When Elijah blew into their lives, they were about to bake a final little loaf of bread, sit down together for a last despairing meal, and die. But when they yielded their last handful of meal and their last ounce of oil, their "zero" become something extraordinary.
Jesus himself identified with this story. Very early on, he compared his own ministry to the ministry of Elijah (Luke 4:25-26). You see, Jesus was sent to the world’s "zeroes," too. People, perhaps, like Selma Dawood, the Christian auntie of Tariq Aziz. Or maybe Paul the radical persecutor, or Thomas the flimsy doubter. People with resources that fail them and hope that sometimes falters. People like you and me.
Jesus traveled but once into Gentile lands during his earthly ministry – once, in any case, that is recorded. On that singular journey he traveled "to the region of Tyre and Sidon" (Mark 7:24ff) – the same route traveled by Elijah, centuries before. He must have passed through Zarephath. Perhaps he remembered the widow.
Jesus still travels remote and unlikely locations: Minneapolis and Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago, London and Manila, etc. He travels there to locate a few suitable "zeroes." And when he finds them, he enlists them. He asks of them their last bit of oil, their last morsel of bread. And he supplies, in return, a vial of oil that never runs dry.
"The Way I See It", May 2003
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