THE MIRACLE OF SALVATION
A Sermon by Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh
"Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from your neigh-
bors--empty vessels; do not gather just a few" (II Kings
4:3).
There was a widow in Israel. She had two sons and no
means of support. To stay alive she had borrowed heavily,
but the day of reckoning had come. The debt must be paid.
She cried out to Elisha, the Lord's prophet: "The
creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves."
The prophet asked, "What do you have in the house?"
All she had was a small jar of olive oil. The prophet
sent her out to borrow vessels from her neighbors, as many
empty containers as she and her sons could find. Then she
was to close her door and pour oil from the small jar into
the pitchers, the pots, and the jars she and her sons had
collected.
She did this and, marvelous to say, the oil flowed from
her one small jar until every container had been filled to
the brim. When she reported this to the prophet he told her
to sell the oil; it would bring enough money to pay off her
debt and support her for a long time to come.
It was a miracle, a miracle of deliverance. Can you
imagine how this woman felt in the desperation of her
poverty? She had lost her husband already and now she
thought she would lose her sons. Nothing short of a miracle
could have changed her situation. Now she was saved. She
must have felt a deep sense of gratitude to the Lord. Could
she ever from this time forward doubt the Lord's ability to
provide for her needs?
This miraculous increase of the oil as the widow poured
it into the borrowed containers was accomplished by Divine
power. It happened as described. Could not He who made the
olive tree create its oil as well? And so God saved the
widow woman.
But there is another reason for this miracle: to demon-
strate the Divine power that is working for us today.
Who was this widow? A woman in Israel in the days of
Elisha the prophet, but it is also you and I. Yes, we are
widows like this impoverished woman, and the miracle that
saved her can save us.
Let me explain. Every miracle of Scripture is a parable
of the Lord's intervention in our life. The Lord fed the
hungry multitudes; He feeds our spiritual hunger. The Lord
healed the sick; He heals our spiritual sickness. Have you
been blind? blind to your own shortcomings? blind to your
duty and responsibility in life? blind to the beauty of
God's order? Have you been lame? lame in your efforts to
serve the neighbor? lame in living up to your commitments?
paralyzed in your efforts to stand up for what is right?
What is the meaning of the miracle of the widow's oil?
How are we like this widow?
There is something about us, particularly about our
religious life, that parallels the life of a widow. A
widow's life is incomplete. Something is missing. The widow
has no husband. She has lost the benefit of his love and
companionship, his wisdom and judgment, perhaps his income
and thus the wherewithal to live a full life.
How is our life incomplete? Remember the teaching of
the Lord's great commandments? Jesus said, "You shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your mind.... You shall love your neighbor as
yourself" (Matt. 22:37, 39). We must learn to love the Lord
heart, soul, and mind. Suppose the love is in our heart but
the ideas of our mind are confused. And how often is our
love of the neighbor "mindless," misguided, perhaps
ineffectual?
Our life is incomplete--widow-like--when heart and mind
fail to operate together. There are two things to consider:
the love and the expression of the love. A full or complete
religious life exists when we have the love of God in our
hearts and are able to put it into practical expression.
What if we desire to serve and lack the ability? Think of a
well-meaning child who wants to cook a meal but hasn't the
slightest idea how to go about it. Think how you feel when
you want to comfort a distraught friend but are just as
confused as the friend. We want to serve but we don't know
how. We want to serve but we don't have the ability. That's
widowhood.
Jesus said, "I am the Way..." "Follow Me." Here is a
clue to the meaning of this miracle as it applies to our own
life. Who shows us the way to put spiritual love into
practice? The Lord shows us. He saves us from the sorrow and
bankruptcy of an unfulfilled life. He demonstrates Divine
love in act. He gives us the truth we need to live a good
life. He has told us to love the neighbor and He has taught
us how. "Cease to do evil, learn to do good," said Isaiah
the prophet. Yet how can we learn to do good unless someone
teaches us? We are widows when we lack the truths of
religion. These truths are not instinctive. They must be
learned. In this we differ from the animal. Animals quickly
learn to live the life for which they were created.
Instinctively they know their food, their enemies, how to
care for their offspring. We have to learn all of these
things. We have to learn each step in life in order to
become mature and successful. The world abounds with "How
To" books, a testimony to our need to find a way to live.
Religious life is exactly the same. Love of the
neighbor is not instinctive. Living a good life does not
come naturally. We have to learn it. Just as there are
successful principles of business, of child care, of
marriage, there are true principles of religious life.
Without them something is missing from our life. We lack
guidance in our efforts to attain spirituality. We are like
a widow woman who has depended upon her husband for guidance
and support in conducting her family affairs who now must go
it alone. We need help.
Such was the case of the widow woman who cried out to
the prophet of Israel. She needed help.
And how was she helped? The prophet gave her a
responsibility. Not the money she needed to pay her debt,
but a way to take what she did have and to build on it. What
did she have? The widow had a little olive oil. Let us think
about the olive oil for a moment, for it is key to under-
standing this miracle as it applies to our own life.
Olive oil was a precious commodity in Israel. It had a
value because of its many uses. The oil, with its smooth
golden richness and its many uses, is symbolic of a valuable
human commodity--symbolic of the love that is a pure gift
from God, hidden in our hearts. But it was bottled up in a
little jar.
Therefore, the prophet told the woman to go out and
borrow a lot of empty containers from her neighbors. Then
she poured out from her little jar as her sons kept bringing
each empty vessel to be filled. Here was the essence of the
miracle. The flow did not stop until the last container was
filled.
And here is the miracle for each one of us. We can be
enriched by the very process that enriched the widow. The
love in our hearts from God is inexhaustible when we put it
to wise use. There is no end of love when applied to uses of
life. The widow's oil symbolizes a love that can be
multiplied and increased without limit. Such is the nature
of spiritual love or good will toward others. It fills every
deed of service and every activity with its inexhaustible
spirit. Take an example: A woman bears a child and pours
her love into its care. Is that all the love she has to
give? She bears a second child and loves it as well as the
first. Her love is not divided and diminished, but
multiplied. Take another example: A teacher loves to pre-
sent his subject to a class. The following year he meets
another class and his love finds new expression. He has not
given it all away to the first class. In fact, his ability
to teach increases from year to year as he becomes more
skilled and gains experience in meeting the needs of the
students.
Love is inexhaustible but it must have a means of
expression or else it will remain bottled up. The Lord
offers love in unending supply, but we must come up with the
ways to use it. This is the responsibility the Lord has
given us as Christians. We must find the vessels, the
containers, that need to be filled. The containers we need
to find are the opportunities to serve or to be of some help
to others. It is into such opportunities that we can pour
the Lord's love.
Remember, too, that the vessels were supposed to be
empty. That is, there should be nothing in it for us. So
often we do good deeds as much for ourselves as for anyone
else. We see our own advantage in it. Such deeds are not
empty, like the vessels the widow was to borrow. Instead
they are filled with thoughts of ourselves and of what we
can get out of it. What are the empty vessels? They are the
good services and responsibilities we fill for their own
sake and for the sake of others and not for the sake of our
own reputation or advantage.
How important it is to notice this little detail of the
Scriptural account. The miracle would have been spoiled if
the woman had used anything but empty containers, and the
Lord's miraculous increase of our love will be spoiled as
soon as we seek credit for ourselves in whatever we do. We
ought not to boast of what we have done, as the Pharisees
often did, or expect rewards for our deeds, either in this
world or the next. The Lord taught us: "Let your light so
shine before men that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). We should do
good works that men may see the glory of God in them, not
that they glorify us.
Take another detail of this account: the vessels. We
have said that these are like opportunities to put love into
act. They are forms of charity, forms of service: the kindly
word, the helpful hand, the wise admonition, the patience to
allow freedom for another even to make a mistake. Oppor-
tunities for exercising deeds of spiritual benefit are
endless, but we must learn to recognize and gather them for
use. Just as the business man must learn to recognize
opportunities to expand his business and do his work
profitably, so every one of us must learn to recognize how
to expand our spiritual capacity and do the right things in
life.
Remember, we said before that such wisdom is not in-
stinctive to us. Like the containers the woman gathered, our
wisdom also must be borrowed. And where do we learn wisdom?
From the Word of God. And following His teachings in the
Word leads us into all spiritual wisdom. "He will guide you
into all truth" (John 16:13). The source of wisdom is God's
Word. The more truths we acquire from it the more is our
capacity increased to be of genuine service to the neighbor.
The lesson is clear. The love we can receive from the
Lord is limited only by our ability to find ways of putting
it to use. The more wisdom we acquire from Divine reve-
lation, the more love can find place in our life.
Salvation is of the Lord, but we are responsible for
acquiring the means by which salvation can be wrought. Love
must find a way to be carried from our heart to the hearts
of others. If it is simply poured out without wise
direction, it will be wasted and lost. Therefore, we must
seek principles of life and follow ways of life which the
Lord has revealed as fitting expression of His love. This is
our part in making miracles happen in our life. We should
study Scripture and doctrine to find the wisdom to use
rightly the gifts that the Lord continually wants to give.
When we have done our part, the Lord will not fail to
do the miracle for us. For the Lord's love can be multiplied
miraculously to fill every useful and orderly form of life.
This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
When the love is thus received, it becomes joined to
the wisdom of life we have obtained. It is a kind of
marriage. How remarkable that where before we had been like
a "widow" we are no longer bereaved! We are widows no
longer but are as the bride of the Lamb spoken of in the
Apocalypse. There the joyful words are spoken: "Let us be
glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him, for the marriage of
the Lamb is come and His wife has made herself ready" (Rev.
19:7). Again, we read of a promised blessing hidden in
Isaiah's prophecy: "You shall no longer be termed forsaken,
nor shall your land any more be termed desolate.... For the
Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.... And
as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God
rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:4, 5).
Such a marriage, a joining together in our hearts of
God's gifts of love and wisdom, is the goal of human life.
Let us take the command of Elisha to the widow woman of
Israel as a personal challenge: "Go, borrow vessels from
everywhere, from all your neighbors...." Let us look for
ways to put our religion into life and the truths that will
show us how. Then the Lord can work His miracle in our
heart. Truly, we will say, "Great and marvelous are Your
works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O
King of the nations!" (Rev. 15:3). Amen.
Lessons: II Kings 4:1-7; Matt. 25:1-13; HH 522, 524
Preached in Bryn Athyn October 13, 1985
Heaven and Hell 522, 524
First it will be told what the Divine mercy is. The
Divine mercy is pure mercy toward the whole human race, to
save it; and it is also unceasingly toward every man, and is
never withdrawn from anyone, so that everyone is saved who
can be saved. And yet no one can be saved except by Divine
means, which means have been revealed by the Lord in the
Word. The Divine means are what are called Divine truths,
which teach how man must live in order to be saved. By these
truths the Lord leads man to heaven, and by them He implants
in man the life of heaven. This the Lord does with all. But
the life of heaven can be implanted in no one unless he
abstains from evil, for evil obstructs. So far, therefore,
as man abstains from evil, the Lord leads him out of pure
mercy by His Divine means, and this from infancy to the end
of his life in the world and afterwards to eternity. This is
what is meant by the Divine mercy. Hence it is clear that
the mercy of the Lord is pure mercy, but not immediate, that
is, it does not look to saving all out of mere good pleasure
however they may have lived.
If men could be saved as a result of immediate mercy,
all would be saved, even those in hell; in fact, there would
be no hell, because the Lord is Mercy itself, Love itself,
and Good itself. Therefore it is inconsistent with His
Divine to say that He is able to save all immediately and
does not save them. It is known from the Word that the Lord
wills the salvation of all, and the damnation of no one.