God Holds a High Bar: Pole Vaulting with Jesus

Have you ever seen a pole vault athlete leap with great speed over an incredibly high bar? They get a good running start, plant their pole and trust that it will stay, and then they fly through the air, reaching heights of over 19 feet! It takes a lot of practice, a lot of skill, and a lot of trust in their pole. When all their practice and all their talents come together, a miracle occurs as pole vault athletes can fly!

Read 1 Kings 17:17-24 & Luke 7:11-17.

Here we have two healing and resurrection stories of two widow’s sons, separated by thousands of years but both testify to the divine power of God. Elijah had met the widow at the city gate, similar to where Jesus meets the widow at Nain. Neither widow is given a name; instead they are identified by their relationship (or lack thereof) to a man – a widow. A widow in these cultures was vulnerable, as they could not own property themselves. They were dependent either on their sons or charity to provide for them. They were left on the margins of society, put in the same class as orphans.

And yet Jesus and Elijah see these widows. Jesus is moved with compassion for this widow who had not only lost her husband but also her son – moved with compassion for her lack of security. There is no great declaration of faith, there is no teaching – Jesus is simply moved with compassion for the widow, and with a touch restores not only her son but the widow as well.

Do you believe in miracles? All too often in our lives, we pray for big miracles, for people to be physically, emotionally, mentally restored to life – and we don’t get it. We bargain in our prayers, promising to be the best Christian ever if only God just healed our father/mother/children/spouse/friend. While miraculous events occur, they seem to be too rare for our preference.
But what about the smaller miracles that DO happen? Do we see them? This August, hundreds of kids will get backpacks filled with school supplies and a pancake breakfast. Those kids will really have no idea where the pencils, the glue, the dry erase markers came from. They won’t know about our VBS Mission Project or you tossing a few folders in your grocery cart. It will simply be a miracle to them, a miracle for their family.

For when Christians put our grief-broken hearts together, that is a miracle. And what we can do together with the help of Jesus are miracles. When we as a church take off running as pole vault athletes, aiming for the high bar that God holds, Jesus is our sturdy and reliable pole, the one we can rely on, the one who will help us reach that high bar. Jesus is our Lord who sees us, who knows our brokenness and loves us through it. Jesus is our Lord who empowers us together to reach the high bar that God holds – a high bar of reaching out and seeing widows, the least, the lost, those in need right here in our own city. With Jesus as our sturdy pole, imagine what miraculous height we might reach together, and how we might be transformed in that process – miracle after miracle!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate