[AI translation] The story of Elijah the prophet and his disciple Elisha is the story from which I have just read this little extract. They were standing on the banks of the Jordan River. There was no bridge, no ferry for them to cross. It was not far to the other side, you could see across, but the river was in between, and they were on the other side. So that was the situation that Elijah and Elisha were in.It's a situation that we all know in some form or another from our own lives. Let me illuminate it with some pictures from here, from the life of our congregation:
A woman was widowed. She had no one but her husband. They were very, very happy together. The man died suddenly. We buried him recently in the Farkasrét cemetery. The woman feels as if she has lost half her soul, she can barely come out of her stupor even now. She is almost forcibly saying to herself: pull yourself together, life goes on, you have to get through this blow somehow... Now he goes back to the factory, but the wound is still so fresh, it hurts so much! He often feels he can't go on! You have to find a way to the other side, where you can go on again! But he's not there yet, he's still on the other side, where Elijah was... How do you get from here to the other side?
There's another picture. He also goes to church. He listens to the word of God, which is why he struggles with his secret sin, which is getting the better of him. He knows, he feels, that he is going downhill, that he should stop, that he should turn back, but he can't! He's tried everything, to no avail. But he knows that a divine hand is reaching out to him to save him, but in the meantime the "Jordan", the drifting tide of passion, is flowing, and he must get to the other side - but how? He dares not attempt it, for he has been swept away so many times... How to get to the other side?
Another picture: a woman omitted to do something, she told her husband off, he criticised her in an unusually harsh tone, she told him off, he got even more upset, she started shouting, he ran away... It was perhaps not the first time this had happened between them. Slowly they both began to feel that something had been torn between them, something that had once been so beautiful. They had grown apart, a gulf had opened up between them, filled with memories of all the hurt, neglect, and nervousness, and now it was flowing between them like a river with no bridge from here to there or from there to here... Neither dares to begin the approach, for the water can be so icy cold in such a conversation, in which one tries to seek the other again; but such ugly eddies are in the Jordan of such a conversation! - How can one get across to the other shore here? Impossible!
Another picture. She is past 80 years old. She still smiles sweetly when spoken to, but when she looks out of the window, her mind's eye seems to see more and more the dark curtain behind which she must one day - perhaps not long from now - disappear. But where to? It's such a short way to the end, the farewell is coming, death is coming, the great mystery! The other side is not far away... But sometimes the question is: Yes, but how do I get there? Will I ever get across? I'm still here, on the other side, how will I cross the "Jordan" in the course of death?
The examples could go on and on, but perhaps this is enough to understand the situation Elijah and Elisha were in there, before the Jordan. This situation is not unknown to us. It is that there are obstacles in life that seem insurmountable, depths that seem impenetrable. There are problems for which no solution can be found. There are issues that we cannot cope with. There are difficulties that almost overwhelm us. There are problems we cannot get rid of. There are always situations that we can only sigh and complain about, from which there is no way out, no escape, no hope. On the path of life, there are always phases where one is helpless, where one feels: there is no more, or there is no more strength, no more possibility... Well, here we are with Elijah: on the other side of the Jordan. He should have been on the other bank, just as we must always cross over to the other bank, to the place where the solution is, where the release is, where the victory is,
the joy, the happiness - the "onwards"!
And look what Elijah is doing now, in this totally impossible situation. Here, we read that he took his cloak, "and folding it, struck the water with it, and it parted in two, so that they both passed through it dry. "I know, many people say that this is just a legend. Of course Elijah was a great man. A man of unshakable courage, a man of deep faith, but that his cloak should have had such magical power that he could simply cut his way through a riverbed with it - well, that's just a legend! Others say: it must be true because it is written in Scripture, so it must be accepted. So what is the truth? Is it a legend or a true story? - Well, my brethren, I stand between the two opinions. I believe in the divine revelation nature of the Bible, but I also take biblical criticism seriously and I say that it makes absolutely no difference to me whether it is a legend or not, if it is in the Bible, then God is speaking to me through that part of it. And God is saying something very, very encouraging, liberating, encouraging to us through these passages. So whether it's a legend or not, listen to what God has to say through it!
So: the mantle that God put on Elijah's shoulders when he called him to prophetic ministry some years ago. And now let me give you a sense of the significance of that mantle with this mantle that I am wearing. It is the mantle that God placed on my shoulders some 32 years ago when He sent me out of theology to preach His Word. It is a garment to which many memories have clung ever since. It is always with a certain inner trembling that I put this robe on before I step into the pulpit here. I tremble at the task it entails: to interpret God's word to the people. But then, it is as if God says through this robe: but I am sending you now, as I have always done for 32 years! - And indeed, He has never left me alone, He has never abandoned me. I am reminded by this cloak of the promise that where two or three are gathered in Jesus' name, He Himself is there among them. And then I remember the manger at Bethlehem where God came among us; I remember the open tomb at Easter where God triumphed over all sin and death! All this great divine fact I myself have proclaimed so many times in this mantle. And God was always there! - Perhaps that was the value of Elijah's cloak. That prophetic robe must have been for him a sign of God's presence: of the God who came all the way down to us in the Child of Bethlehem, in the Passion at Calvary; who, through Moses, brought such wonderful deliverance to His people in those days... And as Elijah stood on the bank of the river, knowing that he must now pass through, he looked at his robe, and remembered all the wonderful ministry he had already done in that robe as a man of God - strengthened by the memory of the divine help he had so often experienced, with the consciousness of God's presence even now, he thought of that wonderful deliverance there across the Red Sea, strengthened still more by the memories of God's faithfulness and unfailing love, he took his robe and cried out: Yes, Jordan! - Yes, pain! Yes, trouble! Yes, overwhelming passion! Yes, insoluble problems! Yes, family conflict! Yes, the pain of heartbreaking grief! Yes, the darkness of death! - Yet, in the name of God, go forth, open wide, Jordan's waters! I'll start, and in the name of God I'll cross over to the other side! So it was - and so it was!
And so did the other widow (not the one I just mentioned) who was left with four little children after her husband died, and who didn't know what to do now, how to raise the four little orphans. She had a bad heart too, she should spare herself, but she had to go to work, she could hardly stand the pain, but then she said in her heart, "There is a God! There is God, witness that manger, that cross, that open tomb! He will not abandon those who depend on Him! In the name of this God: let us go on! He has braved the impossible and crossed over to the other side. And every day he does it again: in the name of God, he crosses the Jordan, and miraculously the water splits in two, and he and his little ones cross again with dry feet...
Try it yourself, you other widow! You can do it too! And you too, who are struggling with your secret sin, and have always failed, try now, in the name of God, to plunge into the raging tide of your passion: God will not let you down! And you too, who already see your marital bliss as hopeless, so try to cross over to the other side, to your abandoned spouse. Don't give up hope, don't think that divorce is the only thing that will help you! Good God! God is great! God is here! Start again - and one day you will be glad that it was worth it, that you succeeded!
Never get stuck on the inner bank of a "Jordan" where you need to get to the other side! It is all right if there is no bridge, no ferry: there is God! And He also wants you to get across. The power of His Word, the power of His Spirit, will help you through the most turbulent "Jordan"!
You see how unimportant it is whether this story is legend or reality! It is not even worth debating! Hear what God says, what God encourages you to hear, even through this old story. And if there is a legend about Elijah's mantle, it is only because it is about Elijah, a man who had such a strong faith in God, who dared to act in God's name. And it is the same faith and courage that God wants to give you now in the face of all the difficulties of your life.
You have just heard the word: "Faithful is God, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye may endure, but will also grant you an outgoing, that with the temptation ye may endure"!
Fear not, believe, you shall pass through "Jordan"! You will reach the other shore, the other shore of victory over sin, the other shore of consolation, reconciliation, the other shore of problem-solving, the other shore of the river of death! In the name of God! In the name of God who came among us in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus! We will cross the "Jordan" in whatever form it stands in the way of our lives!
Amen.
Jesus, who redeemed my orphaned soul with your blood,
Thou hast saved me from damnation, O take away my sinful heart!
Grant that I may repay thee,
That thou hast not left me in death,
Thou hast shown me that thou canst give me anything,
You're my only protection.
(Canto 295, verse 1)
Date: 14 February 1965.