Torn Apart

Text:  2 Kings 2:1-14

            On the job training passes skills and knowledge from one generation to another.  Long before the university degree was the apprenticeship.  The master craftsman taught the trade.  The textbook was a tool box and a task:  the watchful eye and experienced hand of the master guiding the apprentice into the mysteries of U-bends, blocked drains and heating systems; to follow the pattern, cut the cloth, and learn the stitches; to evoke the magic of protons and electrons through wiring; to judge fine wood and caress the grain with sandpaper, cut to measure, make the grooves, and conjure up fine furniture.  The apprentice watches, listens, and learns by doing.

            Elisha was apprentice prophet to Elijah.  It all began in a field.  The great prophet came down from the mountain and out of depression with a clear mission to anoint two kings and a successor.  Elisha was ploughing behind twelve oxen and was startled by the sensation of a cloak covering his shoulders.  Elijah’s mantle wraps Elisha up as heir to the prophetic calling.  Elisha is given permission to give a farewell kiss to his mum and dad then breaks his plough into pieces and uses it to fuel a fire to BBQ oxen.  He burns his bridges with family and farming and forges his fate with the prophet as his servant (1 Kings 19:19-21). And with that he slips out of sight.

Elisha reappears walking side by side with Elijah from one farewell to another.  He’d said goodbye to his family and farm to follow Elijah and now it was time to say goodbye to the man who was his father in the world of prophets.  It’s the end of an era.  The LORD is about to sweep Elijah up to heaven in the twist of a whirlwind.  As the two men walk side by side Gilgal recedes behind them.

There are two towns named Gilgal, one north of Bethel and another near Jericho and the Jordan.  The Gilgal north of Bethel makes good sense in terms of a journey from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho and then the Jordan.  It has the logic of going from point A to point B.  The other Gilgal near Jericho means that the two prophets made a circular journey.  Essentially it was a round trip of approximately 25 miles!

The illogical journey starting from Gilgal near Jericho seems all the more likely because it’s illogical!  Elisha’s journey is not driven by destination but by the sending of the LORD. 

The spiritual pilgrimage is often illogical.  It is one of the surprises and frustrations of those who set out to follow Jesus.  We begin by thinking that by believing in Jesus we’ve arrived!  We are Christians and everything is going to be alright.  Soon we discover that following Jesus doesn’t take us off the road.  Instead we’re more deeply engaged with the journey.  We drink in the glorious vistas of a viewpoint in a lay-by:  the face of a new born baby, the joy of new love, and the thrill of a job promotion.   At the same time we stop and help at the scene of an accident in which people’s lives are mangled in the twisted wreck of a marriage, illness or death.  The spiritual pilgrimage is not about the destination but about paying attention to the journey and listening to what the Lord is saying and where he is sending us.

There’s another reason to choose Gilgal near Jericho.  It is the place where the mantle of leadership is passed from Moses to Joshua.  Moses had led the people through the Red Sea on dry ground and Joshua parted the waters of the Jordan.  Gilgal was the place where the people erected twelve stones that came from the riverbed.  The crossing convinced the people that their confidence in Joshua was well founded (Joshua 4:14-24).  Is it coincidental that Elijah and Elisha start off from Gilgal near Jericho and their journey ends with a crossing of the Jordan? 

Having a spiritual guide or friend who take us on as apprentice in the art of prayer is something that has been largely lost to Protestants.  The emphasis direct access to God means that we have struggled to find ways of accompanying one another on the faith journey.  Bible study and cell groups have been part of the response. 

The supportive community is featured heavily in this story.  When Elijah and Elisha stop in Bethel and Jericho, they are met by the ‘sons of the prophets’.  On the final leg of their journey on the verge of Jordan, a pentecost of prophets follows at a distance.  These prophets belonged to something akin to a school of prophets.  They were ‘sons of the prophets’ because they had learned the art of listening to God’s word and speaking it into the world around them.  The passing on of prophetic skills from one to the other is similar to the work of the spiritual guide or friend. 

The spiritual guide tests the determination of the apprentice to carry on.  Three times Elijah tries to shake off Elisha:  “Stay here.”  Elijah does not show any empathy towards Elisha.  He is testing Elisha’s resolve to go on.  The spiritual guide or friend tests the apprentice at prayer.  It’s often through a simple question, “Do you want to meet again?”  Sometimes the question is not asked at all and it is up to the person seeking direction to say, “I want to see you again.  I want to carry on.”

Elijah’s terse command to stay behind meets with Elisha’s adamant declaration of desire.  He swears by the living LORD and the life of Elijah himself.  Three times:  “I will not leave you” “I will not leave you” “I will not leave you.” 

Elijah tells Elisha to ‘stay here.’  Centuries later disciples were deserting Jesus en mass and he turns to the twelve and asks, “Do you also wish to go away?”  How would you respond to the voice that says:  “Stay here.  Go away.  Sleep in.  Don’t bother.  Take it easy.”  Are you hungry for the presence of the Master?  Are you longing to walk alongside your Father and to be held in his arms?

“I will not leave you” was not the threefold glib words of a song at the end of a worship service.  It was not the easy lilt of “I have decided to follow Jesus” or “Take my life and let it be” which is forgotten as soon as the benediction is pronounced.  Rather it was the determination of an apprentice facing bereavement.  It would have been simple for Elisha to walk away from impending grief.  Elisha knew that Elijah was going and he was clearly dreading it.  Twice told by the company of prophets – first in Bethel and then Jericho – he pleads, “Yes, I know; keep silent.”  Elisha was dreading this final goodbye.  Elisha was not looking forward to feeling the pain of grief.  Perhaps he was dreading the actual moment.  Would it be frightening to see Elijah go?  He had no idea.  The spiritual apprentice faces pain head on. 

Elisha’s apprenticeship has taught him one thing.  He knows he can’t be a prophet in his own strength.  There is a glimmer of tenderness from Elijah as he asks, “Tell me what I may do for you” before I go.  This seems to be the question of prophets for Jesus asks a similar question of blind Bartimaeus, “What do you want me to do for you?”  The good spiritual director/friend helps us to hear Jesus asking us that question.  Again, Elijah doesn’t tell Elisha what he needs.  Jesus doesn’t tell Bartimaeus what he needs.  A good guide will not tell you what you need.  It’s a question of desire.  It’s a question of self-awareness.  It’s a question that forces us to put into words our wants. 

Rolling up his mantle and slapping the water the Jordan rolls apart and the pair cross on dry ground.  “Tell me what I may do for you” elicits a confident reply from Elisha.  “I want to inherit a double portion of your spirit.”  The double portion was the right of the eldest son.  Elisha wanted Elijah to treat him as the oldest son and to confer his identity on him.

Elijah knows his limits.  He may be a prophet and a great one at that.  He may have performed miracles and raised the dead.  He may have caused droughts and downpour and cut at the heart of a religious political system.  But he did not have power to give Elisha what he wanted.  It was only the LORD who could grant this request.  Only the LORD could give Elisha sight of what could not be perceived by human eyes.  If Elisha saw his master taken then the LORD who gave him this vision would give him Elijah’s spirit.  Prophets are God-made not man-made.

A spiritual friend/guide knows that the giving of grace is from God.  We cannot make it happen.  We can desire it.  We are attentive in prayer.  We open ourselves up to his movement.  Yet it is only when he chooses to give the gift that we are able to receive it.  We cannot make grace happen by an act of the will or a magic slight of hand.

Elijah and Elisha walk and talk sharing the intimacy of every moment until a chariot of fire and horses of fire separate them.  Israel’s secret weapon is the LORD.  It is the LORD who does battle for the people.  Torn apart by this blazing theophany Elijah is caught up in a whirlwind.  Elisha’s eyes transfixed and his voice shouting, “Father, father!  The chariots of Israel and its horseman!”  When he can no longer see he tears his clothes in two pieces.  Two prophets parted.  Two friends torn apart. 

            Elisha had seen the LORD take his friend.  Yet as he stooped to pick up the mantle did he doubt himself?  “Was it may imagination?  Did I really see all that?  What if I pick up my Master’s mantle and nothing happens?”  We don’t know if Elisha doubted.  We don’t know whether he thought of leaving the mantle on the ground and walking away.  He’d have no trouble getting a job as Professor of Prophecy at Bethel University.  If he had his doubts he chose to act in faith.  Picking up the cloak he rolled it up and struck the water.  It’s possible that the water didn’t part the first time and that’s when he cried out, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?”  He struck the water and then the water parted and he crossed the Jordan.  The school of prophest witnessed this and recognised that the spirit of Elijah had been given to Elisha. 

We are not judges of our spirituality.  Whether we are Spirit filled and living a life that bears the fruit of the Spirit is something that others will see.  The spiritual director/friend and discernment group helps us to gain perspective on our own progress on the way of the cross.

            The spiritual journey involves risk.  Doubt and faith combine as we move forward trusting God and not ourselves.  The spiritual friend/director hears our doubts and encourages our faith.  They keep pointing us to our God who sends us on the journey.  Go-it-alone spirituality is not the way God made for us.  We journey together sometimes in pairs and other times in small companies.  Do you sense the need to make the journey with others...perhaps with a spiritual guide/director...or with a small discernment group?