Worst Day Best Day
1 King 19:11-21 & Luke 5:1-11
July 21, 2019 anno Domini – Redeemer
Elijah was having the worst day of his life, right after the best day of his life. Elijah had totally destroyed the Prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. A little contest was declared to prove the true and mighty god. One bull for Baal. One bull for the Lord. Whichever god consumed his sacrifice was the true God. 450 prophets of Baal, mighty in number, against one wee little prophet named Elijah. The King and Queen were on the side of Baal. No one was on the side of Elijah except the Lord. Those mighty Baal prophets prayed all day long. And Baal didn’t say a word. Baal didn’t do a thing. They tried everything. They did some liturgical dance. They yelled. They cut themselves. Serious cuts, deadly cuts. Their blood flowed in sacrifice to Baal and there was no voice, no action, nothing.
Elijah had a good day. He mocked Baal to his prophets, “Maybe he’s on a trip. Maybe he’s on the toilet. Maybe he’s taking his afternoon nap.” Baal always won the hearts of the people. Baal was fun and popular, but today Elijah would show the truth about the false gods of pleasure and perversion. Ultimately they do nothing for you. Elijah called the people to himself, had the bull doused in water three times and then prayed to the Lord. “Let it be known … that I have done all these things at your Word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Fire fell from heaven. The Lord consumed His bull and the bull of Baal and the wood and the stones of the altars. All the people fell on their faces and confessed, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” That day every prophet of Baal was put to death.
Before Elijah went to sleep that night he probably said, “Best day ever.” The next morning Queen Jezebel put a contract out on Elijah. She turned the whole nation against him and he ran for his life. That’s where the Old Testament reading finds him. Elijah is suffering, deeply for his faith, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” (1 Kings 19:14, ESV)
Simon had the best and worst day of his life as well. When you’re a commercial fisherman and you fish all night and get skunked – it’s a bad day, the worst day – no fish, nothing to sell, nothing to provide for your family, and the next night you have to do it all over again.
Simon was cleaning his empty nets – getting them set for the next night of fishing. He was tired, sweaty, and just wanted to get home for a shower and a beer before he went to bed for the day. Then this preacher fellow, Jesus of Nazareth, asks for the boat. Something about his request moved Simon so he put down the nets, pushed the boat out a little from shore, and then Jesus started preaching. All Simon wanted to do was go home and sleep, but this guy just kept going on and on. Once again though, Simon was caught up by this man’s words. He didn’t speak as others spoke. He spoke like He personally knew Adam and Eve, that He had talked to Abraham, and been with Joseph and Moses in Egypt. Finally, Jesus put the “amen” on his sermon and Simon was ready to head to shore, but “noooo.” Jesus said, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Now it’s one thing to trust a preacher with sermons. It’s quite another to trust him with your livelihood. Simon’s nets worked in the shallows. This guy wanted to go deep. Simon fished at night. This guy wanted to fish in the day. But Simon recalled how this man’s word had a way. So out they went into the deep, down the nets went, and they couldn’t pull them in. They were stretched to the breaking point. They called James and John over. Together they could barely get the fish in. Simon could have said, “Best day ever.” But instead he fell down before Jesus and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Two men. Best day. Worst Day. Elijah faced death because he confessed the Word of God. Simon faced death because he was a sinner in the presence of the Holy God. Your worst days come when you stand for the truth of God’s Word and you’re hated. Your worst days come when you realize your sin before God. Both men are left afraid, and alone, until the Word of God comes to them again.
It is a rare thing to have a “best day ever.” Miracles are by definition rare events. It isn’t every day that God lights fires from heaven, defeats the forces of evil visibly, or gives a fisherman the best catch of his life. It isn’t every day that God becomes a man, that He walks the earth, that He dies for your sins. There was only one day in history when a man rose from the dead never to die again.
What did Elijah and Simon both come to realize in their best day worst day moments? God’s Word was foolishness to those who were perishing, and it was the power of salvation for those who believe. All Elijah got in the wilderness of his loneliness was a Word – the promise of God that he would have help in Hazael and Jehu as Kings and he would get a vicar to help with his prophetic duties in Elisha. Simon also received a foolish word from Jesus. Put your nets into the deep in the middle of the day. After a mother lode of fish Simon was humbled. He realized he was standing before the almighty God in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth.
So how was your week? Probably not “best day ever.” Maybe not “worst day ever” or maybe it was? This morning and every Lord’s Day is, by the Word of God, “best day ever.” For today, you have one thing you do not have any place else. You have Jesus and His Word, for you. You have His Word that the forces of evil have been defeated. You can mock the devil. Laugh in His face. Make jokes at his expense. Why? Because Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, soundly destroyed him. Jesus never lost to evil. He never gave into temptation. He never sinned. Then Jesus took all your sin. Everything the Devil might use against you to scare you, to make you despair, to push you all alone into a wilderness of fear and sadness and sorrow. Jesus took away your sins. You need not fear standing in His presence this morning, no matter how bad your sins were this week. He cast out His net with an abundance of forgiveness to catch you and keep you alive.
You have His Word. You are forgiven. You are not alone. You have more than Hazael, and Jehu, and Elisha. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are on your side. The whole company of believers, angels, and archangels are with us. The God who made heaven and earth is for you and you are His. His name was put on you in baptism. In His name you were forgiven this morning. Jesus the crucified and risen Lord is here today – for you, in His flesh and blood.
We’ve been having some tough days in the Timm household. Lonely days. Some of the worst days we will face on earth. You have those same days, but today and every Lord’s Day, we have the best day ever – for we have the Word of God, the news that Christ Jesus died for sinners, for you and me. We stand forgiven. We are alive eternally. We are not alone. That makes the worst day ever the best day ever in the name of Jesus. Amen.