Even in Death, Everything Is Alright

2 Kings 4:17-37

The toddler spills his milk. He starts crying. Mom says, “it’s alright.” She quickly cleans it up and comforts him. The child falls off her bike and skins her knees. She comes limping into the house bawling and crying. Mom says, “it’s alright.” She cleans up the scrapes, applies salve and bandages and assures her child again that it’s alright.

Moms are used to assuring their children that everything is alright. They do all they can to make everything alright. But what if they can’t. What if it’s cancer, or some other incurable disease? What if their child dies? Who would say then that everything is alright?

This mother from Shunem did. Her child died in her lap, possibly from sunstroke, or maybe some kind of aneurysm, and yet she kept saying “everything is alright!” How could she do that? Was she delusional? No. Much like Martha in our Gospel lesson, she was a woman of great faith. She trusted that, with the LORD, even in death everything is alright.

Like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, this woman and her husband were wealthy. They were blessed with all but one thing. They had no children. Despite living in Israel where she was surrounded by those who worshiped Baal, she remained faithful to the one true God. She would go and listen to Elisha the prophet of the true God whenever he was nearby. And as faith is always looking for an opportunity to serve, she invited him to her home for meals. Then she suggested to her husband that they do something more for this traveling prophet. I imagine the conversation going something like this. “We are very blessed, and I love hearing the prophet speak God’s word. We have no children to inherit our wealth so why don’t we add on to the house and make a place for the prophet to stay whenever he comes this way.” So that’s what they did. Like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, they opened their home to Elisha and helped support the work of the Lord through his prophet.

Elisha was very grateful for this selfless act of faith so he asked the woman if there was anything she needed, anything he might do for her to show his gratitude. Do you know what her humble answer was? To put it in modern terms, she said, “no, nothing, I have everything I need.”

But Gehazi suggested something, the one earthly blessing she didn’t have. A child. So, Elisha tells her that she will be holding a son by that same time next year. She had received a prophet because he was a prophet, and she would receive a prophet’s reward. Mt 10:41)

This promise of Elisha might remind you of another section of Scripture. It’s very similar to the promise God gave Abraham, with Sarah listening in the distance. And the reaction of the two barren women was similar. Sarah laughed. The woman from Shunem begged Elisha not to deceive her, not to get her hopes up after she had come to terms with being unable to have children and her husband was old. But the word of the Lord never fails. It didn’t fail for Abraham and Sarah, and it didn’t fail for the Shunamite either. The woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her. (v 17)

Now everything was alright. Life was great. Not only were she and her husband blessed with wealth, but now they had someone to pass those blessings on to. But just as it was for Abraham and Sarah, just as the child was grown and ready to go to the fields to learn about harvesting, God allowed a severe test to come.

One day her son went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

Can you imagine what was going through her mind when she realized her son, her only son, had died in her lap? How helpless she must have felt. Mothers are supposed to be able to make everything alright, but she couldn’t. How she must have been tempted to lash out in anger at God - “Lord, why give me this child and then be so cruel as to take him away. It would have been better if I never would have had him.”

Some of you might be able to identify with her. Maybe you or someone you know has lost a child. We have that saying, “Children are to bury their parents, not the other way around.” Maybe you have been in a situation in life where everything was going well. You were humbled and thankful for all the blessings you were enjoying, and then suddenly everything fell apart. God allowed a severe test to hit you like a hurricane. Maybe it was a financial storm, or a broken relationship. Maybe it was a natural disaster that wiped out almost everything you had. Your heart was broken and maybe you lashed out at God asking, “Why did you give me these blessings only to take them away. It would have been better if I never would have had them.”

If you have ever felt that way, if you have complained to God wondering why he would give you some blessing and then, seemingly be so cruel as to snatch it away, you are in good company. Job had his moments of complaining to God. You heard both Mary and Martha complain to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here our brother would not have died. And this woman from Shunem complained to Elisha, Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’? (2 Ki 4:28). We’re human. We have a sinful nature. We can’t fully understand the mind of the Lord. But all these people didn’t offer their complaints and turn away from the Lord. They offered their complaints and turned even more to the Lord.

As soon as Martha’s struggle with grief bubbled over into her statement, “Lord if you had been here,” her faith also showed itself as the very next words out of her mouth were, But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. (Jn. 11:22)

As soon as her son died, instead of sobbing inconsolably as those who have no hope, this is how she showed her faith. She carried her son to the room they had made for Elisha and laid her son’s body on the prophet’s bed. She sent word to her husband who was out in the field that she needed a donkey and a servant right away so that she could got to see Elisha. She didn’t turn from the Lord in her anguish, she turned to the Lord.

Her husband realizes this is a strange request. They didn’t usually go to Elisha, they waited for him to come to them. Besides, it wasn’t a Sabbath or a religious festival day. Why would she want to go to the prophet? Was he putting things together and wondering if something had happened to his son? But in faith, she assures him everything is alright.

When the servant comes with the donkey she shows how urgent it is that she see Elisha as soon as possible. She tells the servant not to slow down for anything without her say-so.

Just as her husband suspected something wasn’t quite right, when Elisha saw her coming toward him, not on a Sabbath, or a religious festival day, and with haste and determination, he sent Gehazi to ask – Are you alright? Is your husband alright? Is your child alright? And what did she answer Gehazi? Everything is alright. She did not want to waste time explaining herself first to Gehazi and then have to repeat everything to Elisha. She was hoping against hope that if she could only tell the prophet of the Lord what had happened, everything really would be alright.

Her hope was not misplaced. Although God chose not to reveal to Elisha what had happened or why, he sent Gehazi to the home to lay his staff on the child, perhaps thinking that he was only sick. When he arrived and found that the child was dead, he prayed and did what his master Elijah had done. He laid on the child, prayed some more, and leaned over him again, and God raised the child from the dead. He called the boy’s mother, and she received her son back alive. Everything was alright. And she bowed down and worshiped the Lord.

The woman from Shunem, Mary and Martha and all who heard Jesus stand before the tomb of the man who had been dead for four days and say Lazarus, come out, and saw him come out alive, were shown that our God has power even over death. Therefore, even in death, everything is alright.

As Jesus told Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."(Jn. 11:25-27)

Even in death everything is alright. Even when God doesn’t do what he did for the woman from Shunem, or for Mary and Martha, even when he doesn’t raise a loved one from the dead to live again with us on the earth, everything is alright. Everything is alright because Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who came into the world to save us. He came into the world to place himself under God’s law as our substitute. He did what we couldn’t do. He fulfilled the law. He kept it perfectly in our place. He came into the world to be our sacrifice of atonement, to be the lamb of God who was sacrificed in our place, who took on himself the punishment we deserve for our sins. He died and was buried, and Mary and Martha and others mourned at his tomb. But he didn’t stay in the tomb. He rose from the dead on the third day just as he said he would. He rose, not like the Shunamite’s son, or like Lazarus, only to die again. He rose in a glorious body that is no longer subject to death, a body that lives forever in perfection. He rose as the firstfruits of all who die in faith, meaning that they too will one day be raised incorruptible. As we heard Paul tell the Romans in our Scripture reading earlier, Since the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Romans 8:11

When the storms of life come to us, as they did for the woman from Shunem, as they did for Mary and Martha, when your faith is severely tested, you will question God, but don’t run from him. Run to him as they did. Run to him with the confidence that he truly is the Lord of life and death. Run to him with the confidence that he has given you the one thing that you need more than anything else, his only Son Jesus who lived and died to pay for your sins, and who rose from the dead to assure you that even death has been defeated. In him, you and all who trust in him, have eternal life. Those who die believing in him are right now living and reigning with him and would not want to return to this earth with all it’s trials and troubles. And one day, you and all believers in Christ will receive a glorious body like his so that you can live and reign with him, body and soul, for all eternity.

Because Jesus lived and died for you, and rose again, even in death, everything is alright.