I must confess I was reluctant to preach on this text. The gospel lesson, where Jesus declares Himself to be the “resurrection and the life”[1]1 and then miraculously raises Lazarus from the dead, almost preaches itself. Our epistle lesson, that states “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us”[2], is a challenging but clear concept to preach. But this Old Testament lesson from 2 Kings 4:17-37 is a text of a different sort. There are a lot of oddly specific and frankly weird details in this lesson. Gehazi (Elisha’s servant) places a “29… staff on a boy’s face”, Elisha lays on top of the boy “34… mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands” and before the dead boy opens his eyes “35… he sneezed seven times”. This is one of those text that is easy to skip over so that people don’t ask too many questions. But I was compelled to preach on this text this morning because there was something about this Shunamite woman that resonated with me, and I think might also resonate with you.
I think what resonates is the feeling that God is messing with us. I mean we all know He isn’t. Our God does not mess with us. He is not like the gods the Greeks and Romans imagined. Read the Odyssey or the Iliad and you will quickly get a sense of how much the Greeks and the Romans imagined their gods messed with them. They imagined their gods amused themselves by bestowing blessings and casting curses upon humanity just to see what we would do. But we know our God is not so callous and cruel. We know our God is not messing with us... and yet sometimes, it kind of feels like He is.
You study hard for the semester test because you know this test will have a huge impact on your grade possibly the difference between passing and failing the class. You pray that God help you remember what you have learned and that you do well on the test. And you do! You get one of the highest grades in the class. But on your way out the teacher tells you they have scheduled a parent teacher meeting about your test. At that meeting the teachers informs you that you have been moved to AP classes where the work is harder, and the tests are twice as difficult, and you wonder if God is messing with you.
You search and search for a job where you can use your talents and abilities to provide for your family. You pray that God would lead you to such a job and then finally you find it. It seems to be a perfect fit, you like what you are doing, you respect your boss, you get along with your coworkers, and you see an exciting future for yourself with the company. But then a month after you are hired for your dream job the company goes bankrupt… and it kind of feels like God is messing with you.
You take relatively good care of yourself. You know your body is a temple of the Lord and you pray for the strength and energy to use that temple to His glory. You exercise-ish. You eat healthy-ish. You get plenty of sleep (at least on the weekends), avoid harmful substances (most of the time), and do not have dangerous hobbies or risky habits. But then you go to the doctor, and they tell you, despite all you have done to preserve body and life, they have some concerns. They run some tests and it seems whatever can go wrong does go wrong. As you pace back and forth in your hospital room awaiting another test or procedure to bring you more distressing news you just can’t help but feeling like God is messing with you.
The Shunammite woman felt that way. She lived a good life. She had a husband who loved her and was surrounded by friends. Her wealth provided her a comfortable living. But most of all the Holy Spirit had created faith in this woman’s heart. She believed in the promised Messiah the LORD would send to save her from her sins. The woman praised the LORD for her blessings with her actions. She built a guest house for the prophet Elisha so that he would have a comfortable place to stay when he shared the word of the LORD with the people of Shunem.
The prophet was touched by the Shunammite woman’s generosity and wanted to do something nice for her. But when he asked what he could do for her, she replied like one who has learned the secret of being content. She said, “13… I have a home among my own people” in other words “I have everything I need”. But when Elisha learned she had no son, he knew what he wanted to do for her. Elisha told her, “16… about this time next year you will hold a son in your arms.”
No doubt the Shunammite woman had hoped for a son when she was a younger woman but now that her husband was old, she was resolved that having a son was not the LORD’s plan for her. She told Elisha, “16… don’t mislead your servant, O man of God!” After all these years she didn’t want to get her hopes up. “17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.”
God had bestowed a blessing on the Shunammite woman more blessing than she had asked for; more than she dared to hope for. What joy must have filled her heart as she watched this unexpected blessing grow from a little child into a young teen. But then one day, while in the field with his father, her unexpected blessing cries out in pain “19 “My head! My head!”. The boy is brought to his mother. She holds him on her lap all morning long. She holds him until he dies in her arms. At that moment, as she held the lifeless body of her unexpected blessing in her arms she must have asked, ‘Is God messing with me?’
Having asked the same question when tragedy enters your life, you might, from personal experience, imagine the temptations the Shunammite woman faced. --You can almost feel the great tempter’s presence as he readies to pounce on the Shunammite woman in her moment of weakness. -- It is easy to imagine her yelling at God for allowing this to happen. It is easy to imagine her heart filling with bitterness. It is easy to imagine her slipping into despair. It is easy to imagine her facing the very temptations that you yourself have faced when tragedy enters your life.
Is God messing with me? The Shunammite woman needed an answer to that question so she turned to the only one who could answer such a question, she turned to the LORD. I cannot explain why she did not tell her obviously confused husband that his son had died. I cannot explain why she kept the reason for the urgent trip to the man of God at Mount Carmel from her servant. I can’t explain why she told Elisha’s servant that “26… Everything was all right.” I am not sure the Shunammite woman herself would be able to explain her actions. Perhaps she was ashamed of the bitterness and rage that was building inside of her, perhaps she was afraid of what blasphemous things she might say? But as she stood before Elisha it all came out. She grabbed the man of God by his feet and would not let go as she cried out, “28 “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” ... “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?” in other words, ‘Why is God messing with me!?!’
God grant us all a faith such as this. When there is nowhere else to turn, when our eyes burn with tears and our knees buckle under the weight of pain sorrow and sadness, God grant us a raw and real faith, a humble faith that that crawls on hands and knees to the feet of God’s prophets and apostles. God grant us a faith that clings to His word with the same determination and tenacity with which the Shunamite woman clung to Elisha’s feet. God grant us such a faith so that when the occasion arises for us to cry out in pain we are crying out to the LORD.
Elisha followed the Shunammite woman back to her house where the dead child had been laid. I cannot explain why the prophet first sent his servant to place a staff on the boy’s face. I cannot explain why the prophet “34… lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands” (though if I allow my mind to imagine what it may have looked like for the prophet to “34… stretch himself out upon the boy” a striking and familiar image + comes to mind.) I cannot explain why the boy sneezed seven times. But I do know why the prophet prayed to the LORD. Elisha prayed to the LORD because he cared for this woman, He prayed to the LORD because he knew there was nothing he could say to take her pain away, He prayed to the LORD because he knew the LORD loved this woman enough to provide her a savior from her sins (though I don’t even think Elisha knew the full extent of that love, at least not like we who have seen, through the pages of scripture, that savior nailed to a cross). Elisha prayed to the LORD because he knew her God was not a god who played cruel games with people’s lives. Elisha may not have understood why the LORD allowed tragedy to enter the Shunammite woman’s life, but he knew the LORD was not messing with her.
Eventually Elisha summoned the Shunammite woman back into the room where she had laid the dead body of her son. What she saw when she entered the room caused her to “37 fall at his (the man of God’s) feet and bow to the ground.”; it caused her to worship. She saw her son raised back to life again, yes, but, more than that, she saw that her God was not just the bestower of blessings, but her God was also the giver, sustainer, preserver, and restorer of life. As the Shunammite woman “37… took her son and went out” she went with the assurance that her God was not messing with her.
Your God is not messing with you. Whether or not He bestows blessings upon you, whether or not He allows tragedy to enter your life, your God is not messing with you. Your God just wants you to see what the Shunammite woman saw. He wants you to see that your God is so much more than simply the bestower of blessings. But instead of allowing your child to die so that you can so see what she saw, Your God allowed His child to die. He was willing to grieve the death of His one and only Son so that you might see. Then after the debt had been paid in full and the devil had been defeated God raised His Son from the dead so that you might see. Your God allowed His one and only Son to die and then raised Him back to life again so that you can see that your God is not just the bestower of blessings, but your God is the giver, sustainer, preserver, and restorer of life. God used the death and resurrection of the Shunamite’s son to strengthen her faith, but He used the death and resurrection of His Son to save your soul. When you see your God the way the Shunammite woman saw her God it makes you want to fall to your knees, bow to the ground and worship the one who is, as Jesus put it, “the resurrection and the life”[3].
I didn’t want to preach this text. There are a lot of oddly specific and frankly weird things in this text that I can’t explain. Further I knew this text might make you think of specific blessings that were withheld or tragedies that were allowed to enter your life and I knew that I would not be able to adequately explain them either. But I was compelled to preach this text because I want you to leave here today knowing what the Shunammite woman knew. Whether or not God bestows blessings upon you whether or not God allows tragedy to enter your life, I want you to leave her with the assurance that your God, who allowed His son to die and then raised Him back to life again, Your God is not messing with you. Amen
[1] John 11:25
[2] Romans 8:18
[3] John 11:25