2 Kings 4:17-37 In suffering, our hope remains because the God who gives life is with us

You remember the day when you were surprised with Goldy. You hoped for a pet for a while, then gave up as time passed, then a bowl appeared with little Goldy. Life was good with Goldy until one day the little fins stopped fluttering and floated in place. When Goldy, Hammy, Kitty, Puppy or Birdy dies, you want answers. You want to express your feelings. You wonder if the time you had with your pet was worth the time you now must spend missing and mourning your loss. As a kid facing death you need someone who will give you hope.

Adults need hope too. God surprises us with many blessings in our lives, and he allows those same things to be taken away from us. Some things that we lose are an inconvenience while others are traumatic. For example, being stuck in traffic, breaking a nail, getting a flat tire or being woken up in the middle of the night by a hungry baby or sick child is an inconvenience. On the other hand, things like cancer, divorce, abuse and death are traumatic. As adults we need hope on a day filled with inconveniences and we need hope in seasons of suffering from trauma.

She did not see his presence as an inconvenience. In the verses leading up to our Old Testament reading from 2 Kings 4, we hear that the prophet Elisha stopped in a place called Shunem as he made his rounds. A believing woman there told her husband she wanted to build a room on their roof for Elisha to stay in when he came to town. In response to her gracious gift, Elisha wanted to do something for her. Though she did not ask him, Elisha told her that she would have a son as she had no children and her husband was old. About a year later, she was blessed with a son. For years, he was healthy and grew until one day his head hurt, and he sat on his mother’s lap until noon when he died. Her husband showed no concern for the loss of their only child, but she immediate called for a servant and a donkey to take her to Elisha. She was in a hurry to get to him and when she arrived, we read what happened in 2 Kings 4, 25 … When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite! 26 Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’” “Everything is all right,” she said. 27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why.” 28 “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?” Elisha’s presence began as a blessing, then tragedy struck. We presume this woman had prayed for a child but stopped after years without the answer she hoped for. Though her hopes came true after Elisha spoke, her hopes were silenced again as she held the lifeless body of her little boy. Elisha was the only one who could help her, again her husband was disinterested, checked out and we presume did not believe in God. When she arrived, she spoke one word in Hebrew, ‘shalom’ or peace. With a word, she shared her faith that the man of God could do something, and with her actions she showed her overwhelming grief struggle in suffering. Trauma had gripped her as she lay at Elisha’s feet while her dead son lay back home on Elisha’s bed, and her hope hung in the balance.

As we slide on the scale of inconvenience and trauma, our hope hangs in the balance. When we are inconvenienced, our emotions get the best of us, and we describe things like traffic and toddlers as traumatic. Like a pampered pet pouting when pushed off the couch and directed to its plush pad on the floor, our sinful nature often exaggerates the relatively minor inconveniences of each day. And though difficult to believe, God is with us even when we are stuck in traffic in our airconditioned, music and podcast playing, safety filled, fine leather lined, traffic assist equipped, supercomputer vehicles or caring for his blessing of a child who looks to you with trust learning, growing, playing and copying with energy and giggles. These may be inconveniences, but trauma also touches our lives. Traumatic deeper longer lasting seasons strain our hope. God surprises us with many blessings, but he also allows them to be taken away. You know what weighs heavy on your heart, and you may be the only one who knows what the trauma is and how deep it goes. We may use words like ‘peace’ and have faith in God like the Shunammite woman, but also collapse overwhelmed crying and screaming out, “Did I ask you for [this], my [LORD]?” … “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?” Suffering is not clear cut. Suffering is not cynical meaninglessness as if whatever we endure in this world does not matter because it all ends in death. Neither does suffering always get a clear answer in what good thing it was leading to. Suffering is messy, awkward, difficult and strains our hope the longer it lasts.

As suffering threatens to turn us away from the One who gives us hope, he remains with us. Giving up hope does not heal us. Running to God for hope will get you through suffering. The Shunammite woman lived the spectrum of hope. She had hoped and prayed for a child, she had abandoned hope, her anxiety spiked when she was given hope, her hopes were realized in her son, then her hopes died in her arms. In her suffering, she ran to the one who gave her hope and Elisha showed her that God was still with her as we read in our Old Testament reading from 2 Kings 4, 32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. 33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. 35 Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. 36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” 37 She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out. Elisha prayed to the LORD who gives life to the dead, and the LORD answered. The woman received her son back, and her hope in the LORD was confirmed. As our hearts remain heavy with hopes not yet realized and suffering strains our hope, the confirmation of our hope is found in Jesus. Although God gives us many blessings and always hears our prayers, he does allow loss in our lives and our prayers do not always get the answers or have the timing we expect. Our hope then relies on Jesus who exceeds our expectations. He was born to suffer and chose to carry the weight of our sufferings and hope strained cries on his back, and he was lifted on the cross in a horrific display of emotional, physical and spiritual trauma until he died before the eyes of his mother. Jesus remains with us because he rose from the dead. Jesus remains our hope through every inconvenience and trauma always listening to our prayers, panic and pleading. And he has sent the Holy Spirit to live in us as we read in our New Testament reading from Romans 8, 11 And if 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. God does not push us away when we fall at his feet, but goes with us with his healing, his hope and his heaven as answers to our suffering.

Run to God for hope in suffering. Do not walk or meander to God when inconvenience or trauma happen. Run to God, hear his Word and pray. Be ready with people in your life who will share Jesus with you, pray with you, listen to you, feed you and help you. The Shunammite woman ran to Elisha who went to the LORD on her behalf, and her hope was confirmed that God would give her peace even in the face of death. In our Gospel reading from John 11, Jesus gave another woman hope in his power to give life shortly before he died and was buried, and three days later rose from the dead. When Martha’s brother Lazarus had died, she sent word to Jesus, and he waited two days to go to her. When he arrived, we read in John 11, 21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Martha believed in Jesus, she had peace that he was there as the Shunammite woman had peace in the presence of Elisha, and like the Shunammite woman she wondered what God would do before the resurrection of the dead on the last day. Then, Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb and called him back to life as we read in John 11, 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” We run to the same Jesus with the same hope, same peace and same assurance that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and we run to him with these words in our heart from our New Testament reading from Romans 8, 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. We wait eagerly for the day when our sufferings end, and we are raised from the dead together with all who hoped in Jesus. We join many in Scripture who also did not see an immediate end to their sufferings like Adam and Eve who were not whisked away to heaven after God promised to save them through their serpent crusher Offspring but lived hundreds of years in the sinful world. Nor was Noah and his family taken to heaven while the world drowned, but he was kept safe in the ark and lived many more days in the sinful world after the waters receded. We have the same hope living in the same sinful world. In this world, suffering brings tears, mourning, frustration, questions, doubts, anger, cynicism, loneliness and retreat, but our hope in Jesus brings patience, calm, peace, answers, acceptance, witness to others, community, resurrection and eternal life. God has given us hope and he wants us to be Elisha’s for one another who people can run to and be trusted to respond to trauma and suffering with the Word of God, prayer and hope.

You remember the day when you were surprised with Goldy. You hoped for a pet for a while, then gave up as time passed, then a bowl appeared with little Goldy. Life was good with Goldy until one day the little fins stopped fluttering and floated in place. As a kid facing death you need someone who will give you hope. Adults need hope too. We need someone with us who will give us hope when we suffer. A Shunammite woman ran to one person in death, inconvenience and trauma, Elisha. He answered her with hope in the LORD who listened to his prayer and brought her son back to life. Jesus is the power who gave her son life and who died and rose to give us eternal life. In suffering, our hope remains because the God who gives life is with us. Amen.

        

Gunnar Ledermann, Pastor Divine Peace Church