2 Kings 4:17-37 17But the woman conceived, and she gave birth to a son at that same time of year, just as Elisha said to her.
18The boy grew up, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 19Then he said to his father, “My head! My head!”
His father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20So he picked him up and carried him to his mother, and the boy sat on her lap until noon. Then he died.
21Then she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. She shut the door behind her and went out. 22Then she called to her husband and said, “Send one of the servants to me with one of the donkeys, so that I can run to the man of God and come back.”
23He said, “Why are you going to him today? It’s not the new moon, and it’s not the Sabbath.”
But she said, “It’s all right.”
24Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead the way. Don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.”
25So she went to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When the man of God saw her from a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! That’s the woman from Shunem! 26Now run to meet her and say, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your son all right?’”
She answered, “We’re all right.”
27Then she came to the man of God at the mountain, and she grasped his feet. Gehazi stepped forward to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me. He has not told me.”
28Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t give me false hope’?”
29Then Elisha said to Gehazi, “Hike up your garments for travel, and take my staff in your hand and go! If you meet someone, do not greet him, and if someone greets you, do not answer. Put my staff on the boy’s face.”
30But the boy’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her. 31Gehazi went ahead of them and put the staff on the boy’s face. But there was no sound, and there was no response. So he went back to Elisha and told him, “The boy did not wake up.”
32When Elisha came to the house, there the boy was―dead, lying on his bed. 33So he went in and he shut the door behind the two of them. Then he prayed to the Lord. 34He got up and lay down on top of the boy. He put his mouth to the boy’s mouth, his eyes to the boy’s eyes, his palms to the boy’s palms. Then he bent down over him, and the boy’s flesh became warm. 35He went back into the house and paced back and forth. Then he went up and bent down over him, and the boy sneezed seven times. Then the boy opened his eyes.
36Then Elisha called Gehazi and said, “Call the woman of Shunem!” So he called her, and she came in. He said, “Pick up your son.” 37So she came in and fell at Elisha’s feet and bowed down to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit, who is dwelling in you. Amen (Romans 8:11).
Joel and Ruth were strong Christian people. They loved the Lord. They loved each other. They wanted to love lots of children. They both came from large families and desired having a large family of their own. But they had been married for 8 years and still did not have any children.
For whatever reason, they could not conceive a child. They prayed to God. They talked to doctors. They visited specialists.
Finally, God blessed Joe and Ruth with a pregnancy. They wanted to thank God for their child because they felt like they had found favor in God’s eyes, so they decided to name him Ken. They knew the Hebrew word for grace or favor is pronounced Chen. Everything was going well until their son was born. Then the nurses suddenly rushed Ken away from the scared couple.
Ken was born with all kinds of health complications … too numerous to recount here. Joe and Ruth were able to visit their son in the NICU, hold him, feed him, and change him. Their hearts were filled with love for their little son.
Then one day Ruth picked up her son and was holding him and he died in her arms. His little heart had given out. He just couldn’t fight anymore. Ken was only a month old, but it was a month of love, grace, and favor. It was followed by months of heartache, grief, and deep sadness.
Joe and Ruth are not real people. I created them to tell this story. Because it is a very real story. Sadly, many of us have lived a similar story. Or maybe we have heard this heartbreaking story from others we know and love.
Though I made up this particular story, it reminds us of a very real story. It’s the story the Holy Spirit relates to us in our Old Testament lesson.
Elisha was the kind of prophet who moved around a lot. He traveled quite a bit to visit and preach to the people of Israel. As Elisha was passing through Shunem in the Jezreel Valley between Galilee and Samaria, he was stopped by a Shunamite woman. We’ll call this woman Ruth. Ruth had a great faith in God and asked Elisha to stay with them whenever he passed through the area. We’ll call her husband Joel. Joel built a spare room for the prophet in their house.
Elisha asked Ruth if there was anything God could give her to show Elisha’s appreciation for her kindness. She wanted nothing. When Elisha learned from his servant Gehazi that Ruth had no children and Joel was old he said to her, “At this time next year you will be holding your son” (2 Kings 5:16). A year later, God gifted Ruth and Joel with a miracle son. We’ll call him Chen which is Hebrew for grace and favor.
All was well for several years. Elisha continued his visits and Chen continued to grow until he was old enough to be with his dad in the fields. Then one day he complained that his head hurt. Joel knew this was more than a headache and ordered a servant to take Chen to his mother. The young boy sat in his mother’s lap until his heart gave out and he died.
Ruth carried her son’s lifeless body to the house and laid him on the prophet’s bed in the spare room. Then she went to see Elisha. When she saw Elisha she said in her grief, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t give me false hope’?” Elisha didn’t know exactly what happened, but he knew something tragic had happened. He sent Gehazi with his prophet’s staff and told him to run the 20 miles to Ruth’s home.
But Ruth wouldn’t leave Elisha’s side. She said to him, “As surely as the Lord lives and your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So the grieving mother accompanied the man of God back to her home in Shunem.
When Elisha arrived at the home, he went upstairs to his private room and shut the door. Outside, Ruth waited. She wept. She prayed. And she waited.
Until finally the prophet called his servant. Then she was alone in her grief. Gehazi came to get Ruth and brought her into the room. Elisha said to the mom, “Pick up your son.” By the grace of God, her son was alive!
By the grace of God, I have been at the bedside of many of God’s saints as they were being called by God to be with him in heavenly glory. I’ve been there as their eyes closed, their breathing slowed, and their hearts stopped. I’ve been blessed to preach for the Christian funeral of many of God’s saints. From a pastor’s perspective, some deaths and funerals are easier to minister to and preach for than others.
The hardest death to minister to and most difficult funeral to preach for was an infant. The little boy had come home from the hospital, and everything seemed fine. But it wasn’t fine. I remember exactly where I was when I received the phone call from the dad telling me that his two-week old son had died. He died in his sleep.
When I went to visit the family, the mother was almost inconsolable. She went to the crib to pick up her son. … But he was dead.
Can you imagine the grief these new parents felt?!
Perhaps you don’t have to imagine. You know the grief firsthand.
The grief of a miscarriage.
The grief of an infant death.
The grief of a teenager killed in a car accident.
The grief of a daughter who died after a long bout with cancer.
The grief of a son killed in a war.
There is an old – but very true – saying that no parent should ever have to experience burying their child.
There is grief when we are called to pick up our dead son or daughter. There is heartache when we are holding our lifeless children – young or grown. There is loss knowing their death has robbed us of time, hugs, and laughter.
We must all walk through this dark valley of the shadow of death. We all feel this pain death brings. Our hearts are filled with questions.
“Why?”
“What good can come from this?”
“When will this pain end?”
We look to Scripture, and we see God raising people from the dead. Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, Dorcas, the Shunamite woman’s son. That’s miraculous! That’s marvelous! Those resurrections raise bodies … but they also raise questions. Questions like, “Why isn’t my child resurrected?” “Why did Jesus raise that one and not this one?”
We don’t have the answers. Death often leaves us with more questions than answers. It leaves us with more tears than smiles.
The tears remind us that even the Lord Jesus cried. When he was at the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus, he wept. Even though he knew he would soon be raising Lazarus from the grave in a fw moments, his heart still broke for what death did to those he loved.
But Jesus did more than cry. He did something about the pains that cause these tears of grief. He told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish. Do you believe this” (John 11:25)? Martha believed that Lazarus would rise on the Last Day. But Jesus meant that Lazarus would rise on that day! Just as Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave that day, so he promises to call all of his saints out of their graves on the Last Day.
Jesus did more than sympathize with our pains. He did something about the pains that cause these tears of grief. He is the answer to all our questions. He knows that we grieve so he became the man who knew grief. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man who knew grief, who was well acquainted with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3).
Jesus endured suffering and shame for us. He took the punishment we deserved. He carried our guilt. He bled and died to pay our price. He was buried in the tomb for three days. Then he beat death at its own game with his glorious resurrection from the grave.
This means that whatever we suffer here now is not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:19). God is not minimizing our griefs, sorrows or sufferings in saying this. He’s emphasizing the pain we feel. But he assures us that because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross and out of the grave, now he has prepared mansions in heaven for us. When our bodies are resurrected from the graves on the Last Day and we are standing before God’s throne with all the other countless saints, we will have forgotten all these griefs, sorrows, and sufferings.
This is the comfort we have as grieving parents. Jesus does not promise us a resurrection of our children in this lifetime. But he does promise a resurrection in the life to come. Our deceased Christian children are not really dead, They live on. It’s a change of geography – from this earth to the heavenly realms. It’s a change of form – from sinful mortal to glorified saint. It’s a change of sight – no longer seeing Jesus with the eyes of faith, but now seeing Jesus with their very own eyes.
I cannot imagine how heartbreaking it is to pick up your son after he as died in the crib. But look to the glory that Jesus has prepared for you and your children. Look forward to the day when you die. There you will enter the gates of heaven. You will meet your glorified Savior. Then he will introduce you to your child and say, “Pick up your son.” “Pick up your daughter.”
What a glorious reunion that will be! Amen.
Now if we are children, we are also heirs―heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Amen (Romans 8:17).