Title: IT IS ALL RIGHT!

Focus: God’s gracious Word and resurrection power (will) make everything all right.

Function: To move the people to Christian hope and joy by highlighting God’s Word of grace and resurrection power in Christ Jesus.

Text: II Kings 4:8-37

INTRODUCTION (or)

“How Can Everything Be All Right?”

            A good two years ago, Fran Terpstra learned that something was terribly wrong. The doctor said that she was suffering from cancer of the esophagus. She would need drastic treatment to reverse the cancer threat. Statistics indicated that Fran’s chances of a cure or a remission of the cancer were not very optimistic. Clearly, all of this was not good news.

When I learned of Fran’s diagnosis, I visited Fran and George. And that’s when I encountered a visible display of Christian hope and faith. During these years of pastoral ministry, I have seen such displays before.

Here’s how it went in Fran’s case: “Fran, how are you doing in light of this diagnosis and poor prognosis?” Oh, Pastor Jack,” she said: “It’s all right!” And then she told me why everything was all right even though the diagnosis indicated that everything was all wrong.

            God answered many prayers on behalf of Fran; the cancer went into some form of remission for about a year. Everything seemed all right again. Then, about a year ago, we learned that the cancer had returned. More treatments were needed. “Fran, how are you doing?” “Oh, Pastor Jack, It’s all right.” There it was again: the display of a rock-solid faith that was anchored in God’s Word and in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.

            I visited Fran on Wednesday, August 8. She was dying. I thanked Fran for her testimony of faith, so strongly displayed these last few years. And then I told her why everything is and would be all right. I told her that God—in his mercy—forgives our sins and rebellion against him by sending his one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ incarnation and death on the cross, paid for our sins; Jesus’ resurrection from the dead opens the door of eternal life for all who turn to him in faith. In fact, because of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, we are no longer captive to the slavery of sin or to the power of death. Sin and death no longer have the last word. Christ Jesus is victorious. Fran welcomed this good news. It made everything all right.

On Saturday, August 11, Fran died in the Lord. She is with him today. It is all right!

Tonight, I invite us all to ponder the powerful Christian message summarized in the acclamation “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.” This beautiful summary of the Gospel indicates that God’s gracious Word and resurrection power revealed in Jesus Christ will make everything all right. That’s the foundation of a Christian’s solid hope.

THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN HOPE

            First, however, I want to make a distinction between human hope and Christian hope (as displayed by Fran Terpstra, for example). The late Dr. Lewis Smedes, in his book How Can It Be All Right When Everything Is All Wrong? helps us understand the difference between human hope and Christian hope. Smedes says that whenever a person hopes there are three things going on:

The first is desire: We want what we hope for. The second is belief: we believe that what we hope for is possible. The third is doubt: we fear that what we hope for may not happen (p. 127). So, for example, you may hope that the Minnesota Twins will win the championship. That’s what you desire. If you have such a hope and desire, then you also have most likely a belief that it is still possible for the Twins to reach the finish line. And when you are honest, there will also be some doubt or fear that the Twins will not make it at all.

            Christian hope is different: Our hope that God in Christ will make all things new and that we shall live with him on the restored creation, for example, calls for a deep desire that Jesus will come again. Such a hope also comes with belief: we believe that Christ’s return may actually and will actually happen. We believe in the certainty of Christ’s resurrection and return and restoration of all things.

Here’s the difference between human hope and Christian hope: our Christian hope comes with a conviction (which is God’s gift of assurance or certainty). “Christian hoping is a gift of certainty that what God promises, he will most assuredly give” (p.128). You see, God’s gracious Word and resurrection power will, in the end, make all things right. That’s our rock-solid, Christian hope and conviction.

“Everything Seems All Right, Yet…” (II Kings 4:8-17)

            “Show me,” you say. “What is the foundation for such Christian hope?” Enter the story of Elisha and his encounter with this Shunamite woman. It’s a beautiful story with a powerful message. The first part of the story (vs. 8-17) suggests that everything seems all right, yet…. There is this woman in the town of Shunem. She is “well-to-do.” She comes across as being in charge of the estate. She is married, but her husband remains in the background. He appears to be advanced in age. The Shunammite woman is very hospitable; she opens her home to strangers and feeds them. Everything seems all right, yet….

            The Shunammite woman is also godly and spiritually very discerning because when Elisha, the prophet and bearer of God’s Word, comes to her home the woman recognizes that Elisha is a “holy man of God.” She knows that Elisha represents the Word of God—so much so that when you see and hear Elisha speaking, you hear and see the very Word of God at work.

            The Shunammite woman wants to offer a room to Elisha so that he can stay and have a place of his own whenever he travels through town. In essence, this woman is turning her home into a sanctuary. Now the Word of God, personified in Elisha, is under her roof, in her house, near her heart, and soul and household. Ah, everything seems all right, yet….

            When Elisha senses that God wants to bless this woman and her household, he learns that NOT everything is all right: she is barren; she has no children. And that means (in her days) that she and her husband have no future: no one will follow them bearing their name, guarding their estate and tilling their land. Everything they have and work for will go to some distant family member perhaps or to some complete stranger. And soon after they die, their legacy will be no more than a lingering memory. Everything only seems all right! They have no future, no children, no son!

            But God speaks a powerful Word through Elisha. “About this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms,” said the holy prophet. The woman, however, responds with human hope. There is no certainty yet in her heart: Yes, she longs for a child—a deep desire in her heart; She believes in the possibility of still being able to bear a child; but she fears, she doubts that it is possible or that it will happen, for she and her husband have tried so often to get pregnant; and her husband is old; and, and…. “No, my Lord Elisha,” she says, “Don’t mislead your servant, O man of God.” Oh, she wavers between fear and certainty: fear that it is may not happen, and certainty that the Word of God, spoken by this holy man, will come true. Everything seems all right, yet….

“Everything Is All Wrong, Yet…” (vs. 18-30) The story unfolds, and what happens next is astonishing and striking: Everything is all wrong, yet….

            The woman becomes pregnant. Gives birth to a son; the child grows strong, spends time with his father in the field on a hot day, becomes ill, ends up in his mother’s lap at home and dies of a heat stroke. Gone is the happiness and joy of having a child! Gone is the future! Now, everything is all wrong, yet….

            The mother takes her child and lays his body on the bed of the man of God. There it is: a corpse—lying still in the sanctuary, in the room where God’s Word, represented and embodied by Elisha, so often resides. It’s like the woman places her dead child in this holy place, in the very context of God’s powerful Word. Then she leaves.

She calls her husband and says: “Please, send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.” Even though everything is all wrong, yet she does not tell her husband that their child is dead, that their hope for the future is no more.

            The husband responds: “Why go to him today? It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.” (In other words, the time for presenting special offerings or worship has not yet come. So why go and see Elisha, the bearer of God’s Word?) “It’s all right,” the woman says to her husband.

 Are we missing something here? Surely, the death of a precious child means that everything is all wrong! Yet….

            Stay with the story. The Shunammite woman races on her donkey for about 14 miles to Mount Carmel, where Elisha, the man of God is. Elisha sees her coming from a distance. He calls on Gehazi, his servant. “Look, There’s the Shunammite! Run to meet her and ask here: ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’”

            The woman responds to Gehazi saying, “Everything is all right.” Yet…. She ignores Gehazi and speeds toward the man of God. She has a quarrel with Elisha, the man of God. She is in distress. She knows God is testing her hope, her confidence in God and his powerful word. Throwing herself before Elisha she says: “Did I ask you for a son, my Lord? Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”

            Nothing makes sense to the woman anymore. And Elisha, too, is in the dark. For the Lord has not told Elisha in advance what happened to the woman’s son. But Elisha knows that this woman desperately seeks to place her trust in God’s Word and power. Elisha knows that God’s Word and power is put to the test of faith and hope.

Elisha, therefore acts promptly, instructing Gehazi to place Elisha’s staff on the boy’s face. Elisha believes that his shepherd’s staff—a sign of God’s Word shepherding God’s people—would bring the boy back to life.

That staff is to conquer the power of death that has taken hold of this boy’s body. So, Gehazi must hurry; he must not sidetrack and get distracted. “Tuck you cloak into your belt. Take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer.” (In other words, stay focused, run and rescue the boy from the clutches of death. Hurry!)

            That should do it, so Elisha thought. But the mother insists that Elisha comes with her. After all, Elisha is the HOLY man of God; he is the bearer of God’s Word—not Gehazi. Elisha must come to the child. “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you,” she says.

Clearly, everything is all wrong, so Elisha gets up and follows her, so says the text. And as they come closer to the house where the sanctuary of God’s Word has turned into a tomb enclosing the corpse of this young child, they learn from Gehazi that Gehazi’s action of placing the staff on the boy’s face has done no good. “The boy has not awakened,” Gehazi says. Everything is all wrong. Yet….

“All Is Made Right!” (vs. 31-37)

            Elisha acts quickly. He goes into his sanctuary turned into a death chamber. He closes the door; he is alone—with the dead boy and with God. And there, Elisha wrestles with God in prayer. Then the bearer of God’s Word stretches out on the boy. The power of God’s Word, embodied by Elisha, enters and warms the corpse.  

But the power of death does not easily lose its grip. So Elisha gets up, walks back and forth in the room, wrestling with the Lord in prayer. Again, he stretches out upon the boy. Life--resurrection life--enters the corpse and the spirit of the boy returns. He sneezes, giving evidence of life; then he opens his eyes. He is alive!

Everything is made right! God’s gracious Word and resurrection power has made it all right. The future opens up for this Shunammite woman and her husband. Joy and assurance enter their hearts, for God is able to make all things right!

            Friends, this story foreshadows the greater story of God sending his Son, Jesus, to die for our sake, so that we may have life, and a future. Christ’s death and resurrection are the foundations of our rock-solid, Christian hope.

            The apostle Paul speaks about Christian hope when he says in Romans 5 “…we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly….”

          God’s gracious Word and resurrection power make and will make everything all right!    Listen to the writer of Hebrews as he speaks of a Christian’s hope: (Hebrews 6:19) “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” Our Christian hope is centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. And because of him, we can say (and live with the conviction, as Fran did) that even though everything seems all wrong, it is all right!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.