When gripping news stories like this happen, it's easy to become annoyed. The media just won't leave it alone and everyone has an opinion. Why continue to have rally's, articles, and petitions? Why do we need to keep this child's death on our minds? Why not just let it die?...
Earlier this week, I read about the resurrection of the Shunammite woman's son in II Kings 4. This is the story where the prophet Elisha raises the woman's son back to life after he has died suddenly. When I stopped there, it was clear, this was a narrative of hope and resurrection. God can bring back those who have died.
However, after reading further, there was another purpose for the Shunammite's son's resurrection. From II Kings 8 -
3 At the end of seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went out to appeal to the king for her house and for her field. 4 Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Please relate to me all the great things that Elisha has done.” 5 As he was relating to the king how he had restored to life the one who was dead, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and for her field. And Gehazi said, “My lord, O king, this is the woman and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.” 6 When the king asked the woman, she related it to him. So the king appointed for her a certain officer, saying, “Restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land even until now.”
The woman was being wrongfully denied the land and home that was hers (check out the first couple verses below). Her son's death and resurrection became her testimony against injustice. She was able to point to her son as a symbol of God's faithfulness to her. After this, the king restored to her what she was rightfully owed.
Hoodie Sunday and the many actions to come are attempts to keep Trayvon's memory alive. Not for his own sake, but for ours. There are racial, socio-economic, and institutional terrors that are perpetrated everyday on innocent people. We resurrect the story of the boy in the hood so we can remind the world of the daily injustices perpetuated against God's people.
Lord, we thank You for the power of resurrection. Thank You that there is life after death. While we join in mourning with the Martin family, we are grateful they have offered their child as a martyr for injustice. Lord, where there is darkness, please send light. Where there is confusion, peace. Please forgive us for not speaking up. We stand as a people shaped in iniquity and yet shaded by the hood of your love. Our hope is not lost, it is waiting to be revived. In the name of Jesus Christ, the resurrected Son, Amen.
Lifting,
j.a.g.
*Just curious - can you remember the name of the black inmate who was killed on death row last year? There was a lot of news coverage around the event. Admittedly, I had trouble remembering his name. Seems like we need to keep resurrecting those we lose. Long live Trayon.
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II Kings 8:1-2
1 Now Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go with your household, and sojourn wherever you can sojourn; for the LORD has called for a famine, and it will even come on the land for seven years.”
2 So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God, and she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.
2 So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God, and she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.
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