The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author.
Pentecost 7, (Proper 9) Year C
2 Kings 5:1-14
There are many touching scenes in this episode about Naaman and his healing.
Firstly, Naamanwas a national hero, the commander of a successful army. As a fighting man he was admired for his strength and power, and feared by his opponents. But he had been laid low by a skin disease –it may have been the dreaded leprosy, but it could have been any of a number of skin diseases. Naaman is now a picture of pity. He’ll try anything to get better, but every known cure he tries fails. What a blow to such a mighty man. He is now weak and helpless.
In contrast there is a slave girl who is a little ‘nobody’- a foreign girl captured in a war raid on Israel. She works as a maid for Naaman’s wife. This unknown slave from Israel shares her faith in God’s power. She announces that her God could heal Naamanthrough the prophet Elisha, who lived in her home land of Samaria. It is the simple faith and witness of this girl that changes everything that follows.
Naaman’s wife tells her husband about Elisha the prophet. Naaman is so desperate to be cured he tells the King about this foreign prophet who lives in the land of their enemies.The King sends Naaman off to the King of Israel, loaded with treasures. It shows us the value the King placed on Naaman. The King was mind-bogglingly rich and would give any amount of gold to have Naaman strong and healthy again. The future of his kingdom depends on Naaman leading the army.
(Note how the King is careful to send Naaman to the King of Israel, and not straight to Elisha. Kings like to deal with Kings: it is the diplomatic way to proceed. One doesn’t go behind the back of a neighbouring king. And it’s possible that the king would be more comfortable dealing with another king than with a prophet from God.)
Naaman passes on a letter from his own king to the King of Israel, an old enemy! It read, “With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy.” When he reads the letter the King gets upset. He smells treachery and fear some sort of trap. We read in verse 7:
‘When the King of Israel read it, he tore his clothes in dismay and said: “This man sends me a leper to heal! Am I God, that I can kill or give life? He is only trying to find an excuse to invade us again.”’
Here is a king who knows his limitations and doesn’t like to pretend he is a god, in an age when many kings claimed to be gods. ‘Am I God, that I can kill and give life?’ he asks. Kings had great power. Kings could sentence a person to death. It was accepted as part of the power of a ruler. But only God could give life to a person condemned to die by contracting an incurable disease.
This King can see himself being set up for something treacherous. How delighted and thrilled he must have been to receive a letter from Elisha, the prophet, with the offer to take on the job himself! Elisha writes: ‘Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel.’ Elisha will save the nation’s pride! Then we read, ‘So Naaman went with his horses and chariots – [he travels in great style. His entourage makes an impressive sight. All the people who see them pass by would be impressed] – and waited outside the door of Elisha’s house.’
This foreign commander, a great hero in his day, waits to see what the great prophet of God can do! And Naaman is ready to pay a fortune to experience it. Something great is about to happen. He will see God at work.
Elisha sends out a mere servant with a message telling Naaman what to do:just a servant and not Elisha the great prophet himself! We read in verse 10:
‘But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of leprosy.”’
It is like arranging an appointment to see the top specialist in Australia, and when one gets there the specialist doesn’t even come out to see you, but sends a mere nurse out to tell you to go and wash in a river seven times. And everyone knows how polluted the rivers are these days. That is how people can get skin diseases!
Naamanis furious. He is deeply disappointed and feels insulted. The Jordan River is only a tiny trickle compared to the mighty rivers back home. If it was just a matter of washing in a clean river to be healed he could have done that at home. Naaman feels he has come all this way for nothing, except to be insulted. He is insulted by Elisha sending out a messenger, when he expected to see God’s awesome power at work in a great prophet.
It can be a disappointment for us that God uses ordinary people like Mums and Dads, or Grandparents to bring the message of God to children. A trained teacher would surely be better?
Or it can be a disappointment for some people to find that their pastor isn’t some great hero of the people. It isn’t really the pastor who is great, but the simple Gospel message he shares, like; Wash in the water of Baptism and be free from the destructive power of sin...Come to the table and take and eat a scrap of bread, have Jesus come and visit you and live in you!Or the simple message of forgiveness: the announcement of God’s free grace. One might prefer to try hard to do something good, rather than just accept the message of God’s free grace as enough to be healed. To be completely healed of sin is simply to wash in the grace of God’s Word of forgiveness, again and again! The cure can’t be bought -it is free.
God’s greatest work is carried on by unimportant people by worldly standards. Some people might prefer to see ‘visions’, or to hear voices speaking directly from heaven. But all we get is someone like me reading from the Scriptures!
‘So Naamanturned and went away in a rage.’ He is so disappointed in God!
Thankfully some officers talk some sense into him. That must have taken courage to speak up and suggest, ‘Sir, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply to go and wash and be cured.’
Verse 14 simply says, ‘So Naaman went down to the Rive Jordan and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his flesh became as healthy as a young child’s, and he was healed.’
Jesus promises us that when one has the faith of a little child, one enters the Kingdom of God as a new person.
It is the ‘little’ people God chooses to act through who are precious in this account: the maid who shares her faith with her owner; the servant of Elisha who brings the message out to Naaman to go and wash in the river; andthe officers who talk sense into their leader to do the simple task required.
There is the simple washing. Seven is the number of perfection for the Hebrews. Seven times means complete healing. When St. Paul has a vision of the seventh heaven he sees the best – perfect love, perfect peace, perfect rest and perfect joy.
When Jesus comes he doesn’t use anything like bullying or any force to turn people to God. He wins us by his complete and perfect love. God’s Word is not spread by kings or celebrities, but in the words of ordinary people like you and me! God’s grace works to heal people of sin, not because of the greatness of the messengers, but because of the simple words like those of a maid.
Finally, Elisha refuses any gift from Naaman. He turns down this extravagant fortune he could have received. It could have set him up for life! (There is a crooked servant of Elisha who tries to Con his way to the fortune – you can read it for yourself in chapter 5: verses 20 to 27. There is a sting in the tail!)
Naaman goes back to his home country and worships the living God there.You and I can go back out into the world assured that God can speak through you and me! We can tell people about God’s love and free grace and the washing of Baptism. Like the maid and the servant, our witness is about God, and not about ourselves.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guardour hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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