June 28, 2020 – Missio Dei 2 – Naaman
Restorationstaunton

Washed Clean
The Rev. Jay Traylor

2 Kings 5:1-19
Ps 89:1-18
Rom 6:1-11
Luke 4:16-30

Context
Today we are looking at a great story from the Old Testament, as we continue a look at how God uses all different types of people and situations for his mission in his creation. The story of Naaman. Maybe this is the first time you’re hearing it. Maybe it was one of those kind of second-tier sunday school lessons… not quite as popular as Noah’s Ark or David and Goliath, but maybe you’d hear something about it every few years. In any event, this is just one more example of God using his people for part of his mission to the world.

Prayer
Intro
This was in the time after King Solomon when Israel had actually split into two nations – the northern kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah, where David was from, where Bethlehem and Jerusalem were. And the northern kingdom of Israel had years and years of trouble with Syria. Sometimes outright war, sometimes just simmering hostility. This was probably one of those moments where there was kind of a tense peace between them. So Naaman was the commander of the army of Syria, which is a term used for THE head of the military. He was one of the top men in the country, and incredibly valuable to the kingdom. Rich enough that he had a large household and servants. And one of those servants was a young girl they had captured from a raid into the northern kingdom of Israel. And Naaman had a disease. He had leprosy. Now, it’s unlikely he actually had Hanson’s Disease, what we know as leprosy, because he clearly had interaction with the rest of the kingdom and the army, and if he had Hanson’s Disease he would have not been able to do that. In the Bible, the blanket term “leprosy” is used for a wide variety of skin ailments. In any event, it was noticeable, and it may have been debilitating. And God had placed this Israelite servant girl in Naaman’s household.

I want to say something to the kids here today. Let’s talk about this Israelite servant girl. She was captured when she was just a “little girl” and taken away from her home to another country to work as a servant. Other than that, we don’t know much about her, not even her name. But we do know one thing: she had observed that Naaman, the master of the house, had a skin disease– and she felt sorry for him. She says to her mistress, Naaman’s wife, “I wish my lord [Naaman] could be with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” She’s a servant girl living in a foreign land, probably with no family, certainly with no money or power. But her eyes are open to the suffering of another human being, and she wants to help, and she speaks with kindness. And because of her words, this powerful and strong man Naaman decided to go seek help from God. Sometimes kind eyes and compassionate words are all it takes to point someone on a path to the Lord.

And so, because of the kindness of a young girl, our man General Naaman goes to the King and says, “Listen, boss, I’d like to look into this cure.” And the king is all for it, because he can obviously see whatever this illness is that Naaman has, and this guys is important for his kingdom, so he wants him healed. But HOW the king goes about it is telling.

When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The king of Syria, being a politician, looks for a political solution to this problem. He hears about a cure in Israel and assumes, well NATURALLY, the solution has to lie in the halls of power. He assumes the king of Israel will be the vehicle of cure. When you see everything in terms of politics, you look for political solutions. When you see everything in terms of might and power, you look for brute strength solutions. When you see everything in terms of money, you look for economic solutions. Right? When you only have a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. The King of Syria assumed that the King of Israel would be the cure.

The king of Israel is not the cure.

But, the King of Israel freaks out about Naaman’s visit. From HIS point of view, the head of the entire Syrian military has shown up with a letter saying, “Dear King of Israel, please cure the bearer of this letter of his leprosy, WHICH I’M SURE YOU CAN DO, and if you don’t, this will almost certainly be regarded as an insult and act of war. XOXO, King of Syria.”

No wonder the King of Israel freaks out. He tears his garments, because he is legit scared. Syria had spent the better part of a generation just kicking the mess out of the Northern Kingdom of Israel around every couple of years. And even though this seems to have taken place during one of the times of peace, think of it this way – Imagine if the bully that lived up the street sent you a note that said, “Hey, I fully expect you to perform this miracle. I wonder what I’ll do if you don’t manage to pull it off.” So no wonder he was tearing his clothes. He was scared, because he didn’t trust in God. And, he either DIDN’T KNOW, or had FORGOTTEN, that there was a prophet of the Lord in Samaria. Ya know, in God’s economy, the king is supposed to be the servant leader of the people. So this kingly servant had forgotten what the little captive servant girl remembered: that God has a prophet – another kind of servant – in Israel who is empowered to speak the Lord’s truth and do the Lord’s work.

Because that’s who Eleesha is. Eleesha, you may remember from a childhood Sunday School lesson, was the appointed successor to Elijah. Elijah’s name means “Yahweh, he is God,” or “The Lord, he is God.” which is largely what Elijah spends his time proclaiming all through the book of 1 Kings. The focus of 2 Kings shifts to Elisha, whose name means “God saves.”

The LORD, he is God. God saves. That’s who he is, and that’s what he does.

Naaman is in need of saving, here. He gets sent to Elisha’s house, and stands at the door with all his servants and gold and silver, expecting to be healed. And he is not just expecting to be healed, he is expecting a MOMENT. He expects this prophet to emerge and wave his hands around and say holy prayers, and he is ready for his MOMENT OF HEALING. And what he gets is not even a face to face meeting. He gets a message: “Go wash yourself in the river Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored and you shall be clean.”

How many times in life do we seek God, asking him to do something in our lives, and instead of the big moment, what we get is a simple, mundane request for obedience?

But I don’t think Elisha’s purpose here is to take mighty Naaman down a peg. Elisha doesn’t show up in person because he is throwing all the focus to God.

The King of Israel doesn’t heal and give saving life. The LORD, he is God. God saves.

Elisha the prophet doesn’t heal and give saving life. The LORD, he is God. God saves.

And, water itself doesn’t heal and give saving life. Because Naaman is right – the Jordan River is a dump. Have you ever stood on the side of a mighty rushing river, or seen a clear mountain stream, or seen big rolling rapids? The Jordan River is a muddy creek. I’ve stood in it, and I have to tell you, the sight of that thing, apart from the important symbolism it carries, the mere sight of it is not in and of itself very impressive. Naaman is still expecting grand solutions – if this is all you’re gonna tell me to do, why am I here? Don’t we have nice rivers at home? And you want me to go splash around in that mud puddle?!

But eventually Naaman goes and does what Elisha told him to do: he dips himself seven times, and he finds himself cured of his disease. We’re told his skin was made like that of “a little child.” This is the same root word that was used to describe the little servant girl.” Remember her? The young girl who had knowledge of the Lord and the eyes of faith. And now, Naaman, washed in water, baptized and now with the skin of a little child, now HE has knowledge of the Lord and the eyes of faith. He has been, in effect, BORN AGAIN.

The LORD, he is God. God saves.

Newness of life. This is the promise offered by God. This is the promise offered by the God-Man, Jesus. Listen to this from Matthew 18, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”

And so, with new, child-like humility, Naaman returns to Eleesha. Naaman had looked to the king for a cure, but the prophet of God showed him a better way. Naaman went to the prophet thinking that the prophet would provide the cure, but Eleesha sent him away to meet God in the river.

The LORD, he is God. God saves.

That’s a HUGE revelation for Naaman. He’s a Syrian. His whole life has been a transactional relationship with multiple gods. Want good fortune in battle? Go sacrifice to the war god. Want rain? Go sacrifice to the rain god. One of his required duties was to assist the king as he was going to worship the god Rimmon, the god of rain and storms. The king would lean on Naaman’s arm, and bow to the idol of Rimmon, forcing Naaman himself to bow. And now Naaman’s heart is so changed, so thoroughly convinced that “there is no God in all the earth but in Israel,” that he seeks forgiveness for offering this physical assistance to the elderly Syrian king.

But Naaman is changed. 5 times in verses 15-18, when he is talking to Eleesha, he refers to himself as “your servant.” Quite a change from earlier when he was ranting and raving against this two-bit prophet in the back country of Samaria and his little dirt creek of a river. He had been cleansed and made whole on the outside, and he had been transformed on the inside as well. His outward appearance had been born again, and his heart and mind had changed from a pagan idol worshipper into a servant of the one true God.

So what are we supposed to do with Verse 18. Naaman has just asked for 2 wagonfulls of soil from Israel, so that he can stand on it in his home and pray to God, so that he can feel more connected to this God who he now knows. But then, in verse 18: In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.” 19 And then Eleesha said to Naaman, “Go in peace.”

It almost sounds like Naaman’s asking for permission to mess up, or asking God to take something that looks like a sin, worshipping an idol, and for God to actually look at it as worship of him. And it would seem that this is kind of at odds with how we are supposed to live as Chriristians. A lot of the early apostles and disciples lost their lives because they wouldn’t bow the knee to anyone but God. Peter, John, and Paul were thrown in jail over and over because they would not pretend that any other God was God, and they wouldn’t stop talking about it either. Even today, people are killed every day because they won’t say the Shahadah. In Islam, the Shahadah is one of the central statements of faith, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.” If you say this, out loud, in front of witnesses 3 times, with full sincerity, you’re a Muslim, acording to Muslims.” But every day, Christians are killed because they will not bend the knee to Allah. Aren’t we supposed to do that? Shouldn’t Naaman have marched back to Syria and said, “I can’t help you walk into the temple of that false God anymore, king, because I might end up bowing to him too.”

Well, what I see here isn’t someone who’s looking to cut a deal with God, I see someone who realizes that he is a sinner and that he will sin again. Picture the old king of Syria, leaning on Naaman’s arm in the temple. As he’s leaning on Naaman’s arm and then bows down, he might kind of pull Naaman down too. But, while he’s leaning on that arm, what’s he going to think? Naaman used to CLEARLY be sick. It was leprosy (again, probably not REALLY leprosy), so it was visible and the king would have known about it. But now, Naaman’s arm is strong and his skin is smooth. Rimmon didn’t do that. That happened when Naaman when to Israel to visit that prophet of that weird forgeign god Yahweh. I think the fact that Naaman could continue his service of his king, even though eh might occasionally get yanked down as he supported the king, I see this as a kind of witness.

And Eleesha doesn’t say, “God won’t mind if you do that.” He doesn’t say, “I give you permission to fake this idol worship.” He said, “Go in peace.” “Be at peace.” “Lek le-SHAL-om.” “Find rest.” Trust God, because the Lord, he is God, and God saves. This clearly is a burden to Naaman, so already we can see a change of heart. This clearly is an issue for Naaman, so already we can see a desire to change his outward behaviors to reflect his new inner life with God.

And this could be viewed as a lesson for Israel, too. Naaman was wrestling with this practice he knew was probably sinful, but that was a heck of a lot better than Israel was doing right then. Naaman had grown up in another land. He didn’t grow up in the covenant family of God, with the knowledge of GOd given by scripture, with the gift of God of the very land itself, that land that Naaman now knew was so valuable that he wanted to take some of it back with him. Naaman grew up far from God, and yet he now had a stronger and more obedient faith than the Isarelites did. Naaman wanted to turn away from his false Gods, Israel couldn’t wait to fun TOWARD them. That’s what Jesus said—and it almost got him killed. ‘And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian’ (Luke 4:27). This threw the good folks in the Nazareth synagogue into a rage. They weren’t upset because Jesus said God showed mercy to a gentile; they were upset because Jesus said that God cleansed Naaman while bypassing Israel. Israelite lepers stayed lepers; God cleansed a pagan one. God turned away from Israel when he extended grace to Naaman.

And so as we turn back to this story we realize that we are all Naaman, looking to someone to cure us. And, we can all be the servant girl; we look around us at those in our midst, the people who we see everyday, and we see their pain and we point them to salvation through the God we know. That’s the posture of the believer – “Sir, I know of a God who heals and saves.” Sometimes kind eyes and compassionate words are all it takes to point someone on a path to the Lord.

It’s like I said about the Syrians before – if you’re confronted with a problem and you want to help, or you’re confronted with something evil and you want to stamp it out – well, if you look at the world in terms of politics, you look for political solutions. If you look at the world in terms of power dynamics and brute strength, you look for brute strength solutions. if you look at the world in terms of money, you look for economic solutions.

But if you look at the world in terms of the Gospel, you look for Gospel solutions. You look for that dangerous, almost scandalous grace that reaches out to the leperous foreigner who’s probably been hostile to our people at various points. You look for that radical grace that says, “I know you will sin again. I know it clearly grieves you. Go in peace.” You look for that extraordinary grace that shows up in the ordinary everyday things of life, a grace that says, “Nothing flashy. No incantations or magic spells. Just go and wash yourself in that muddy little creek we’ve got over there. Be cleaned, be born again. Be changed.” That’s the grace that we get from this God who saves.

Prayer