2 Kings 5:1-14

BAMF

June 28, 2009

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. ² Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. ³ She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” ⁴ So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. ⁵ And the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. ⁶ He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” ⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.” ⁸ But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”

⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” ¹¹ But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! ¹² Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” ¹⁴ So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. (NRSV)

By any of the usual yardsticks, Naaman was a wildly successful person. For starters, he commanded the entire Aramite army on behalf of the king of Aram. Let’s put this in modern language. Aram is the Bible’s word for Syria, and then as now, the capital was the city of Damascus. So Naaman was the Army Chief of Staff, a five star general who controlled Syria’s vast and powerful military. When he gave an order, everybody in the armed forces from four star generals down to lowly privates obeyed him without question. When he expressed a wish, everybody in civilian life from palace functionaries down to peasant farmers trembled at what might happen if General Naaman did not get what he wanted. The only person General Naaman took orders from was the king himself.

General Naaman took great delight in serving the king of Syria, because the king of Syria took great delight in General Naaman. The king of Syria held General Naaman in such high regard because General Naaman had won battle after battle for the king. Under General Naaman, the Syrian army defeated the Philistines to the west, held off the Assyrians to the north and east, and most importantly, had in raid after raid punished their arch-enemies to the south, the Israelites. The king of Syria so delighted in General Naaman that he showered him with presents. General Naaman was powerful, respectable, and rich.

Except for one thing: there was a but in General Naaman’s life. Everybody has a but somewhere. No matter how powerful we are, there’s a but somewhere. No matter how important we are, there’s a but somewhere. No matter how famous we are, there’s a but somewhere. No matter how successful or intelligent or wealthy we are, there’s a but somewhere. Yes, even no matter how holy we are, there’s a but somewhere. The but could be a thorn in our flesh, a stain on our character, a flaw in our personality, or a sin in our soul.

It so happened that General Naaman’s but was leprosy, one of the most dreaded cluster of diseases in the ancient world. Because ancient near Easterners were a mixture of Asiatic and African peoples, they were accustomed to beautiful skin tones ranging from olive to black. They feared leprosy because it turned their skin white—ugh! So General Naaman’s but was painfully obvious to anyone who cared—or dared—to look. No way could he hide it. General Naaman’s but stared back at him every morning from the mirror. Every morning he wondered if this would be the day when his staff officers would finally get so grossed out by his leprosy that they would sneer at his orders. Every morning he wondered if this would be the day when the king, at whose pleasure he served, would finally dismiss him in disgrace because his whiteness was so disgusting. I tell you, General Naaman would do anything to get rid of his leprosy.

General Naaman did not know it, but God was blessing him. The text specifically says that God is the one who had given all those military victories to the general. And the king rewarded General Naaman so richly only because he was militarily successful. So General Naaman owed everything to God—but I doubt he knew it or paid any attention to this God called Yahweh. To a high and mighty Syrian like General Naaman, Yahweh was the God of Israel, not of Syria; and Israel was a notoriously weak country. Why should General Naaman pay any attention to a two-bit God of a two-bit country? This kind of thing goes on today too. Now as then, God quietly blesses people even when they don’t see it or acknowledge it. It may even be that God is blessing you in ways you don’t see.

One of the ways God was blessing Naaman was through a member of his own household. During one of his skirmishes with Israel, Naaman had taken a young Israelite girl as a hostage. This young Israelite girl, maybe only 8 or 10 or 12, now helped Naaman’s wife around the house. Naaman didn’t realize it right away, but the answer to the but that blemished him was right there in his own house. The answer to the but that blemishes us might be right in own house. Maybe it’s a piece of information or an insight from someone we live with: a spouse, a child, a friend. Maybe the answer is in a book already on our shelves or a magazine already in our mailbox. Maybe the answer lies in a prayer whispered within the walls of our own house. If so, then all we need to do to find the answer to our but, is keep our eyes and ears open.

Naaman kept his ears open. One day this Israelite servant girl told her mistress that in her home country there was a prophet named Elisha who could probably cure Naaman of his leprosy. When Naaman heard it, he got ready to go down to Israel, first getting permission from his king, and second assembling a huge gift for this prophet Elisha.

I said before that Naaman was rich. Just how rich? Ten talents of silver rich, plus 6,000 shekels of gold and 10 fine garments rich. Let’s do the math. A talent of silver weighed about 75 pounds, so 10 talents make 750 pounds of silver. On April 22 when I prepared this sermon, silver bullion was selling on the international markets for $12.27 per ounce. That totals $147,240 of silver. A shekel of gold weighed between .3 and .62 ounces; we’ll take the higher figure of .62. On April 22 gold bullion was selling for $889 per ounce, resulting in $3,307,080 of gold. The price of high quality men’s suits, such as a five star general might give, I will conservatively price at $1,000 each, which totals $10,000. The grand total worth of the presents Naaman prepares for Elisha in return for healing him of his leprosy is $3,464,320! Never mind that Elisha refuses to take a penny of it. This man Naaman really wanted to get rid of his but.

Eventually Naaman, and his chariots, horses, and presents, process to Elisha’s house. When Naaman arrives, Elisha stays put inside the house and sends a message out of the house to Naaman. The message? “Go wash in the Jordan seven times.”

This sends Naaman into a raging fit. Elisha doesn’t have the decency to come out and greet me personally! Who does this Israelite prophet think he is anyway, a king, somebody superior to me, number two man in the whole nation of Syria? Send out a message to me indeed! Here I am, standing outside his hovel with $3.4 million dollars, and that fool of a prophet won’t come out and shake my hand?

And then he wants me to go wash myself in that filthy Jordan River? I passed two perfectly good Syrian rivers on the way down here, and now he wants me to go wash in that . . . that crappy little creek? That’s all? That’s it? He could have at least come out here and spoken some magic words, mixed up a magic potion, and waved a magic wand over me! “Just go wash down in the Jordan river!” Haaaagh!

And Naaman stomped away fit to bust.

It appears that friend Naaman has a few other buts besides leprosy. The but of anger, quite obviously. The but of haughtiness, quite probably. The but of stubbornness, quite possibly. It appears that Naaman needs spiritual healing as well as physical healing. The man has buts running right through his life and coming out the other side.

In times like this we need people around us who can bring us back to our senses. Naaman had a few servants along on this trip who knew him inside and out, thank you very much, after living with him for many a year. A few of them saunter up to Naaman, who stands on a hill looking north to Syria. “Uh sir,” they say in soft voices, “if Elisha had told you to do something difficult, like capture ten giants with your bare hands, or figure out how to fly through the air like a bird, wouldn’t you have done it willingly? So why won’t you do something as easy as wash in the creek?”

They were right, and of course Naaman knew it. You see, Naaman had to learn that healing is not that hard. You don’t have to catch giants or figure out how to duplicate the flight of birds. Just go wash up. Turn yourself over to God and see what God will do to you, for you, in you, and with you.

So Naaman, struggling to control his anger and disgust, walks over to the Jordan and dips himself into the river. Seven times Naaman deigns to dip: down and up, down and up, down and up, down and up, down and up, down and up, and down and up. Why so many times? The story doesn’t say. Maybe Naaman needed more than one kind of healing. Maybe leprosy wasn’t his only problem. Maybe leprosy wasn’t his only but. Maybe he needed healing from anger, healing from doubt, healing from disobedience, healing from disbelief, healing from stubbornness, healing from pride, and yes, healing from the disease of leprosy.

Deliverance from whatever dogs us usually does not happen on the first dip. Maybe God invites us, like Naaman, to come to the water of life again and again, to dip ourselves, to drink ourselves full of God over and over again. Once won’t do it. Leprosies of the soul cling to us like rust stains to a cotton shirt. Only repeated washings with God’s solvent get them out. Only repeated drinks with God’s water flush them out.

Notice I have been using the word “dip,” as in “Naaman dipped himself in the Jordan.” I am not making that word up. Most translations say “dip” or “immerse” or something like that. Read the text: Elisha specifically tells Naaman to wash in the river; but Naaman doesn’t do it! He does not follow orders. Instead of washing himself, he just dips himself. He, a man so used to having other people obey his orders to the letter, does not follow the orders he himself receives! I tell you, this man is cantankerous. He is some piece of work.

So God responds to Naaman with a divine but. Not the human but of bane, but the divine but of blessing. “These many long years, Naaman, you knew nothing about me and paid no attention to me; but I have been blessing you right along. You think you have made yourself; but in truth I have made you. You think you’ve been successful because you’ve worked hard; but I gave you that success. You think you’re talented; but I gave you that talent. You don’t even belong to the in-group of Israel; but I happen to love you also. And most especially, Mr. big-shot General Naaman, you who demand the strictest discipline from the people under your command: you did not follow Elisha’s directions as you were supposed to; you did not do what you expect others to do; but I, your Commander and Lord and God, will heal you anyway. You came down into the river, to dip over and again. So I honor your coming! I heal you!”

And so it was that God’s holy buts healed all of Naaman’s buts. When Naaman  came up out of that river, his outside and his inside were as fresh and clean as rinsed parsley.

If the God of the universe could heal Naaman’s buts so easily, so graciously, what might God do with your buts? Why not turn yourself over to God? Go down into your Jordan River, and find out what God will do to you, for you, in you, and with you.