Sermon: A LEPER WHO HAPPENED TO BE A GREAT MAN
First preached: August 18, 2021
The Old Testament story of Naaman is one of my favorites. A primary reason for that is Naaman’s story was the basis of one of the first sermons I ever preached. I preached that sermon in 1977. I hadn’t even graduated from seminary. I was serving as a summer intern at First United Methodist Church in Bismarck (now known as Legacy United Methodist Church) and must have been filling in for the pastor or maybe he wanted to give me some practice preaching. I have a pdf copy of that sermon. It was type written and much longer than this later version. But laying that all aside, it is still a great story with a lot of nuance and all kinds of lessons to be taught. For instance, one of the lessons that I really don’t touch on in this sermon has to do with the slave girl. It is very possible that Naaman had led the army that actually kidnapped this young girl. For Naaman, she was just property to be had … one of the items taken as part of the spoils of war. This young girl had every reason to begrudge Naaman. She could have thought to herself that this man who had taken her from her family deserved to be stricken with his disease. She could have reveled in his pain, his embarrassment and his impending death. Instead, somehow she was able to lay any of that aside and do what she could do so her master could be healed. Amazing grace … portraying the image of Yahweh.
A couple of weeks ago I helped lead a Lay Preaching Academy, [If you want to know more about it click on the underlined words] The purpose of the academy was to train lay persons (persons in the pew who are not clergy) in preaching and worship planning. These are persons who feel called by God to be more involved in the ministry of the church, specifically to fill in when pastors are needing to be gone and need a fill-in or to help lead a congregation which doesn’t have an appointed pastor. One of the points we made to the participants as they learned how to put together is a sermon was they needed to start their sermon with a “grab their attention” opening. It is obvious as you look at this sermon that I did not do that.
Oh well. This sermon might have an incredibly boring opening but it does introduce a great story.
Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-15 (NRSVue)
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 a skin disease. 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. She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his skin disease.” So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 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. 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 skin disease.” 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 skin disease? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.” 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.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. 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.” 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 skin disease! 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. 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’?” 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. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company; he came and stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel; please accept a present from your servant.”
This is the account of Naaman. Naaman only appears in one chapter of the Bible but he has a lot to teach us. He was an astounding man. He was a great commander-in-chief of the Syrian Army. He led his troops to many victories; he was a hero in the eyes of the people. Naaman had everything going for him. However, there was one problem. The scripture says, "So he was a great hero - but - he was a leper." Despite Naaman's greatness he had been stricken with probably the most loathsome of diseases of that day. Leprosy was incurable. It would only get worse; it was painful and brought a slow and agonizing death. Worst of all it was a disease of the flesh. He would not be able to cover it up for long. Soon everyone would see the evidence. Naaman's glory would be tainted; his military career would soon end; he would not have the chance to die in the glory of battle, or as a retired military commander. Rather Naaman would die the ugly death of a leper.
"He was a great hero - but - he was a leper." That small word - but - changes everything. In fact this small word is the most significant word of the whole story.
We can see Naaman in one of two ways. We can see him as a great commander or we can see him as a leper. The Syrian King and Naaman's wife saw him as a great commander -- God saw a leper. When God looked at Naaman He didn't see his great accomplishments, he saw his need. To his close friends Naaman was a great man who happened to be a leper; to God, Naaman was a leper who happened to be a great man. The emphasis is different. To understand this distinction is to see how God views us and how we are to view others.
We humans, in general, judge our fellow humans by outward appearance. We look at a person and judge him or her by their looks, personality, income and accomplishments. We catergorize people as better or worse based on looks and talents. We pick favorites. We choose for our friends and those we respect, those individuals who best fit our style. We overlook the sins, faults and needs of our favorites. Look at us - we are an impressive looking group of people. It would be easy to look past our needs and faults and concentrate on all of our good stuff.
God looks at men and women differently. He judges by inward appearances. He doesn't look at such things as beauty or talent. He looks at the heart. God makes no distinction between individuals -- He sees everyone of us the same -- sinners in the need of grace. We are all on equal standing and He responds to us on that basis. He didn't respond to Naaman because Naaman was such a great man; He responded to Naaman because he was a leper. Our Heavenly Father doesn't respond to us because of who we are or how much we deserve it. He responds to us because we are sinners and we need help.
Even though Naaman had been humbly struck down with leprosy we find in this story that his needs were even deeper. He had something to learn. We find that Naaman's real problem wasn't leprosy. It was his pride. Naaman thought a lot of himself. He might have had leprosy but he was still the great, heroic, victorious captain of the Syrian Army. Again, God saw beyond this and we find Him not only going after the leprosy but also after Naaman's ego. Twice in this story Naaman is humiliated. First he goes to the house of Elisha to be healed. When he gets there he expects the red carpet treatment. But there was nothing. Elisha, himself, didn't even bother to go to the door. Instead he sent a messenger out to Naaman to give him instructions. Secondly, to top things off, Elisha told him in order to be healed he was to wash himself seven times in the Jordan river.
That was the last straw. It was bad enough that Elisha didn't honor him but but now he was being asked to do something as dumb and degrading as washing himself in the Jordan River. He had been expecting the crowds to be gathered all around to watch the miracle healing. He thought Elisha would come out and put on a big show, waving a magic wand, shouting out to his God for healing. What a disappointment to realize no crowds and no big act. Especially the cruddy, little Jordan River. He could just as well wash in the beautiful clear streams at home.
Naaman's pride had been insulted and he turned from Elisha's house in a rage.
Naaman didn't realize there was a lesson to learn from God before his healing could take place. Naaman's pride had to be broken. He hadn't yet realized his real need. He needed to know that God, through Elisha, was going to respond to him not because of his position but because of his disease. With the poor welcome at Elisha's and the command to wash in the Jordan, Naaman would have nothing to brag about to his people when he got home. He would have to acknowledge that he was healed only through what God had done. It would have nothing to do with his own merits.
Many times it is easier for us to realize the other guy is a sinner but it is more difficult to see that we are sinners. We expect special treatment by God -- "don't be too hard on me God. I'm not such a bad guy." We're just like Naaman, expecting God to do special favors to us because of who we are.
The means by which Naaman was to be healed wasn't exactly tasteful. To think of a man with open sores on his body being asked to wash himself in a not so clean river. To Naaman it was like one of us being told to treat our skin disease by bathing in the Red River of the north, or worse yet, a stock pond. How could healing come through anything so repulsive and foolish? Your and my salvation, our healing, can only come through what Jesus did for us on the cross. The scriptures tell us this; Jesus and the early church made this very clear. We might be tempted to say, "we don't want to hear about some bloody man on a bloody wooden cross. We are tired of hearing people say they have been cleansed by his blood. All that blood -- it's too repulsive. How could healing and salvation come through that?" Sounds like Naaman, doesn't it?
Paul acknowledged this attitude right from the beginning. We find him saying in I Corinthians 1:18, "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God." We are not saved by what we can do but by believing in what He has done.
Fortunately for Naaman he had some wise friends who recognized that his pride had been hurt. They talked him into going down to the river. "Now look, master, we know that if Elisha had asked you to do something hard or flashy you would have done it. But look how easy he is going to let you off. You could at least try it." So off went Naaman to the Jordan River. He dunked himself in the river one time, two times, three times. He kept checking to see if he was getting better with each dunk. But no change. By the fifth and sixth time he was getting worried. He felt like a fool. This had only been a wild goose chase. But as he came out of the water the seventh time he knew he had been healed. The leprosy which had haunted him was completely gone. His skin was as soft and firm as a little baby's. He rushed to Elisha to tell him the good news. The scripture says, "Naaman stood humbly before Elisha and said, 'Now I know at last there is no God in all the world besides the God of Israel.'" Naaman had been healed. His leprosy was healed and more importantly, his pride had been healed.
Who was responsible for all of this? The king of Syria had been unable to do anything for Naaman. Naaman's wife loved him but she was helpless. The King of Israel, who should have been able to do something, just about fell over dead when Naaman asked for healing. We do know that Elisha gave the command and God furnished the healing power, but who took the initiative? As we read the story we find that the responsible party was a little slave girl who worked for Mrs. Naaman. She suggested the healing in the first place. Although she was the one who at face value wold have the least to offer, she turned out to be the one who had the most to offer. Why, because she knew God and she knew what God was capable of doing.
Once again we see that position and accomplishment is not what is important. We need to see people, life, situations through God's eyes.
Here are the three lessons of Naaman:
1. We need to see ourselves and others, not as great men and women who happen to be sinners, but as sinners in need who happen to be great.
2. We need to know our salvation does not come through flashy means based on our own merits but rather through accepting the foolishness of the cross.
3. It is not important who we are but who we know.