Bible Friends: Naaman

a sermon on 2 Kings 5.1-19
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama


Jesus said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” He says this at the end of Matthew’s gospel. He is about to return to the Father. His disciples are about to begin the mission he has given them. His command is clear: The world is mine, so go confidently throughout it and proclaim the Good News. I will be with you. … One God. One Lord. The whole world in his hands.

Return with me now to an earlier time, back to the days of the kings of Israel and Judah, more than 800 years before Christ. Last week I was preaching on that passage in the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus claims to fulfill the law and the prophets. I said that Christ is the substance of the Old Testament. In the law and prophets we see the shadow. Jesus is the reality that casts the shadow. Today’s scripture reading is an example of what I mean. This is one of a handful of Old Testament passages that show God working in the life of someone outside Israel—someone who is not a member of God’s people. The prophet Elijah helped a Phoenician widow and her son survive a drought. Ruth left her homeland in Moab because she loved her mother-in-law Naomi. The people of Nineveh responded to the preaching of Jonah. The stories are there, but there are not many of them. There is nothing like the Great Commission. Instead, what we find is a gradual awakening. God’s people come to realize that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not one God among many. Every nation back then had its own god or gods. We will see in Naaman’s request for Israelite soil the popular notion that each god had a certain jurisdiction. Monotheism is the belief in only one God. There is also something called henotheism—the worship of only one god, despite the existence of others. God’s people moved out of henotheism—“you have your god, and I have mine”—into monotheism. They came to realize that God is One, and he is Lord over all creation. This means he is the God of every nation. And, he has the whole world in his hands.

Ancient Israel, like the church today, had a strong belief in election. Election, in theology, doesn’t mean voting people in and out of office; it means God voting people into his family. They were God’s people. God had chosen them. God loved them. They always knew this. What they learned over time was: God’s love is big enough for the whole world, and God had chosen them for a purpose. So what I want you to do is think of the story of Naaman as a hint of something that explodes into full expression in the Great Commission.

Today is World Communion Sunday, and we celebrate the fulfillment thus far of the Great Commission and the way the Good News about Jesus has swept the earth, uniting us believers with others all over the globe. We are one in Christ. You and I are here today as recipients of God’s grace because God is the God of the whole world and his love is big enough to include you and me. It was big enough to reach a Syrian general during the days of Elisha. It is big enough to reach anyone. Let’s explore some of the interesting features of today’s reading.

If you were an Israelite living during the time of Elisha, you would probably believe God hated Naaman. After all, Naaman commanded the armies of the king of Syria. I know it is difficult to imagine Israel and Syria being enemies, but try. As an important leader among the enemies of God’s people, Naaman was an enemy of God. Plus, he was a godless heathen idol worshipper, and everybody knows God hates that. If you knew he had leprosy, you would probably believe God had given him what he deserved. We should be surprised, then, when we find verse 1 attributing Naaman’s military success against Israel as the work of God.

The idea seems to be: God has the whole world in his hands, and some things that seem terrible to us actually serve God’s purpose. I would not say that every bad thing that happens is God’s will, but I do believe God is powerful enough to bend everything to serve his purpose. And, God often does things we would never have imagined. Unknown to anybody, especially Naaman, God was already working in his life.

So here is a great enemy of God, yet God works in his life with a plan and a purpose. He no doubt despised his leprosy—which, by the way, could have been any number of skin diseases. This word in scripture is not precise. Yet it was his leprosy that ultimately led him to the truth.

Enter the hero of the story, a young girl from Israel. She had been captured during war, and now she served Naaman’s wife. Put yourself in her place and ask: If I had been taken from my home and family, and enslaved … and the man responsible developed a bad case of leprosy … what would I do? (a) Secretly rejoice because he deserved it. Or, (b) become and evangelist, and try to help. The girl knows there is a prophet in Samaria. What she assumes is: he will be willing to help an enemy. She also thereby assumes that God would be willing to help Naaman.

This story has more in common with the Sermon on the Mount than you would suspect. Jesus said: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Because this young Israelite girl lived that way, even 800 yeas before Jesus said it, God used her to reach someone. My point is: God has the whole world in his hands, and we do not have the authority to limit God’s jurisdiction by placing some people outside his love and care. Naaman had a lot to learn. No one comes to Jesus already clean and whole. That is why he makes us a new creation. God changes lives. God’s life-changing power, though, is the very reason we cannot write anyone off. The servant girl knew God was able; she also believed God was willing.

World Communion Sunday reminds us of our solidarity with Christians everywhere, not just those who suffer persecution, but I like to emphasize those who suffer. They are our brothers and our sisters, and many are imprisoned, tortured, and killed for nothing else than sharing our faith in Jesus Christ. This servant girl in the Naaman story reminds me of them. During the pastoral prayer, we will pray for persecuted Christians, several by name. I’ll share the story of just one with you: Rebekka Zakaria is a Sunday school teacher in Indonesia. She and two other women were sentenced to three years in prison. Their crime? Some Muslim children asked to be included in some programs and activities these women had put together for Christian children. The parents of the Muslim children gave their permission. When Muslim leaders found out about it, they accused the women of trying to convert the children to Christianity. That is against the law, and they were convicted. [Taken from an article on the Institute on Religion and Democracy website: www.ird.org.] We had a Muslim child in our preschool last year, and every Wednesday I tell Bible stories and teach prayer in chapel. If we were in Indonesia, I guess I would be in prison. Can you imagine that? “What are you in for?” “Telling Bible stories to little kids.”

If you are that Sunday school teacher in Indonesia, or that Israelite slave girl in Aram, how do you maintain your faith that the whole world is in God’s hands? How do you overcome your hatred and bitterness toward your captors, so that you demonstrate the love of Jesus? How do you live with joy in such circumstances? I honestly do not know. My best guess would be—and it is a very good guess, if I do say so myself: The grace of Christ is sufficient. His Holy Spirit must work in people like that in a powerful way. And he does. Because these people bring glory to God. Look what happens when the slave girl tells her mistress, “There is a prophet in Israel who can help your husband.” And, you can be absolutely certain that the witness of persecuted Christians is not in vain. Nowhere in history have Christians been persecuted as they were in China during the last century. Nowhere in history has the church grown so explosively.

Of course, we are not in that situation. Thank God. But here is where we come into it. If they can do it, so can we. If that Israelite girl and that Sunday school teacher in Indonesia can go on believing God has the whole world in his hands, then we can too. If persecuted Christians feel joy in their hearts because they know nothing can separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus their Lord, then we can too. And if they can overcome their fear, anger, and bitterness, then we can too. If the love and power of Jesus can shine through them, then why not us? All we need is faith in God and a little humility.

Now, you thought this was a sermon about Naaman, the foreigner who came to believe in God; and it is. Naaman learned what most of us need to learn: faith and humility.

The incident with the King of Israel proves the Bible has a sense of humor. The little world he has built for himself is so small, he cannot see anything but a plot. Elisha steps in to rescue him and invites Naaman for a visit. Naaman’s arrival is designed to impress. His is, after all, a very important person. He doesn’t want to hear, “Who are you to ask a favor of me?” He arrives with horses and chariots, a military escort, and what everyone needs when they require medical care, lots of cash. Naaman is no charity case.

Now most preachers, when a wealthy person shows up looking to endow something, rush out with a friendly smile and welcome. Not Elisha. He sends a message: Go wash in the Jordan seven times. Naaman’s ego balks. “This guy won’t even meet with me, and he tells me to go wash in that muddy little creek? I could do better than that back home!” Naaman is arrogant. He is accustomed to being able to control and order his world. He is used to being in charge. He wants a simple transaction: His gold for healing and, of course, good customer service. But God doesn’t want his gold, and neither does the prophet. And Naaman is neither a customer nor is he always right. He is, if he can realize it, a beggar—as we all are before God. Nothing but grace can help him, and although he may not want it at first, grace is what he will get.

You know how the story ends. He washes in the Jordan after all and is healed. He converts on the spot. His request to be forgiven when his job requires him to worship in a pagan temple raises so many intriguing questions, but we do not have time for them now. Naaman, however, is a changed man. Not only is his skin healthy, so is his soul. He knows now that there is no God but the Lord. He knows there is a prophet in Israel. Just as importantly, he has learned humility.

That is how it works. When you receive God’s grace, you are changed. Because it is God’s grace, you become a person of faith. God has done something in your life, and you can no more deny it than deny who you are. Your faith is real and personal and solid. Because it is God’s grace—and you were not worthy of it in any sense—you become a person of humility. The world no longer revolves around you; but that is OK, because God is in heaven, and he’s got the whole world in his hands. You are ready for the wonderful but surprising things he is going to do in people’s lives, even some very evil people’s lives. You are not afraid when the mountains shake in the heart of the sea and the waters roar and foam. Like the Israelite girl and the Indonesian Sunday school teacher, you know God’s love and God’s power. You are willing to trust, confident that God will ultimately bend all things to his glory and for your salvation. Jesus died for you. The Father raised him from the dead. He lives and reigns. He’s got the whole world in his hands. Amen.

rev_mauldin@yahoo.com
October 1, 2006