06/07/25 St Peter’s Trinity 3
2 Kings 5:1-15 Luke 10:1-9
When I looked at our readings I was struck by how similar the last verses of the two passages were:-
Naaman said, ‘Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel’
Jesus says, ‘Heal the sick and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.
I think Naaman would say, ‘But that’s my story.’
We’re going to follow his story by reading it again in short sections and trying to read between the lines.
Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy
Aram is present day Syria - there was an on/off war going on between them and Israel - they were certainly considered fair game for raiding.
Till his leprosy Naaman has been a very successful career soldier he’s risen to commander of the army. In his own sphere Naaman has been all powerful, his illness means that has to change.
How do we expect the sort of person who has risen to the top of the army in brutal fighting times to behave in the face of a debilitating isolating illness - fury? despair? Turmoil? Prepared to snatch at any straw at? All of those.
Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
We shouldn’t read these verses too easily. Look at what they say about the relationship of the serving girl to the family - she has been taken captive in a raid, taken from her home to a strange place where she has no rights, yet she wants her master to be healed. She is quite possibly the least important person in that household, but Naaman and his wife have created an atmosphere where the girl is listened to, where she feels safe, she is confident enough of her place to speak and know that she will be heard. She is also confident enough in Elisha to go out on a limb. How easily she could have thought ‘serves him right for attacking Israel’ or ‘will the prophet be interested’ but enough care has grown up between them that she is ready to take the risk of speaking to her mistress, Naaman’s wife listens to her, and then Naaman listens to both of them
Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
It may be a clutching at a straw, but it’s the only straw he has so he goes to his king who gives him permission to go into hostile territory to seek a cure - Naaman must seem irreplaceable to the King of Aram because he sends him off with a fortune.
It hasn’t occurred to Naaman and his king that Elisha owed his loyalty to God rather than the king of Israel.
As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”
On the other hand the king of Israel knows full well he has no chance of persuading Elisha to do something he doesn’t want to do, so when Naaman meets him his first reaction is that this a pre invasion stunt - it’s power politics - Naaman’s king is trying to create a diplomatic incident as an excuse for an invasion - how on earth can he arrange a healing?
But he needn’t have worried
When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.
Not that it goes smoothly
So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.
This seems to me to be just rude of Elisha - he has asked Naaman to come to him but when he gets there he doesn’t even get inside the house, let alone see Elisha - is it any surprise that Naaman is in a rage. Humiliating enough to be going to weak neighbour Israel to ask for help anyway - he knew he was clutching at straws but now he’s been sent from pillar to post from shifty king to arrogant prophet - apparently with the express intention of making him feel small - the subtext - ’what a fool I am to be doing this, to be here at all’
The next bit seems to me to be really impressive. This major military figure is in a justifiably foul mood -‘I’m not going to the Jordan, how dare he? who does he think he is? It can’t have been easy for his servants to come up in the middle of his tantrum and tell him he’s over reacting - brave servants - current events show us how badly the powerful can take contradiction, how ready they can be to hit out.
But his servants knew Naaman -and they trust him and care for him enough to come to him mid-rant people say to him ‘what have you got to lose by doing what the prophet said?’ And they were right even angry he was prepared to hear hard truths.
Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
He listened to Elisha, he listened to his servants and was healed.
Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.
The kingdom of God has come close to him.
What can we learn from how God dealt with Naaman?
In the Pilgrim’s Progress the Valley of Humiliation is a place where vanity is stripped away and what survives is what is good and healthy and wholesome. This is the journey Naaman takes
Everything he defined himself by is taken. At the start of the story he has every human trapping of wealth and power. Head of the army, the person on whose arms his king leant on state occasions, great riches, but all mean nothing before his leprosy. The one thing that remains to him, that stands him in good stead throughout the story, are the good relationships he has built up with the people around him, however even that can’t help until the news reaches the smallest most insignificant member of his household - the Israeli girl captured in a raid. All the power he has counts for nothing but she has something to say about hope.
His king sends him the king of Israel laden with riches, but the wealth counts for nothing
He goes to Elijah - he is used to dealing with people of authority but he doesn’t get through the front door. His prestige counts for nothing.
He has to wash in the Jordan when there are much better rivers in Aram - national pride counts for nothing.
Power, wealth, prestige, national pride - all are vanity
Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”
The prophet answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.
“If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord. But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.”
“Go in peace,” Elisha said.
Naaman didn’t realise until the end of the story what God was doing.
We see God speaking through the servant girl, his wife, the kings of Syria and Israel, prophet’s servant, his servants - it’s from them that he hears God’s voice to him pushing and calling him along the path to his healing.
How do we hear God’s voice? - very occasionally directly, sometimes in a sermon, or a reading or a hymn or a prayer or in worship but very often it won’t be on a Sunday or in church, it will be through friends, family, colleagues through the week, talking about the things that make up our ordinary life - the problems we face, the solutions we try to find, How can we live well? How can we shape our life so that it shows the Kingdom of God. What are the values of the people around us? What do we see in our neighbours that is admirable, true, compassionate. And we will all be taken through the Valley of Humiliation.
Naaman had cultivated a habit of listening to those around him which made it possible for God to be heard. That’s a very big thing we can learn from him - our situation, our circumstances, our company will often be the way God speaks to us. It was the people around Naaman that nudged him in the right direction - nudges that Naaman responded too. Of course we have to sift what comes to us -what is good, what is selfish what is wise, what is folly- but if something seems of God we need to take it seriously. If we cultivate the habit of listening and treating others with respect then even when we are at our least receptive we keep open the possibility of being brought up short by a word which may not what we want to hear but points us in the direction of the Kingdom of God.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment