Getting Your Feet Wet

A GOOD SOLDIER, BUT LEPROUS

Our story this morning is one of the most remarkable in the Old Testament, not least because it defies all of our expectations of how God deals with his people and their enemies. And make no mistake, that’s exactly who the central figure in this morning’s story is: Naaman, the commanding general of Syria’s armies, is an enemy of Israel; and though he may not know it, an enemy of God when we first encounter him. He lives at a time when Syria was vying with Assyria for dominance in the Ancient Near East, and so sought to conscript allies to the fight on its side. From the surrounding passages and other records which survive from the time, we know that he must have lived around 840 BC, when King Ben-Hadad II was projecting his authority over the Northern kingdom of Israel, led by King Jehoram.(1) But even though Naaman has yet to encounter the power of the living God, his character in service to his own king is beyond reproach.

He is known for his courage and competency in battle, for his loyalty to his king, and for the loyalty his character inspires in his troops and servants. But there’s one catch. He’s a leper. Now keep in mind, biblical leprosy isn’t necessarily the same as Hansen’s disease, which is what we call leprosy today. The biblical word covers a variety of skin diseases, so we can’t be sure exactly what disease afflicted Naaman, but it must have been severe enough to cause him considerable public discomfort. His king and his servants are aware of his affliction, so it must have covered enough of an area that he could not hide it when in public, and it must have caused him enough pain that he would go to great lengths to see it removed.

Though we don’t know exactly which skin disease Naaman had, we know that at least in Israel it would have carried with it a major social stigma, especially since many of the diseases the term covers were highly

contageous and often fatal. Leprosy often meant a person had to give up their trade, live apart from their communities and families, and were even barred from temple worship. Think about that for a moment. Not only was a person struck with such a horrible disease, but they usually lost everything because of it, even social support and the ability to worship their God.

It must have been heartbreaking to find oneself afflicted with it, and even worse, the disease was often seen as divine judgment for some wrong the person had done. This was true of a lot of diseases, and the belief survived into Jesus’ time as we see in Jn. 9, when Jesus’ disciples encounter a man born blind and ask him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (2) Jesus makes it clear that it was neither, but this belief even continues today. Very often, when we encounter someone who is homeless, or who seems to just get hammered by misfortune, we assume that they must have done something to do it; and many people will even go to great lengths to avoid them, lest their misfortune rub off on them!

A BELOVED LEADER

But Naaman is unique. Despite his debilitating and stigmatizing disease, he has endured courageously, and earned a reputation as a valiant and capable commander and leader. He is so well respected, and maybe even loved, by those who he leads, that a captured Israelite servant girl tells Naaman’s wife about the powerful prophet in Israel who could cure his leprosy. What a testament to his character that the daughter of his enemies would respect him so much that she would desire for him to be healed! If only we could say that of most commander’s and bosses!

This reminds me of a story B.G.’s family told me this week as we prepared for his funeral tomorrow. Don’t worry, I asked them beforehand if I could share this story a day early, and they said yes. But apparently B. was such a beloved boss at the BBQ restaurant he started, even though he could make the tough decisions required of an effective leader and was a capable and efficient restaurateur (and his family assures me his BBQ was absolutely amazing), he still treated his employees with such care and kindness that they even threw him a surprise birthday party when the big day came around! That stands in stark contrast with one of my commanders in the Army who actually ordered us to come to the Colonel’s birthday party. It was a “mandatory fun day” and I’m sure we’ve all experienced some of those at one time or another.