We’re told that “Cleanliness is next to Godliness;” a bit of an overstatement, but it got generations of kids to wash their hands before dinner. By the way, this saying is from John Wesley, not the Bible.
“Wash me and I will be whiter than snow,” king David prayed (Ps 51:7). Spiritual cleanliness is a form of Godliness, certainly, but it isn’t self-generated. God enables us to “clean up our act.” Isaiah reminds us that “our righteousness is like filthy rags” (64:6). Self-effort won’t work. We’ll end up like Lady MacBeth, hopelessly trying to wash her blood-stained hands. We can’t save ourselves.
This brings us to Naaman, commander of the Syrian army, a renowned man of valor who was stricken with leprosy. There were no dermatology clinics in his day. His Israeli servant girl presents a solution. How ironic; she is a victim of Naaman’s military campaigns yet has compassion on him; “the captive saves the commander” (A.H. Konkel). “God uses the small things of the world to confound the wise; the weak to confound the mighty,” I Cor 1:27. We never learn her name. She tells Naaman’s wife that he should seek out a prophet of the Most-High God in Israel. So, the general goes through official channels: his king contacts Israel’s king, offering gifts for healing and to foster diplomatic relations.
Israel’s king, however, is threatened by this request. He is unable to take action. He feels put on the spot. He thinks he is expected to heal Naaman. The servant girl was clear that the source of healing would be a prophet. Naaman is merely asking for a referral. But the king regards Naaman’s request as an ultimatum that causes political tension. The king worries--how will he manage to deal with this, and what will be the consequences if (more likely when) he fails? He has no idea what to do. He cries out, “Am I God?” He suspects that Syria may be looking for an excuse to cause some trouble. Naaman’s leprosy was fast becoming an international incident!
Apparently, the king of Aram had more faith in Israel’s God than did Israel’s king. Elisha the prophet hears of this, and is happy to take care of the matter. There’s no cause for alarm. He is also glad to use the occasion to remind his king of the authority of God’s prophets. The king can’t heal Naaman, but God can. However, Elisha doesn’t respond as Naaman expected. He doesn’t greet Naaman personally; an inhospitable affront to such an important individual. Naaman is insulted by this breach of protocol. You can imagine him snaping, “Do you know who I am?” He was expecting an audience with a prophet, not some subordinate with a message.
I don’t think Elisha refused to meet personally with Naaman because he was a Gentile. Elisha knew Naaman was afflicted with matters far worse than leprosy--pride and unbelief. He sends a curt response to the general, verse 10: “Go and wash in the Jordan river seven times, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be clean.”
Naaman is stunned. That’s it? He was looking for something grand, something worthy of his status (and self-importance). Elisha’s treatment didn’t sound very impressive. “Naaman was a hero and expected a heroic cure” (LASB). And that’s the problem. Naaman hoped to earn his cure. This was a humbling solution, and just what this self-made man needed. Elisha knew that Naaman would balk at this. His unexpected directive was a test to see if Naaman would be humble enough to do it.
If we’re honest, we are at times disillusioned with how God responds to our prayers, not what we would expect. But with Naaman--and with us--God is teaching us to trust. By praying we are acknowledging that we don’t have all the answers. We are admitting we need what only God can give. Prayer is an act of humility.
Naaman is outraged, and his servants try to reason with him, verse 13: “If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it?” Actually, he would have preferred that. Before being cured of his leprosy, Naaman had to be cured of his arrogance. Self-confidence is weakness. Pride is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, perhaps the deadliest. Woe to any people who elevate pride to a virtue.
Naaman is healed, inside and out, a re-birth. This is one of the great Gentile conversions in the Bible, to include a confession of faith, verse 15: “Now I know there is no God in all the world except in Israel.” Naaman may well have tried praying to the pagan deities of Syria to no avail. He now recognizes that Israel’s God is the true Lord of all.
This Syrian General never knew how fortunate he was. Jesus noted in Luke 4:27, “Many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.” We see here the wideness of God’s mercy. God’s Good News is for the whole world; and free! Naaman was prepared to pay his medical bill, but found out that’s not how prophets work.
How about us? Are we taken with our achievements? In a New Yorker magazine cartoon a business executive says “I want to be so successful that it ruins my life.” Success can do just that. In the Army, soldiers receive annual performance reviews, which use a lot of superlatives and are generally inflated. Soldiers are in trouble if they begin to believe these evaluations. Rank and recognition can go to one’s head. A lot of people get to the top of the ladder of success only to find they’re on the wrong ladder. They’re successful at things that don’t matter…and proud of it.
Tim Keller noted how “Pride looks at something and says ‘I accomplished this’ when it is really a gift of God. The death of our pride can lead to a resurrection. We can emerge fully human, with a tender heart instead of a hard heart--healed, whole, complete.”
Why do people reject God’s offer of forgiveness? Often because it seems too easy. They want what they deserve. Not me; I know what I deserve! I want mercy! In C.S. Lewis’ novel The Great Divorce, a man who is offered Heaven objects, saying “I don’t want any bleeding charity.” He is told in earnest: “Take the Bleeding Charity.” The blood of Christ makes us clean and qualified for Heaven.
When soldiers came to me with their problems, I told them I could only assist them so much. For further help, they’d need to be open to what God could do for them. Psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a book, Whatever Happened to Sin? Sin is more than mistakes and poor communication. Yet people call their faults anything but sin. It takes humility to admit we are fallen beings. The spiritual disease of sin has but one Remedy. Acts 4:12 says of Jesus, “There is no other name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” We need to forsake self-trust and trust in God.
In Bible times, what we call baptism was a Jewish practice called a mikvah, a ritual pool for cleansing and consecration. Apparently Naaman needed it seven times! In 1989 I baptized nine soldiers in the Jordan River. Christian baptism is a symbol of a healing, cleansing and union with Christ that has already taken place. It’s been said that “going under the waters of baptism symbolizes the end of everything about your life that is less than human” (Frederick Buechner).
A servant girl changed everything by what she told Naaman. God’s grace needs to be shared. You may not be a pastor or a prophet, but you have a unique sphere of influence where you can tell others where to find healing and wholeness. “The greatest favor we can do for any human being is to introduce them to Jesus Christ” (Paul Little). Have you told others about the One who can heal their souls?
Naaman--out of options--does what the prophet says, and is healed. He emerged from the Jordan a changed man. His skin and his outlook were transformed. We can find the same healing, the same way; not by washing in a river, but by humbling ourselves, asking God to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves.
Prayer: Healer of our Souls, restore us to spiritual health. May we be strong and courageous, trusting You as our Great Physician. At times we don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on You. We know that not every illness is overcome. Keep us from allowing illness to disfigure our lives. Keep us from becoming victims of negativity. In seasons of adversity, let us sense Your healing presence, and may we stay positive in all we say and do. We pray in the Name of our Wounded Healer, the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
