No Deductible, No Co-Pay
Has anyone here had the flu this winter? Even the 24-hour virus kind of knocks you down, kicks you in the teeth, and leaves you an aching, shivering blob. And there’s not a darn thing you can do about it. The elephant is on the rampage. No one likes to be sick, but it happens, it’s a fact of life.
It’s not a fun thing because you can just feel it coming on. You just don’t feel quite right and as the day passes you just keep spiraling downward, right into bed. Soon, you can’t do anything you want to do. You can’t work, you can’t take care of the house, you can’t have a normal conversation, you don’t feel like eating or drinking or doing anything, because you are sick.
You can’t do anything except ride it out, suffering in the knowledge that SOMETIME in the near future, the sickness will loose it’s hold on you and you’ll start to feel like a human being again. You know what I’m talking about. You start feeling better and it’s such a relief. You never really appreciate feeling healthy until you’ve been sick.
The lion was proud of his mastery of the animal kingdom. One day he decided to make sure all the other animals knew he was the king of the jungle. He was so confident that he by-passed the smaller animals and went straight to the bear. "Who is the king of the jungle?" the lion asked. The bear replied, "Why you are, of course" The lion gave a mighty roar of approval. Next he asked the tiger, "Who is the king of the jungle?" The tiger quickly responded, "Everyone knows that you are, mighty lion " Next on the list was the elephant. The lion faced the elephant and addressed his question, "Who is the king of the jungle?" The elephant immediately grabbed the lion with his trunk, whirled him around in the air five or six times and slammed him into a tree.
Then he pounded him onto the ground several times, dunked him under water in a nearby lake, and finally dumped him out on the shore. The lion--beaten, bruised, and battered--struggled to his feet. He looked at the elephant through sad and bloody eyes and said, "Look, just because you don’t know the answer is no reason for to get mean about it!"
This is where we meet our buddy Naaman in our Old Testament scripture for today. Naaman was a very important man – commander of the army of Aram. He was powerful, important, and successful in the sight of the king and of all the people of the land. But Naaman had a problem – the elephant of leprosy had been running rampage on him.
When we’re sick we’ll do almost anything, try any “home remedy”, to get well. Well, Naaman is willing to do anything to get well, even seek the help of a prophet in a foreign country. Just like people who will fly across the country to try the latest “miracle cure”, they’ve heard about. We’ll do ANYTHING to feel “whole” again.
So what did Elisha do? He doesn’t go outside to tell Naaman what to do, he doesn’t even get up from his chair where he is writing some words of wisdom. He sends a messenger to give Naaman the prescription. Of course, that doesn’t sit well with Naaman at all.
Naaman was told to go and wash SEVEN times in the Jordan river. Not 3 times, not 5 times, not 6 3/4 times, ...but 7 times.
So I can just see Naaman. He’s going down to the Jordan, muttering under his breath………
He gets to the river, walks down into the water, goes under, and then surfaces. He looks at himself, shows his servants like, “See!” Of course they gently reminded him that Elisha said SEVEN times. So he drops into the water 6 more times, all the while grumbling & muttering about what a stupid idea this was.
After the seventh time, he walks toward the bank. Then, he looks down at his arms. The spots are gone. He gets out of the water and looks at his legs. Clean! He looks at his torso. Clean! A miracle has happened. Naaman is clean once again. The leprosy was gone. Naaman was a great general, but he couldn’t defeat the elephant of leprosy. But God could.
Jump with me now to our reading from Mark 1. Remember, Naaman was willing to do ANYTHING, even listen to a foreign prophet to be healed. Mark 1:40 says, “A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’”
This is in direct violation of the rules laid out in the Old Testament. A leper was exiled from society. A leper had to constantly cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” lest anyone get too close. Like Naaman, this leper is willing to do ANYTHING to be healed, even break the law.
And what did Jesus do? Moms and dads, before I tell you what Jesus did, let me ask you this question first. If your very young child fell, got muddy, skinned up their knee, and came crying to you for comfort (or in their minds, a healing), what would you do? Would you turn them away, saying, “You go clean the mud off first, then we’ll have a look at that knee?” Of course not!
What did Jesus do? He “stretched out his hand and touched him” and said “be made clean!” “Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.” The leper was made clean. He could once again be a viable member of society. Of course, this lawbreaker once again, ignored the law (and Jesus). He was, by Old Testament law, and by Jesus’ stern warning, to go show himself to the priest.
The leper did not go to the priest. But what if he had? What if he had gone to the temple, said to the priest, "Look at me. A few minutes ago I was a leper. But now I am cleansed of all my leprosy. And the one who cured me told me to come to you & make the appropriate sacrifice for my cleansing. But I’m not sure what sacrifice to offer. Tell me, what am I supposed to do?"
What would the priest tell him? They wouldn’t have any idea, because there hadn’t been a cleansing of a leper since the time of the prophet Elisha, nearly 800 years before. And Naaman was a Gentile, not a Jew, and therefore not required to offer sacrifices.
So the priest would have had to go back & search the O.T. scrolls to find out just what to do. And in his reading he would have discovered that the cleansing of a leper is a sign of the Messiah’s presence. It was prophesied that when the Messiah comes the blind will see, the dumb will speak, the lame will leap for joy, & the leper will be cleansed. Jesus sent this man to be a testimony to the priests.
Jesus wanted the priests to see with their own eyes what had taken place, so there would be no confusion. We’re a lot like that today. We’re a lot like those priests would be and Naaman was. We would have to see it with our own eyes.
All too often, I’m like Naaman. I have a degree in engineering from Purdue, and if you know anything about engineers, it’s that we are very analytical. We want to know how and why things work the way they do. And if they don’t work, we want to know why and then fix them.
Of course, you don’t have to be an engineer to be like that. We all are like Naaman at times. We look at the problems in our lives and want to figure out how best to handle them. We want to handle them! We are very independent, self-reliant people. Stubborn might even work. All too often, we take on the elephants in our lives on our own. Hey, we’re “king of the jungle”. We’re the baddest dudes around. We don’t need help from anyone.
We look for solutions in the great rivers when God is telling us to take a swim in the Jordan. Sometimes we don’t like what God is telling us. We may even get down right upset and angry about it. “God, we can handle this ourselves”, then the elephant stomps on us.
The good news is, when the elephant has done it’s worst on us, we can, like the leper, come to Jesus for a cleansing, a healing. We can be restored. We can be healed. By the “Great Physician”.
Now, when we’re sick, we often go to a physician, more commonly known as a doctor. And of course, we all know about the insurance that goes along with our doctor visit. Usually we can’t even get in to see the doctor until we have paid our co-pay, our share of the bill for the doctor to see us.
When we finally see the doctor, we might be told we need to have some tests to determine the type of “elephant” beating us up. These tests cost more money, which we have to pay until we’ve met our deductible. Then we can receive the treatment we need to be healed.
We all, at different times in our lives, need a healing. I’m not talking about a physical healing, now. I’m talking about the type of healing that only God, the Great Physician, can give. When you come to the Great Physician you don’t have to worry about any co-pay, and any tests that might be needed are covered in full. There is no deductible to meet. There is no co-pay.
God’s grace and healing is free of charge to any and all who ask for it. And it doesn’t matter how much grace you need or what type of healing you need, you need no insurance. It doesn’t matter what the elephant is that’s knocking you around. Maybe you’ve got cancer, maybe you’ve lost a loved one, maybe you’re facing a serious surgery, it doesn’t matter. God’s grace and healing is free of charge to any and all who ask for it. God’s grace and healing will see you through any situation.
So don’t grumble about your suffering like Naaman, grudgingly taking the treatment prescribed by the “doctor”. Come like the leper, to the one who can heal you. Remember, God loves you. You don’t need an appointment. All you gotta do is believe and that elephant won’t seem so big.
