Namaan was a powerful man. He was a leader – the chief commander of the army of Aram – a country that today we know as Syria. He was a military man - someone who was used to giving orders and having them followed – a person who expected things to be done his way and without any questions asked – and he was a man with the ability to enforce what he wanted. A footnote in my NIV Study Bible says that the King of Syria held Namaan in high regard because at some time in the past he had defeated Israel in battle. The narrator of this passage, on the other hand, a Jew who was compiling the stories of Elijah during the time of the Babylonian exile, says that it was the Lord who gave that victory to Namaan. And that’s a significant statement. It means that even during the time of the ancient Jews, believers in God knew that God wasn’t only God of the Jews – he was God over all the earth – and all the nations and all the governments. So in the eyes of the narrator, Namaan, even though he was a Syrian, was somehow playing a part in the larger purposes of God.
But Namaan had a problem. He had leprosy. In the Bible, we know that the term leprosy didn’t only apply to what we call Hansen’s disease today. “Leprosy” stood for any skin disease that caused the sufferer to be declared unclean. So, in the long run, it didn’t matter a bit how smart Namaan was – or how courageous – or how powerful he was in the military – this one sickness, this one ‘condition’ compromised his entire future. Never could he be fully accepted socially or publicly in the courts of his King. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how hard he worked, he would never completely “fit in.” One damnable defect would override all of Namaan’s potential as long as he lived. Over and over he would work and strain to earn his master’s favor, but always, this same problem would catch up with him and he would be shamefully separated from the movers and shakers of Syria.
There are a lot of people like Namaan in the world today. People with all kinds of potential and talent and abilities – but they have some tragic flaw, some deep fault, some problem that gets them into trouble over and over again. It doesn’t have to be leprosy – leprosy is just a symbol. People like Namaan are never able to rise into real leadership positions of their own because a tragic trait or unredeemed flaw in their character keeps pulling them down. For a while folks admire might what they can do – but they will never earn the full respect of their colleagues. How sad and heartbreaking it must be to be a person like Namaan – someone with all kinds of ability, but with no influence except through the exertion of brute force. Or in today’s world we might say – except through hidden weapons of mass destruction.
Enter now into this story the hidden agenda of God. There is no flash of light from heaven, no majestic prophet announcing an answer to Namaan’s needs from on high, no trumpets or angelic visitation – at least not in the way we normally think of God’s word coming to humanity. Instead, we are told that during a border skirmish, one of the Syrian bands captured a young Israeli maiden and brought her to Namaan who made her his wife’s servant. That’s pretty low on the demographic scale isn’t it: an unwed Jewish female forced to be a slave to another female in a pagan household. Pretty powerless, I’d say. The text doesn’t even give us her name. And it’s reasonable, I think, to believe that she would be bitter about her forced slavery. Certainly we wouldn’t expect her to have sympathy for Namaan when she heard about his leprosy. In fact, as a good Jew, she would be horrified and try to avoid even crossing his path. The uncleanness of leprosy was totally unacceptable to the Jews.
But the Jewish maiden doesn’t behave that way at all. In fact, she approaches Namaan’s wife and pleads that Namaan, her master, could be completely cured of his leprosy if only he would go and see the prophet of the God of the Jews in Samaria.
Hello? Why did she do that? Does she believe that if she helps Namaan get cured then he’ll let her go? I don’t think so! If we caught Ben Laden and he told us where Saddam’s weapons were, would we let him go? No – that’s not the way it works. The Jewish slave-maiden wasn’t out to improve the odds of her own welfare.
Look at the power differentials here. God wants to show us something pretty amazing. On the one hand, you have the commander of the whole Syrian army, and on the other hand you have a captured female slave. All the Jewish maiden had was her faith in God. That’s all. That was the only ‘power’ she possessed. If her mind had been on preserving her own safety there in Namaan’s home, she would have hidden that faith – in the same way that we would be hesitant to witness to Jesus Christ in downtown Baghdad during the Hajj. But she didn’t hide it. She proclaimed it. “My captor can be healed” she says, “if he will only go to God; if he will only go and visit the prophet of God in Samaria.” There is only one reason the Jewish maiden did that – it was to witness to her God, to stand up for her God in the middle of a humanly hopeless situation. She wants her God to be known.
We can learn from her. Oftentimes it is the people whom we least expect that will stand up and witness to the power and faithfulness of God. Sometimes it is the folks who are low on the rungs of worldly power that God chooses to work through. Let me tell you a true story that happened up in Dallas at Southern Baptist Seminary. Every year, there is a preaching contest at the seminary. But women are not allowed to preach there simply because of their gender. One year, 28 sermons were entered into the contest. The judges were all men who read the manuscripts without any identification on them. When the top three winners were revealed, you can imagine the quandary the Baptists were in when it was discovered that those three winners were ALL women! (from the illustration database in iPreach by Cokesbury) By the same token, Namaan was a man who was being introduced to God by someone he thought was far inferior to him. The question was, would he listen to his slave maiden and go for the cure she offered, or would he refuse because of his pride?
To his credit, Namaan listened. He wants to be healed – but he wants his healing to happen on his own terms. After all, he is a man of power; he ‘knows’ how things work. Brushing off the simple servant girl after receiving the tip, he heads for the home of his pagan king. “Let’s see,” Namaan says to the king “We want this to go smooth, so if you would, give me a fancy letter of introduction, about $150,000 in cash, and ten (the number of perfection) designer suits cut to fit the King of Israel exactly – that should make him happy.” Namaan knows that the Syrian Gods can’t heal him. They can’t bring him peace, either. What Namaan doesn’t know is that his healing is going to cost a lot more than he can ever pay for with money.
Do you notice anything peculiar in Namaan’s behavior? Is it odd that he is getting together a collection of treasures for the King of Israel – and not for Israel’s God? Namaan just assumes that Israel’s God will be under the government’s thumb. He doesn’t even comprehend that there exists a power much greater than human military and political strength.
We can learn from that too, can’t we?
In the middle of this Iraqi crisis we shouldn’t become like Namaan and forget that beyond all our military power and strength, there IS STILL a God in heaven who knows the depths of our hearts and the direction of our goals. And they had better be right ones – good ones – aligned with the will of God, else we will fail. So far, I believe that is true. May God help it to stay that way.
When the King of Israel opened Namaan’s letter of introduction, he was horrified. There it was in black and white – Syria’s King was asking him to cure the chief commander of Syria from leprosy. The first thing that came to the Israeli king’s mind was fear. “How can anyone expect me to do something like this? Am I God? Do I give and take life?” Ironically, the Israeli king was right on target! He most certainly was NOT God, and he could not give life. But right there was where his theological understanding stopped. Not once did his heart or mind turn to the one who IS God, who CAN heal and who IS the giver of life. He was no better than Namaan or the King of Syria. The simple witness of a believing servant girl had provided the King of Israel a tremendous opportunity to bear witness for his God, and he is totally blinded by his self-absorbed fear. Not once does he think to take Namaan to church – I mean to visit the prophet Elisha. Instead, he becomes so paranoid that he begins fabricating in his mind how the whole scenario is a set up that could cost him his throne. If the King of Israel pulled off his robe, the message on his t-shirt would read, “It’s all about ME – It’s all about ME.”
Enter God’s agenda the second time. Mysteriously, the prophet Elisha, whom the King of Israel knows, hears of the poor King’s dilemma and sends him a message. “Send that leprous Syrian over to see me,” he says by way of messenger.
Can’t you just see Namaan? He probably reacted the same way the Iraqi prime minister did in Rome at the press conference after meeting with the Pope. There in the same room were gathered reporters from all over the world asking him questions. Then, a young Israeli reporter asked, “If the US declares war on Iraq, will you fire one of those missiles you have onto Israel?” It grew very silent in the room. And then the Iraqi prime minister snarled the rudest answer I’ve ever heard from a head of state in a press conference. He said, “I’m not going to answer that; I didn’t travel here to answer questions from the Israeli media.” The room filled with hisses and boos and many of the reporters got up and walked out.
In the same way, Namaan, full of unrighteous pride, felt insulted that a mere messenger came and instructed him to leave the King of Israel and go somewhere else. Where are the trumpets and the magicians and the court musicians who should treat me like the important person that I am? I didn’t come here to be treated like this!
Still, if Namaan wanted to be cured, he had to stomach this crudeness. So he and his horses and chariots and riches followed the messenger to Elisha’s house – and all the while he was still believing that he could buy a miracle.
“Knock-knock!” on Elisha’s door… “Who’s there?” NOBODY! Elisha didn’t even come out and say, “Howdy Pardner.” There wasn’t any meal offered or any red carpet rolled out. Amazing. How much humiliation could Namaan take?
Like I said earlier, this cure from leprosy – this ‘getting right with God’ – was going to be very expensive thing for Namaan. It would cost more than he had ever considered and it would be purchased with a form of payment that he had never anticipated.
Just then, a second messenger appears, this time from inside Elisha’s house. He goes right up to the Syrian commander and orders him, “Go jump in the lake – uh, river – not once, but seven times. And while you’re in it, wash yourself good.”
Excuse me? I think Elisha has just called Namaan a dirty foreigner; and Namaan reacted accordingly. He got furious. Really furious. His pride is hurt awfully bad. “I came here looking for a miracle,” Namaan is thinking. “And I want to see something happen. I want to see some prophet stuff! I want to see Elisha bring God down from heaven just for me - or for him to speak some magic words that will cure me in front of all my men. This is trip is costing me a lot and I’m a busy man so listen dude, where’s the show? You’re telling me to go take a bath in a muddy river when we have better rivers than this back in Syria!?”
How many first time visitors to the church do you think come to worship with a little tinge of that attitude? They want to SEE something happen. They want to HEAR some magic words or GET IMMEDIATELY CURED from whatever it is that is messing up their lives. And when it doesn’t happen the way they expect or the way they want, then sometimes they get disappointed or maybe even angry. Like Namaan, they want a Burger-King church where you can have it your way.
Namaan is like the young braggart who told some friends that he had traced his lineage all the way back to William the Conqueror. “Yeah,” said one of them, “and next you’ll be telling me that they were on the Ark with Noah.” “Oh no I won’t,” the braggart said, “My people had a boat of their own.”
See? It’s not Namaan’s leprosy that is keeping him from being healed. It’s his big-mouthed pride. He wants to run the show and to be healed on his terms. Namaan has to learn that there is no substitution for a contrite heart before God. There is no substitute for bending his knee and bowing his head and being washed in the Jordan River.
He has come so far, and waited so long, and now he almost loses it all. In order to receive the healing he wants so badly, Namaan has to let go of the sources of power he has trusted in all of his life. He has to realize he can’t buy his healing, he can’t demand peace of mind, he can’t manipulate social acceptance. Namaan can’t even control the place where he will meet the Lord. All he can do is obediently humble himself and accept his healing from God as a gift. Picture Saddam Hussein kissing Bush’s hand – that is how Namaan felt.
Enter God’s agenda for the third time. Once again, God speaks to Namaan and calls to him through those whom he knows well, but also considers inferior. “If the prophet had asked you do something really special, or hard, or difficult – some great thing,” his servants propose, “then you would have done it, wouldn’t you? It would have given you a way to prove yourself, to show how deserving you are. But all that Elisha is asking you to do is something so simple, so easy – and yet so hard for a man like you. All you have to do is come to the Jordan and wash.” Not one time, but seven times. All those ten designer suits that you brought with you, Namaan, aren’t as lovely and pleasing to God as an obedient soul washed in the Jordan River, a clean soul that has submitted to the will of God.
If you will indulge me here, I’d like to draw another parallel to the crisis our world is in today. All these ‘inspectors” and “spy planes” and proposed “peace brokers” are like Namaan – trying to have peace their own way. It’s not that their work is bad. It’s just that it will never accomplish the goal. Peace can never be manipulated or forced or bought or demanded or “inspected” into existence. None of us want war, but Colin Powell spoke prophetic truth when he asked the UN Security Council, (paraphrased) “How much time does it take to say, ‘I hear the voice of the world and here is what I have, I will let you see it all.” Peace can only come with a change of heart, a decision to trust more in what is true than in one’s own power brokering. Peace will only come when Saddam bows his knee or is removed from leadership. I pray for the bowed knee – we all do – but we had best be ready and standing side by side with the big stick if Namaan gets mad instead of glad.
In our passage today, Namaan decided to listen to his servants. And after obeying the instruction of Elisha, his flesh was made new, “made like a young boy.”
We can learn from this too. There are many ways to get INTO the church, but there is only one way to get into the CHURCH. We all come here with lives filled with impurities and sins that are separating us from the peace God gives. We can’t ‘reason-away’ that separation. We can’t boss it away or ‘power’ it away. We all come with our allegiances tied to things that we think have brought us peace and freedom in the past: money, jobs, possessions, relationships with the ‘right folks.’ We all are entangled with lines of trust tied to things that are temporal instead of to God.
But God has already made a way for us to be made whole – even where there seems to be no way. “He works in ways we cannot see," so the song says – sometimes through people that we least expect – that is true. But he has also made a way that has been true from the very beginning of his self-revelation. “Wash yourselves in the Jordan,” God says. Bend way down. Humble yourselves. Get a contrite heart and be honest with yourself and others. Bathe yourself seven times. Every day. Every day. Read your Bible. Let the waves of worship wash over you. Obey the will of God. And then watch as the miracles happen.
Not in spectacular, thundering voices from heaven, or in performances with magic words and fanfare – but in the power of truth that comes to us from some of the lowliest places. Like Namaan, when we humble ourselves and listen, and then obediently stoop to be washed, then we shall surely see the power of God. It is only then that we are in the church and can bear witness to the God we love and serve.
Amen.
