What Is The World To Me?

10.13.24 2 Kings 5:14-27

When you get to be in your middle ages you need to start making appointments with the dermatologist, because you start to notice bumps and moles on your skin that are flaky or have potential for cancer. So the doctor or practitioner will come in with a little wand type of thing with a trigger on the end, and freeze dry portions of your skin. It isn’t pleasant. You leave with miniature boils all over the place.

Naaman had much worse than that. He had leprosy. According to the Answers in Genesis website,

Its symptoms start in the skin and peripheral nervous system, then spread to other parts, such as the hands, feet, face, and earlobes. Patients experience twisting of the limbs and curling of the fingers to form the characteristic claw hand. Facial changes include thickening of the outer ear and collapsing of the nose. Tumor-like growths called lepromas may form on the skin. The largest number of deformities develop from loss of pain sensation due to extensive nerve damage. In fact, some leprosy patients have had their fingers eaten by rats in their sleep because they were totally unaware of it happening.

Who was Naaman? He was a commander of the army of Aram, a neighboring country and enemy to Israel. He personally had conquered a portion of Israel and taken a girl to be his slave. The slave girl lovingly told him that he could be cured of his leprosy by the God of Israel. So Naaman’s king sent him to Israel with a boatload of money in hopes of being healed of his leprosy.

Elisha didn’t demand any sort of payment. He didn’t want him to think that God could be bought. All he told him to do was to wash in the Jordan River seven times. And what happened? “His flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.” Can you imagine that? Removing all the sunspots, the wrinkles, maybe even the scrapes and wounds! We don’t know how far his disease had progressed, but you can only imagine how his wife and other soldiers would have responded to seeing him! He would have probably looked kind of odd, a forty year old man with ten year old skin!

Naaman hurried back to the man of God and urged him to accept some money for what had happened to him. But Elisha absolutely refused. It would have given into the idea that God can be bought. That’s not how the LORD works. He’s a God of free grace and salvation. Just as this healing would be free, so through the Messiah to come his salvation would be free. And that’s the beauty of Christianity. Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Jesus does all the suffering and dying. He charges me nothing for it. Here, take it. Free of charge.

It’s that freedom and grace that changes the heart, and that’s what happened with Naaman. He vowed never to worship another god. He even took some dirt back from Israel, possibly to build an altar to the LORD on which to worship God from then on in.

Think about how much more the LORD has promised to give us. We have free and full forgiveness from the death of Jesus on the cross. We have freedom from guilt. Freedom from thinking that we owe God a payment for what we’ve done. We don’t just get fresh skin at the resurrection, but a brand new body as well. Perfect eyes, perfect ears, perfect back, heart, feet, legs . . . the whole works - much more than skin. And again, we don’t get charged a dime for any of it. It’s all free.

We just had the funeral for Kim Stock on Friday. You may not have known Kim very well. Even though Kim was only 47, a disease had ravaged his body. He couldn’t breathe properly. He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t feed himself or clothe himself. He was sharp as a tack though. I spoke with him in the hospital about his resurrected body, what God would give him. He was wiping tears from his eyes in joy and hope. He’s free now, waiting for his new body to be given to him. He didn’t have to do anything to earn that promise. He didn’t have to give any amount of money for it. It was free of charge, straight from Jesus. Then the Lord called him home four days later. That’s something that only Jesus can do.

Naaman was overjoyed at his new lease on life in this sinful world, so joyful that he wanted to give. He practically begged to give. A similar thing happened with the Macedonian churches in Paul’s time when they found out about the trials that the Jews in Jerusalem were going through. Paul wrote, “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.” (2 Cor 8:2-4) It wasn’t their RICHNESS that overflowed with rich generosity. It was their POVERTY! They were glad to let go of what little they had when there was a greater need that someone else had. That’s how thankful they were for the Gospel which came through their brother and sister Jews.