Epiphany 3
2
Kgs 5:1-15
1/23/22
For anyone
facing a serious illness for which no treatment seemed possible, it would be a
difficult burden to bear. The future would seem to hold nothing more than the
continuing challenge of living with the condition. Perhaps the illness even
threatened death as it continued its course over time.
Yet, what if
we learned that a treatment existed that offered the possibility of complete
healing? Certainly, we would be
extremely motivated to seek it out. No
doubt, we would be willing to go wherever we needed in order to receive the
treatment. We would be willing to go to a specialized hospital like the Mayo
Clinic because the treatment offered the hope of healing and relief.
In our Old Testament lesson, we hear about a man who was in just such a situation. Our text begins by saying, “Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.”
Our text
describes events in the ninth century B.C. The nation of Israel had divided
into the southern kingdom of Judah, and the northern kingdom which continued to
be called Israel. During this time, the
northern kingdom of Israel was regularly attacked by the nation of Syria. Syria had a powerful military force, and
Naaman was a very successful commander.
He must have been extremely talented, because he had gained this
position in spite of the fact that he was a leper.
We learn
that in one of the raids carried about by the Syrians into Israel, a little
girl had been taken as a slave and now worked in the service of Naaman’s
wife. The girl showed faith in God’s
work through his prophet and a very caring heart because she said to Naaman’s
wife, “Would that my lord
were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
When Naaman learned about this he
reported it to the king of Syria. The king wanted to help his valued leader,
and so he sent Naaman with gifts of gold and silver to the king of Israel,
along with a letter which said: “When this letter reaches you, know that I have
sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
Now the king of Syria was operating on
the basis of assumptions about how things worked. Normally, a man who had the reputation of
being a healer was a servant and subject of the king. The king was the king,
and he could order the man to do what the king wanted.
However, things were not this way in Israel. In this case, the
“healer” was the prophet Elisha. In the
Old Testament, one of the prophets’ main jobs was to tell the king that Yahweh
was the true king. This was all the
more challenging for the prophets in the northern kingdom because the kings
there did not believe in Yahweh, and instead promoted the worship of false gods.
When the king of Israel received the letter, he was aghast and
said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to
cure a man of his leprosy?” To the king
of Israel, the case of Namaan was simply the king of Syria looking for an
excuse to attack.
When Elisha heard about the king’s reaction, he sent this
message: “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may
know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
The king of Israel may not believe in Yahweh. But Elisha would show
Naaman that he was the prophet of the true God.
So Naaman traveled to Elisha.
As a man of great power and importance, he showed up with quite an
entourage of horses and chariots.
However, Elisha didn’t even come out to meet Naaman. Instead, he sent a
messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your
flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”
Naaman wasn’t used to be treated this way. He was angry because Elisha had not done the
kinds of things he expected. He said, “Behold,
I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name
of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.” Instead, Elisha had told Naaman to go and
wash in the Jordan River seven times. Now while the Jordan River holds a
special place in our minds because of the role it has had in God’s actions, the
river itself is nothing impressive. Elisha’s instructions seemed like an insult
to Naaman and we learn that he went away in a rage.
Naaman reacted because Elisha, God’s prophet, didn’t do what he
expected – what he wanted. It’s not hard
to find our own experiences reflected here. We know what it is like when God
doesn’t do what we want. We see it when we or family and friends experience
illness and health problems. We see it
when the situation in our family, or at our job, or at school is not going as
we want. We see it when some other congregation extends a call and seeks to
take our pastor away from us.
Our reaction to such circumstances is often run by the old
Adam. We get frustrated with God. We may begin to doubt God. Perhaps, we get
angry with God. These may seem to us to
be justified and natural. But they are instead a failure to trust in God. They are all reactions that are run by sin.
Naaman was powerful man who was not
used to being treated this way. But his servants sought to be the voice of
reason. They came near and said to him, "My father, it is a great
word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to
you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
Convinced by his servants Naaman, went
and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, just as Elisha had directed. We learn that when he had done this “his
flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” The end of our text reports how Naaman
returned to Elisha. The experience of God’s healing work had demonstrated the
truth to Naaman, and he told Elisha, “from
now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but
Yahweh.”
After Moses, Elijah and his successor Elisha stand out in
the Old Testament as the greatest of the prophets in the miracles they
performed. But if their miracles were
remarkable, what is narrated about them cannot even begin to compare to what
Jesus Christ did during his ministry. As Matthew tells us about the beginning
of Jesus’ ministry: “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing
every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread
throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those
afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by
demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.”
Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the
kingdom. He announced that the saving
reign of God was present in him. During Epiphany we are seeing how Christ’s
saving glory was revealed in his ministry.
We see this in our Gospel lesson where, like Naaman, a leper comes to
Jesus seeking healing. Jesus does the unthinkable. He touches the leper. To do so brought
ritual uncleanness according to the Law given to Moses. But in Jesus something new had arrived that
surpassed, and at the same time, fulfilled the Law. Rather than bringing
uncleanness to Jesus, the touch of the Son of God brought healing to the leper.
In Deuteronomy chapter 18, Moses had
promised, “The LORD your God will raise
up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers--it is to him
you shall listen.” Jesus was that
prophet like Moses. But he was far more
than a prophet. As we saw during Christmas, he is the Son of God in the flesh.
Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, Jesus is true God and
true man.
The prophets performed miracles for God. But they also suffered as they spoke God’s
word to kings. Jesus performed mightier miracles than any of the prophets as he
revealed his glory. And his suffering
carried a significance beyond that of any of them.
The Son of
God entered into our world to bring God’s reign that defeats Satan, sin, and
death. Yet just as Naaman was offended
by the idea of washing in the Jordan, the way in which Jesus did this did not look
glorious. Jesus came to win forgiveness
by suffering and dying on the cross. He
offered himself as the ransom in our place.
Receiving the judgment we deserve Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?”
But the
greatest miracle – the most glorious action was yet to come. On the third day, God raised Jesus from the
dead. This was not merely a return to life as Elijah had done for the son of
the widow at Zarapheth, or as Elisha had done for the son of the Shunammite
woman. It was not even like when Jesus
raised the son of the widow at Nain. All
of these individuals would one day die again.
Instead,
Jesus’ resurrection was the beginning of the resurrection of the Last Day. His resurrection was the vindication of the
crucified Christ. It showed that God had
been working through Jesus’ death to give us salvation. And his resurrection
was the defeat of death. Jesus rose with
a body that can never die again. He ascended into heaven, and when he returns
in glory on the Last Day he will raise and transform our bodies to be immortal
like his own.
Our Lord
gives us forgiveness and the assurance of resurrection. In fact, he has done so in a way that calls
to mind Naaman’s washing in the Jordan by which he was cleansed. In the water of Holy Baptism, your sins were
washed away. Though it was done just
once, God has attached is promise to that washing. It remains, always ready to be grasped in
faith. For when you believe God’s promise that your sins have been forgiven through
baptism … they are. This is true not
only of the sins you committed before your baptism, but of every sin, because
Jesus Christ died and rose again to give you forgiveness for every sin.
And let us
not forget that in baptism it was water that was poured on your body. Jesus Christ died and rose again to bring
salvation to your whole person – body and soul.
St. Paul tells us about baptism: “For if we have been united with
him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his.” Your baptism is the guarantee that you will share in
Christ’s resurrection on the Last Day.
Naaman was
ready to leave angry because Elisha had not done what he expected. When we feel like this about the way God is
doing things, we need to confess our failure to trust in God. Instead, we need to look at what God has done
in the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. For in the cross God
has revealed the depths of his love for us as he worked to give us salvation.
And in the resurrection of Jesus Christ he has given us the hope of what awaits
us – the day when all will be very good once again and we will never again know
frustration, doubt, or anger.
In our
baptism, we have forgiveness for our every failure to trust in God. We have assurance that our body will receive
the resurrection that Jesus Christ has already begun. And as the source of the work of the Spirit
in our life, we have the means by which God assists us to trust him each day as
we look for Christ’ return on the Last Day.
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