Naaman was a powerful man.
One did not become commander of armies by accident. He clearly must have had intelligence to be
able to develop the strategies and tactics that enabled his army to win
battles. He must also have had strong
political skills to be able to win and hold such a lofty rank. That he did this while being a leper was
nothing short of extraordinary.
A leper was the most undesirable wretch on the planet. There was a strong social hierarchy at that
time. Kings and royalty held the highest
rung, followed by Priests and scribes, the wealthy, followed by the educated
class. Then came landowners, then
merchants, then laborers. After that were
those outside of normal society such as shepherds, and bandits. Finally, after
all of the classes had been exhausted came those at the absolute bottom of the
barrel; those who were unclean. The
unclean were those who could not come into contact with normal society. Leprosy was the worst disease that one could
have, and put a person completely outside of society.
Leprosy disfigured the face and hands, making the victim
less and less recognizable. As the sores
grew larger they began to seep a terrible-smelling liquid. When someone had developed leprosy they had
to leave the society. They were
literally forced out and had to live in caves or in a leper house that was well
outside the bounds of the town. If they
did come into town they had to wear black and veil their face to prevent people
from seeing the repulsiveness. As they
walked, they had to warn everyone by calling out “Unclean, unclean” as they
went so that people could avoid them.
They were literally thought of as dead people walking, as the disease
was always fatal. One simply could not
be more of a pariah than a leper.
And yet Naaman was the commander of the armies of Aram. I would assume that he had attained this rank
before contracting leprosy. It is
virtually impossible for him to have done so as a leper, since he would have
been ostracized. No, it seems that he
was a man of standing and position who happened to contract the disease. The king was then conflicted. He didn’t want to lose the services of such a
valuable member of his court, and yet he couldn’t maintain a leper either. The solution was to find a way for him to be
healed. And thus we have this mornings’
lesson.
Naaman goes to be healed, and ultimately finds himself
outside Elisha’s house. And when
presented with the means to cure his condition, what does he do? Rather than be grateful for a way to maintain
his health, his position, and in fact his very life, Naaman gets angry that
Elisha didn’t come outside. He is mad
that Elisha didn’t develop an elaborate spectacle of the healing. He is looking for pomp and circumstance, the
type of treatment that someone of his station feels is his right based upon his
rank and social standing. And rather
than be healed, he makes to depart in a rage.
Wow. He is presented
with the answer to his prayers, and fails to take advantage of this opportunity
simply because it doesn’t measure up to his expectations. Think for a moment
about his choice here. He can either do
as Elisha suggests, or he can return home.
If he returns home without being cured, he will be condemned to a life
outside of society. Everything that he
holds dear will be taken from him. He
will lose his job, his social position, his household. He will lose his wife and family, his
servants, and he will be forced out of society. Ultimately, the disease will
kill him. Despite all of this, he makes
to depart. Not because he doesn’t want
to be healed, but because the healing doesn’t measure up to his expectations.
Remember that Naaman was a powerful general. His king had sent him to Israel with ten
talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. That is an absolute fortune for any one of
us, but to Naaman, it was just pocket money.
He was accustomed to traveling in the highest circles, where money and
prestige were just part of the life.
Naaman was probably not unlike some of our professional
athletes or music stars. People whose
fame and accomplishments can warp their sense of self and change their
expectations of the way they should be treated, and in some cases,
revered. Especially living here in Las
Vegas, we are used to hearing stories of such people making unreasonable
demands or behaving badly.
While it may be tempting to think that this is simply a sign
of the decadent times we live in, such behavior and expectations have been with
us from the beginning. In roman times,
when a general had performed heroic service to the empire, he was sometimes honored
with a Triumph. A triumph was a magnificent
parade and ceremony that celebrated the man, and conferred a near god-like
status upon him. He was essentially
thought of as equivalent to the emperor that day, and the entire city turned
out to honor him. He rode in a golden
chariot while the whole city bowed down to him and showered him with flowers
and adoration. Legend holds that the
only concession to his mortality was a slave who would ride next to him in the
chariot whispering in his ear, “Remember that you are merely a mortal”.
“Remember that you are merely a mortal.” I don’t know about you, but I have a hard
time thinking that the slave was very persuasive given all that was going on. Naaman seems to fit this mold fairly
well. He is outraged that he has
traveled all of this way and Elisha won’t even come outside to attend him. He seems to have forgotten that he too is
merely a mortal, and instead expects God to act in the way Naaman would have
him act.
And then his servants intervene and convince him to at least
give it a shot. It is no accident that
his servants get it and he doesn’t. And
then he grudgingly does as they suggest and is restored to health.
Does this lesson speak to you the way it does to me? I see a lot of myself in Naaman. He is given a multitude of gifts from God and
has everything that he needs or wants.
And then trouble comes into his life and he feels sorry for
himself. And then God offers him a way
through it, and he balks because it doesn’t come in the manner that he expects
it to come. How often do we reject
blessings from God because they don’t appear the way we expect them to?
This lesson is an excellent reminder that God does NOT work
on our schedule. God has plans and
purposes that we don’t see and sometimes cannot understand. But just because things don’t work out the
way we thought they would, it does not mean that God is not with us. God answers our prayers in many ways, ways
that we often don’t understand.
There is an old story about a man whose home is threatened
by a flood. As the waters advance, a
neighbor comes by in a canoe and offers to take the man to safety. The man refuses saying that he is a Christian
with a strong faith and he knows that God will save him. Later as the waters continue to advance a
police boat comes by to help, but the man again refuses saying that he knows
God will save him. Finally the man has
to climb onto the roof to escape the waters and a helicopter offers to pick him
up from the roof, but he again declines saying that God will save him. Sadly, the man drowns and when he faces God
at the pearly gates he says, “Lord I had faith in you and you let me down. Why didn’t you save me? And the Lord says to him, I sent you a canoe,
a boat, and a helicopter. What more did
you want from me?”
Admittedly a poor analogy, but I hope you get my point. This man was not unlike Naaman. He had a preconceived notion of what God
would do and was blinded to any other possibility. The phrase “the Lord works in mysterious
ways” is not simply a trite expression; it is in fact, the truth. We don’t necessarily know how God will act,
but we can be very certain of one thing.
It will not always be the way we expect.
If that were true we would have to consider ourselves to be equal to
God, and that is just not the case. We
need to remember that God is God and while we are created in his image, we are decidedly
NOT his peers. “Remember that you are
merely a mortal.”
Once we realize that we can’t know how God will act, we are
then ready to open ourselves to other possibilities. If we can get out of our own heads and
remember that God can and does use other people, and even sometimes us to
further his purposes, then we, like Naaman can be healed. Healed of our narrow mindedness, healed of
thinking that the world revolves around us as individuals, healed of the
mistaken notion that God is here for us, rather than we are here for him.
Once we learn to set aside our preconceived notions of how
God should act, we can be open to the idea that God may even chose to act
through us. I have a priest friend who at
the end of each service reminds us to “remember the poor in body and the poor
in spirit. For them, the light at the
end of the tunnel may just be you.” If we can accept God’s blessings in
whatever way they come to us, then perhaps we can also be the instrument of His
blessings for other people.
