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TESTIMONIES FROM SCRIPTURE - NAAMAN
My name is Naaman – You might not know who I am, but my story has
been recorded for the ages in your Bible – 2 Kings 5. I was the commander of BenHadad’s army. He was king of Aram, which is today Lebanon and Syria. Elisha the
prophet asked me to come and speak to you. That’s right – even though I was an enemy
of the Israelites and a pagan, and was responsible for many Israelites’ death and
capture, I have been spending eternity in the same place as Elisha, which is in the
presence of God. You see, I was an enemy and an unclean pagan, but by the grace of
God I was changed into a reconciled, spotless worshipper. I was a man of war, but
became a man of peace. I worshipped many gods because I had to, but chose to worship
the one, true God because I wanted to. And I was unclean, outside and inside, but God
washed me white and pure as snow. If God could do this with someone like me, he can
do it with you, and so I share my story this morning for your encouragement.
Let me start with a description of the old me. What you need to know is
that in addition to being a powerful army commander and an enemy of God’s people, I
was a leper. That is part of the miracle I want to share. In the field of battle, being a
leper was actually valuable – what Israelite, seeing me coming, would want to stand and
fight me? Jewish law forbade Israelites from coming close to any unclean thing, and
lepers were about as unclean as you could be. And so, I used my leprosy to achieve
victories and recognition and power. But my leprosy caused me so much pain and
shame. In that regard, being a leper is not that different from some of the issues you may
be dealing with this morning. To some degree we are all unclean, shunned by people and
enemies of God because of who we are and what we’ve done. Mostly, without the
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righteousness of Jesus, we are all spiritual lepers, unclean and unable to approach a holy
God.
I did not always have leprosy, and I don’t know how I got it. But in the
course of the many places I’ve been, I came in contact with many different types of
people, including lepers. All I know is that at some point, I developed these white
blotches all over my body, making me hideous to look at. By that point, I was already a
successful warrior, and so the king continued to use me – it was for his benefit, because I
was good at what I do. But personally, it was devastating.
I was married to the love of my life. She always loved me, but let me say
… well, it was hard – very hard – on our marriage. This is where the miracle starts.
My wife had an Israelite servant girl – I didn’t even know her name,
mainly because I had many Israelite servants. But she grew close to my wife, and saw
the sadness in her that existed because of our strained relationship. She told her about a
prophet in Israel who could heal me – now I tried many cures and had many magicians in
Damascus perform magic over me, and nothing worked. But I was amazed that this
prisoner, who I took from her family (it’s possible her family was even killed in the raid
when she was captured), could care enough about me – her captor, enemy, pagan, defiled
leper – to tell me about this prophet. It was her act of love that started me on my journey
to healing.
So I asked my king to let me travel to Samaria. He valued what I did for
him, and so he sent me with a letter and enough gold and silver that it took six horses to
carry it – in today’s currency, it would be about $3 million - I know that’s a preposterous
sum of money, but we felt this kind of miracle would have to cost a lot, and to be
honest, I think he wanted to show off his wealth to the king of Israel. So we left (I
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always traveled with an entourage) and made the weeklong trip to Samaria. The king
was less than impressive – I knew he wasn’t the prophet, but he acted like this was some
kind of political ploy, and went through the motions of tearing his robes – with this kind
of leadership, it’s no wonder we were so successful in our battles with Israel.
But I was irritated, because I came a long way, and I wanted to be
cleansed in the worst way. Fortunately, Elisha heard about the incident at the king’s
palace, and sent for me. I thought, “Finally, I will get the treatment I deserve.”
So we arrived at Elisha’s house, and he doesn’t even see me! He sends a
servant out to tell me to go wash in the Jordan, and then I will be cleansed. I was insulted
and angry. I am not only an important person, I am a person who can control the future
of not only Elisha’s life, but also the life of all those in Israel! Insulting me is not a
politically wise thing to do! And compared to the rivers in my country, the Jordan is a
mud bath. There could be no magical power in a puddle like the Jordan!
I stormed off, with my servants and all that money behind me. They
didn’t know who they were messing with. We may have been at peace with Israel but
that would soon change.
But I thought about my wife. I thought about how badly I wanted to be
healed, and then my servants said, “Father (they really do care for me), you would have
done anything he said to be cleansed – why not go to the Jordan as he said?” The reason
was pride – he had hurt my pride by not seeing me, and my pride was hurt because I had
no control over the situation – my money and power were useless.
So we made the day trip to the Jordan. I’d already spent over a week on
this quest, and one more day wouldn’t make that much difference. But when we arrived
at the river, I realized what I would have to do. I said I always have an entourage with
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me wherever I go; a sign of my power, reputation and achievement – well, now this
entourage would see me strip naked, and see the full extent of my shame, my leprosy. I
was not afraid of much, but can you imagine how afraid I was to show my true self to
others? But I needed, desperately, to be cleansed, and so I took off my clothes – and you
know what? Revealing my shame was freeing, all by itself. Even before I stepped into
the river, I stood there and realized I couldn’t cover this up any more – I had been a
powerful, military figure, but I was also a leper, and hiding it for so long had taken so
much effort. Now I felt free!
I stepped into the water. It was not even three feet deep, and so I had to sit
in it like in a bathtub. I washed myself all over seven times, just like Elisha instructed,
but I kept my eyes closed. For one thing, the water was muddy, and I didn’t want to get
any in my eyes – but I was scared to look.
I got up out of the water, wiped my eyes and opened them, and looked at
my servants first – they were all bowed to the ground. I looked at my hands, my arms,
my stomach, my legs – my skin was smooth and dark just like when I was twenty years
old, with no swelling or blotches. And at that moment I realized that I had been cleansed
on more than the outside. I had been cleansed on the inside as well. You know that we
worshipped many gods in Aram, but to tell you the truth, I worshipped my own power. I
was in control of my own destiny and of the lives of all the soldiers I commanded, and of
my family and servants. But I couldn’t control my leprosy, my uncleanness. Somehow,
God knew that, and led me to a place where I was absolutely powerless, where I had no
choice but to believe in Him, and only then could I be healed.
I needed to be humbled – this is why your God gave me leprosy in the first
place, and this is why he put me on a journey where I would be humiliated and
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embarrassed – Elisha wouldn’t see me the first time because I was still too proud. And
then I remembered what “Elisha” means – my God saves. My God, and your God had
saved me from myself – from my shame, and from my pride. I even understand now that
He gave me the victories I won in part to draw me to Himself, through a faithful, godly
servant girl.
These thoughts filled my mind as we headed back to see Elisha. This time
he would see me – I was too proud for him to see me the first time – and I said to him,
“Now I know that there is no God in the world except in Israel.” I offered him gifts, but
he refused. Then I asked for his blessing, because I had made up my mind to serve no
other God but the God of Israel, but I was going back to Damascus where my king would
worship in his temple. I wanted to be faithful, but I was going into a difficult situation.
Elisha looked at me, smiled, and simply said, “Go in peace.” That was not going to be
easy, for I was a man of war. But I became a new creation that day. I meditated on
Elisha’s words for a long time – in fact they stayed with me for the rest of my life. I knew
that I had to have the peace of God in me, no matter what circumstances I would find
myself in.
That’s my story. Truly, I realized then, and have known for 3,000 years
that there is no God in all the earth but your God, and my God. May you experience the
same cleansing and reconciling grace that I received. Thanks for letting me share.
I chose to read Naaman’s story myself because I have always identified
with his story. I was never an army commander, but for most of my life I was perceived
as successful, in business where I was president of my company, and at home, where we
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raised five kids, all healthy, talented and apparently well-behaved. Appearances were
important to me, as they were to Naaman. Being in charge was important to me, as it was
to Naaman. And I felt that I had control over many of my circumstances, being my own
boss at work, and seeming to do the right things as far as my family was concerned.
But God would use a crisis in my family to get my attention. He said, in
effect, “You are not in control of your destiny – I am. And you are going to have to trust
me to do the work that only I can do.” Like Naaman, who did his best to cover up his
leprosy but had to come clean at the Jordan, I had to humble myself and come clean as I
realized I couldn’t fix what was happening in our family. It was the best thing that ever
happened to me, and gave me a renewed confidence in my Savior and a greater
understanding of his plan and care for me. I understood the Gospel as I never had before,
and while the Gospel is not exactly what Naaman came to know (as the Gospel is the
good news of Jesus Christ, and this was well before Jesus’time), he understood God’s
redemptive plan for his life for the first time.
I mentioned two weeks ago that at The Orchard we like to explain the
Gospel with four words: Lord, Sin, Savior and Faith. The Gospel is all through this story,
even if it is in the OT. Let’s see how:
It starts with the belief that Jesus Christ is Lord. We can freely
acknowledge with words that Jesus is Lord, but often we act like we are – we try to do so
much in our own strength, often not even realizing it. Or, we don’t even think about the
implications that there is a Lord of the universe.
Naaman certainly didn’t consider the implications. He was, no doubt, a
talented general, and it would be easy to see his success as a result of his own ability. It’s
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easy to fall into this trap when life is going well. And the world reinforces this thinking.
We can do it, if we try harder, work smarter, and if we buy this product or follow this
program. We have it in us to be masters of our own domain. The lordship of Christ is a
nice concept, but we don’t really need it when things are smooth.
That’s why God will use pain to point us to his Lordship. He used
Naaman’s leprosy to get his attention. He used my son’s struggles to get mine.
In our story, the person who maybe understood who her Lord was better
than anyone was the servant girl who pointed Naaman to Elisha. Her family had quite
likely been either killed or enslaved by Naaman’s soldiers. She would have seen death,
and violence, and would have wondered on many occasions why God was allowing all
this to happen.
Given her situation, she had no choice but to trust in God. She was
powerless to do anything else. And as a result her faith in God’s lordship was so strong
that she believes God will heal her enemy, pagan, leprous captor. No one enjoys the pain
and suffering that God allows in our lives. But when we have passed through it, and seen
God’s hand at work, and drawn closer to Him than ever before, we rejoice at His
faithfulness and are thankful for His lordship.
Imagine the servant girl’s response when Naaman returned, his leprosy
cured. I have the sense that seeing him would have moved her to worship and praise.
God is in control. He is able to do all things. I don’t understand him, and I wish my
family was still alive, but I trust him, and that is enough.
And now, the humble, servant Jewish girl, and the powerful pagan army
commander would be connected as spiritual brother and sister, all because of God’s
sovereign grace.
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Believing the Gospel starts with declaring that Jesus is Lord of the
universe, and therefore is Lord of our lives; every inch of our lives.
Lord, Sin, Savior, Faith – we acknowledge, or remind ourselves, or
declare for the first time, that Jesus is Lord. Secondly, we have to understand our
desperate need for him, because we are sinners. We sin because we are sinners; we are
not sinners because we sinned. In other words, it’s not that we are inherently good and
have just made some mistakes that we confess as sin. No, we sin because it is in our
nature to do so.
Without Jesus, we are all enemies of God, just as Naaman was. One of the
clearest meanings of the word “sin” is “rebellion.” We are rebels, rebelling against God’s
lordship; his authority. Again, the culture supports this – if you really are able to be the
center of your universe, and if you really have it in you to behave more morally, to
achieve more, to give more sacrificially, then you don’t need God and will resent any
notion that he has authority over you.
This is why we have no absolute truth today. What is true for you may or
may not be true for me, and that’s OK, because we are our own functional gods, and of
course that puts us in rebellion against the true God, and that is sin.
The second meaning of sin in Scripture is to “miss the mark,” or “not
measure up.” We have the Ten Commandments as a standard to measure up to, and in
our own strength we never can, leaving us to feel a sense of shame and worthlessness.
The culture’s admonitions to just try harder, worry less, listen to the expert or try the new
program ring hollow because we know another failure is imminent. We can’t measure
up, and as rebels we really don’t want to measure up.
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The Christian doctrine of sin helps to paint the most realistic worldview.
The fact is that without Christ we will continue to fail and we will continue our own
selfish programs, putting us in constant conflict with others. Look at the world – if just
trying harder works – just being more moral, more patient, etc. – then why does the
amount of evil and darkness continue to increase?
Naaman’s leprosy is a clear picture of not measuring up and the shame
associated with that. Old Testament law forbade Jews from associating with anyone who
had leprosy. They were not allowed in temple – in other words, they were not allowed to
approach and worship God – and when they would enter a town, they had to cry out as
they walked, “Leper!” so that others would stay away.
The Temple, where God resided, represented holiness and perfection.
God’s people were to keep themselves undefiled so that they could stay in relationship
with a holy, perfect God. But our sin nature makes us all spiritual lepers, unable to
approach God.
To confess that Jesus is Lord, and to confess that we are rebels who are
unclean in the presence of God is necessary to fully access the power of the Gospel. If
the “fear of the Lord” is the beginning of wisdom, which it is, then the recognition of our
sin is the beginning of our salvation.
What was Naaman’s sin? It was not his physical leprosy. He may have
had anger issues – he certainly was with the king of Israel and then with Elisha. But I
think his sin that required confession was his pride. His pride is what caused him to be
self-sufficient and to feel entitled to the privileges of someone in his position. He was a
powerful army commander with a lot of money – it was all that should have been needed.
James tells us that we are to humble ourselves so that the Lord will exalt us (i.e. raise us
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up). But the opposite is true as well – if we continue to build ourselves up, the Lord will
most likely continue to humble us until we figure it out.
What is my sin? Quite a few – anger, impatience, and a lack of selfcontrol come to mind. But the one that is difficult to shake is my tendency to think I can
save others. Here’s what I mean – you know that I have counseled quite a few people in
the church. I have invested time, emotion and energy into a number of relationships, all
because I truly want them to experience God’s grace. I want them to clearly see the
Gospel and apply it as salve to the point of greatest pain in their life.
And, I actually give them wise counsel – at least I am sure that I do. If
they would just do what I tell them, they would get better. You know what? They don’t
always follow my direction, and for a guy with control issues, this really frustrates me.
But the reason it can frustrate me is that I am acting like their savior. I know I’m not, but
I act like it. Nothing is more deserving of confession than this sin, and I am grateful to
God for pointing that out to me. I am a sinner in recovery from sin. So is every other
believer. And when I am humbled by the realization that I continue to struggle with sin,
it is then I am lifted up into closer communion with Christ.
Is there an area of your life this morning where you are rebelling against
God’s authority? You know how God is calling you to act, and you ignore him,
functioning as your own god, putting yourself in a conflict you’ll never win?
Are you burdened by the shame of not measuring up, again and again? An
old habit is not shakable. A relationship stays strained, in part because you continue to
say or do things that don’t allow reconciliation. I have no idea, but as we sing, “sin has
left a crimson stain.” Our sin nature has made us into spiritual lepers.
The Apostle Paul summarizes our struggle with sin in Romans 7:
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So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at
hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members
another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of
sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from
this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Ah, yes – thank God that the Gospel is “Lord, Sin, Savior, Faith” and not
just “Lord, Sin.” But it has to be in this order, because without knowledge of our sin,
we have no need of a savior. And I would say that the more deeply we understand
our sin nature, the more deeply we understand God’s grace. We can confess that we
are sinners, and go no further with our confession, but if that’s as far as we go, we
miss out on just how amazing our Savior is.
So much in Naaman’s story points to Jesus Christ, to the one who is
Lord and Savior. In his rebellion (as an enemy of Israel) and in his shame (his
leprosy) Naaman humbles himself to believe in the word of God as spoken through
Elisha, and that is to wash in the Jordan River.
The Jordan is significant for several reasons. First, God’s people
crossed the Jordan when they entered the land God had promised to them, so the
Jordan signifies the covenant of God to bring his people into the Promised Land.
That was a good covenant, but the better covenant is the covenant of Jesus Christ –
his blood is the blood of the new covenant, the promise that one day we will be with
Christ in the promised land of heaven.
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It was in the Jordan that John the Baptist baptized Jews with the
“baptism of repentance.” Naaman dealt with his physical leprosy in the Jordan, but
first century Jews dealt with their spiritual leprosy in the Jordan.
Most amazingly, Jesus humbled himself to be baptized in the Jordan.
Elisha the prophet told Naaman where to go to be clean. Jesus the Savior showed us
the way to be clean, by humbling himself to be baptized even though he knew no sin.
When he came up out of the water, his Father said, “This is my Son, with whom I am
well pleased.” When we come to the Father in repentance and faith, we experience
the same blessing. It’s why we are baptized. Symbolically, we die with Christ to sin
when we go under the water, and we rise with Christ to new life when we come up.
Elisha would bless and command Naaman when he said, “Go in
peace,” literally shalom. Shalom is God’s rest; Cornelius Platinga says that “shalom”
is the way it should be. It is peace in the sense that all is right with God; it is far
more than the absence of war. To the degree we can, we should, in view of God’s
mercy to us, be “shalom people” we should act and speak peaceably, as God’s
“shalom people” in this world, just as Naaman vowed to do.
But our Savior is our peace. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 2:
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remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the
commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and
without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have
been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace.”
No alienation; no enmity; only reconciliation and peace with God the
Father – this is what your Savior has done for you.
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And consider that Jesus reaches out to touch the lepers. Elisha
showed great mercy to Naaman, but refused to touch him. Jesus is never put off, or
unwilling to touch those of us who are spiritual lepers. Let this be good news for
those of us who deal with the shame of our spiritual leprosy. Romans 8:1: There is
now no condemnation; no shame; no spiritual leprosy for those who are in Christ
Jesus. Jesus came from heaven to earth to touch spiritual lepers like us – the depth
of his love should stagger us, first, and then move us to confidence that we are clean.
His blood touches us, and washes us clean. This is our Savior.
No one here is outside the love of the Savior. If Jesus Christ is your
Lord, and if he is your Savior, there is no sin that can leave you a leper; no sin that
can leave you as an enemy of God; no sin that keeps you un-reconciled; no sin that
leaves you unclean, or blemished, or stained. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ – it is
good news; it is life changing news; it is world transforming news.
Lord, Sin, Savior, Faith – faith may be the most mysterious part of the
Gospel. We know that we are saved by grace, God’s grace, by faith, and this is from
God. So even faith is from our Savior. Faith in our Savior comes from our Savior.
And yet, when the crowds following Jesus asked him what they could
do to get more of the bread that he provided when he fed the five thousand, he
answered them by saying, “This is the work of God, that believe in whom he has
sent.” So faith is a gift, and it is a command. Because we struggle with sin, because
we naturally choose to believe the lies that we can never be reconciled to our
Father, that we can never be good enough, clean enough, Jesus our Savior
commands us to believe in the good news that has been given to us.
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If you are in Christ, there is no condemnation – do you believe that? If
someone, like a poor servant girl with tremendous faith tells you how you can be
clean, will you believe, and then, like Naaman, act on that belief, however weak and
go to where the healing and cleansing happens?
The power of the Gospel in our lives is weakened only by our inability
to fully believe it. Even then God is faithful – He is patient and abounding in
steadfast love; long-suffering love – but why we choose to believe anything less than
the good news of Jesus Christ?
So believe the Gospel, like Naaman. Walk in shalom, like Naaman.
Understand you that you have indeed been saved by grace through faith, for a
purpose, just like Naaman. And that purpose is, Paul continues in Ephesians 2, that
we have been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them.
May we never forget that we have been washed white as snow – clean,
just like Naaman.
And may God grant us the ability to believe the Gospel, so that we may
walk in its light and power, bearing testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ is forever
Lord and Savior.