Naaman

2 Kings 5:1-19
Matt Reynolds
July 7, 2013
SPUMC
***A significant portion of the thoughts and ideas in this sermon come from Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer
Presbyterian Church in New York and a sermon that he gave on 2 Kings 5 on 10/10/99. I am indebted to him for his
insights and helpful exposition.***

Good morning! Today we continue our Summer in the Scriptures focus.

Remember to check out your GPS insert, where you will find our 4 Bible readings
for the week. I hope everyone will take a chance and read those this week. And
then check the devotional thought on one of those passages. Todays message I
want to look a little deeper into one of the stories that comes from 2 Kings 5.
Now I am going to share this story with you in a little different way today.
Instead of reading it straight from the Bible I want to share a version with you from
a childrens book called the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyed-Jones. And let
me just put in a little plug for this book. We got this book for our son based on a
recommendation from a good friend. And this is the best childrens storybook
Bible I have ever seen. The content helps bring the stories to life for kids but the
way she writes is deep enough that I know some adults who use this devotionally
too. The masterful thing that she does is she helps demonstrate how every story
points to Jesus in one way or another. And that is a main point that I want to try
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and highlight from todays story so I thought I would read it to you from this
childrens book perspective.
You know sometimes even when we read the kind of stories like I am going
to read today from our regular Bibles we think about them like Sunday school
stories. Whats the moral of this story? Be nice to people. Ok good, got that one
down. But friends, these stories have so much more deep truth than that. I hope
you will hear that come through from todays text. Alright, here we go with a little
story time with Pastor Matt.
[READ FROM THE BOOK]
In Luke 7 the disciples of John the Baptist ask Jesus, Are you the one? Are
you the one we have been waiting for? And Jesus answers, Go back and report
to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk,
those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the
good news is proclaimed to the poor.
These are not only incredible miracles in their own right. These are special
signs that God is at work. And the only other place we see this incredible stuff
happening through people in the Bible is through the ministry of Elisha and Elijah
in the Old Testament. Something special is at work here in this story of Naaman
being cured of leprosy.

So I want to suggest today that this story of Naaman is the perfect picture of
what it looks like to have a life changing encounter with God. And I just want to
kind of walk through what happened with Naaman and try to discover truth for us
today too.

Lets start by assessing Naamans situation.

Here is a man who is the ultimate insider. We know he is wealthy because
he has slaves. He is a victorious general. When he references the king leaning on
his arm in verse 18 that means he is the prime minister. He has gotten into the
inner circle. He has arrived. He is a part of the Syrian elite.
But now something has happened. A spot, as Naaman references in verse
11, has showed up. The high life has become blemished. He has leprosy and this
was the ultimate outsider disease. When this horrible disease progressed it would
kill you from literally falling apart. It ate you up. People with this disease were
outcasts because of fear of being contagious and because it simply did hideous and
ugly things to your body. Now Naaman is not at that point yet. It is has just
started, but he knows its just matter of time. Naaman the ultimate insider now has
leprosy, the disease of outsiders.
Not only is Naamans health at stakebut the noble life that he loves, all
that he has worked for, his life as an insider is at stake.
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Step back for a minute, Why is that we are so concerned with being on the
inside? What is that drives us to want to be accepted, thought well of, etc. C.S.
Lewis writes about how everyone has a desperate drive to be on the inside. He
says the reason is that deep down we know we are spiritual outsiders. When
humans fell and chose sinin the garden we felt the shame of nakedness and we
were removed from real royalty, real wealth, real power and real beauty and
wholeness. And so ever since we have been trying desperately to do anything we
can to cover that feeling by trying to become an insider anywhere elsein society
in our job, with a special relationship with a guy or girl, etc.
One thing that we learn through Naaman is that something has to happen if
we ever are going to be healedwe have to recognize the inner leprosy that exists
on the inside of all of us. That despite how cool or uncoolhow tremendous a
resume or not we may haveto recognize that on the inside we are all outsiders
rotting away if left to our own devices.
In order to really be healed spiritually we have to have a relationship with
the God who created us. It is our separation from him that makes us feel like
outsiders. It is our desire to be in relationship with Him that is really the driving
factor behind all of the stuff we do to fit in with societyeven when we look for
love in all the wrong places.

So let me highlight two things we have to have if we are going encounter

God. I think we see both of these in Naamans story.
First, we need to realize that religion wont work.
As soon as Naaman goes to meet a religious man he gets religious and we
see in his example that religion as humans try to do it, doesnt work.
What is religion? If I live right. If I am really a great person. If I do the
moral thing, etc. Then God will have to bless me. Thats religion.
Lets look at the three things he does that are typical of religion.
1. He goes to the top, the insiders. Where did the little girl tell him to go?
To Elisha the prophet. Where does he go? He goes to the king of Syria to get a
letter of recommendation and then to the king of Israel. Why? Religion is always
associated with respectable and well-to-do people. Because if religion is, If I
really do well, if I am really great, then God will bless me.then who do we
figure will help us? Accomplished people. People who have gone to the top,
people who have climbed the latter. We think they must be the people that God is
blessing. You dont go to the failures, slaves, outsiders. If you are really good,
God will bless youso you go to the top.
But God is continually cutting right through that garbage. The first word of
God comes through a little servant girl. The second word comes, not even through
Elisha himself, but a messenger of Elisha. Finally, the only reason he goes and
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washes and eventually is healed is because Naamans own servants come after
him.
Over and over and overin this story and throughout the scriptures God
works through the least expected, the lowly, the outsiders. He is telling Naaman
and telling us today. You need a paradigm shift. Religion isnt about the good
people and accomplished people. Many times they are the farthest ones from God.
So the first mark of religion is only going to insiders, the accomplished, etc.
A second tendency of typical religion that Naaman highlights for us comes
when he tries to point to his great life and earn his healing. He comes with this
letter from one king to another king, but he also brings ten talents of silver, six
thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. He says look at melook at my
lifeI have been very good. I deserve to be healed. God has to bless me.
You see, in religion, you tell God what to do. You are making God an offer
he cannot refuse. It is a way of getting leverage and control on God. But the king
of Israel tells Naaman that Israel is a different sort of place. This is the one place
where God speaks through the prophets and tells the kings what to do.
You cant earn this. You cant buy it. Religion tries to do both of those.
Thirdly, he comes all ready to do a great deed. Verse 9so Naaman went
with his chariots and great horses to the house of Elisha. He went with his
entourage. Why does he come up with this grand fanfare? Because he thought
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Elisha might say do something great. He thought that he may need to do

something to earn his healing. He thought Elisha might say, Bring the broomstick
of the wicked witch of the west. Slay a dragon. This was his view of religion.
Whatever God tells me I will do it and then he will give me what I deserve.
Perhaps Elisha will give him some great thing to do to earn his healing. And
Naaman was ready to perform.
But Elisha says to him. Go down to the river and just wash. Naaman says,
Wait a minute! Anybody could just wash! Any idiot could do that! How could
that be? How could this healing be free? Anybody could do that? What is this
grace?
That is why we dont want grace at first. We want control over Godwe
want to demonstrate our goodness and show how God owes us. When we
recognize that there is nothing we can do to earn Gods blessing all the sudden we
are out of control. God has all the power in that scenario.
This is so important. God has to break Naaman of this religious stuff. Only
speaking through the slaves, the king tearing his robes, Elisha sends out a
messenger, giving Naaman something so easyjust go wash. All of that
undermines the whole idea of religion for Naaman.
Why is it that when we clean up our lives, start doing the right things like
going to church, stop drunk every weekend, or whatever your particular sinful life
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may be or have beenthen we are confused when things dont go right. We think,
I cleaned up my life, how is that I lost my job? How are things not going well?
Friends that is a religious question. That is a Naaman question. We think because
we are trying to do the right thing, God has to bless me.
Here is what Naaman has to teach us today. Unless you stop trying to get to
God through religion, you will never meet him for real. You cant earn God. You
cant buy him. You cant know the right people. Or just figure out the right
answer. You have to receive a free gift.

But there is one other thing you have to know. It is not just enough to know
that Gods grace is free. Because it is not free exactlyits free to you. But its not
free. The other key point is that Naaman has a suffering servant in his life.
This slave girl is probably 13 or 14. Her life has been totally wrecked. Who
is responsible? Who killed her family? The leader of the Syrian army, Naaman.
In fact, since she was his slave he very well may have been on the raid that killed
her whole family.
So her life is broken. She is suffering. What does she do? Get back at him.
No. She forgives and points him in the direction that leads to his healing.
Think about this, if you go over to someones house and break something by
accident. Or lets say you a kid and you break the neighbors window with a
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baseball. When I was a kid we had this extremely old garage/barn thing out behind
our old two story downtown house. This things was over 100 years oldit just
had a gravel floor and all. Eventually the city told my parents they had to tear it
down. But in any case, on the front next to the door there were about a dozen little
panes of glass to make up a window. I felt it my duty during my childhood to
break each and every one of those and I think I did just that over a series of years.
But imagine you broke something a little more accidently as a kid at the neighbors
house. Two things can happen. You say I am so sorry I will pay for it to get fixed,
I am so sorry. And then if the neighbor is gracious and says no, no I forgive you,
its ok, dont worry about it. If that happens and the neighbor forgives you. What
happens to the price of the repair? It doesnt go into thin air. It still costs
something to have the window replaced. The neighbor in the act of forgiveness
has simply willingly accepted the cost on themselves rather than making you pay.
So think about this little servant girl. Her life is ruined and Naaman is the
one who has ruined it. But this little girl knows how he can be healed. What does
she do? She could have said, Ha ha I know how this guy could be healed, look at
this leprosy, he lost another finger todayI am not going to tell him how he could
be healed and then I am going to dance on his grave just like he danced on my
mother and fathers grave.

Or, she could do what she didshe forgave him. That means that he would
not have been saved unless she absorbed the price of Naamans sin. She took the
brunt of the cost. And think about thishad she chosen to be bitter and hold on to
her resentment. Would we have even heard of her now? Three thousand years
later would we be talking about her? No. Her willingness to forgive opened her
up to being used by God in such a powerful way that here we are studying the life
of a little servant girl thousands of years after she has left the earth.
Look you and I are like Naaman. We need to know that we are Naaman in
this story. I am Naaman.
I usually think I know better than God. I look for other ways to fix things
and turn to God as a last resort. Usually it takes a hardship for God to get my full
attention. I end up realizing that obedience is the only option and I should have
listened to God in the first place. I often question God when it doesn't make
sense...I forget that God's ways are not my ways. I am surprised when God works
through those I am not expecting like the servant girl...even though that is
consistently how God does his best work. I try to earn my way to God rather than
recognizing there is nothing I can ever do to earn his free gift of love.

You see, like Naaman, we all need a suffering servant. One who like the
little girl who looked down in the midst of his own suffering. Our suffering
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servant looked down while hanging on a cross and forgave us. He obsorbed the
pain that we deserved. He made a way for us to receive healing, even though it
was our sin and disobedience that caused his pain in the first place.
You see, who is the Christ figure in this story? The little servant girl. Not
one of the kings or even the prophet. God shows up in the least expected. That is
why Jesus showed up as a baby in a stable.
Friends in Naaman we see that pride is the real barrier to being healed. Our
inner leprosy is far worse than any physical ailment we may have. Religion cant
cure it. We cant do enough good stuff to fix it. Our only hope is recognizing
Gods available grace, washing in the Living Water, Jesus Christ, our suffering
servant who absorbed the cost of our sin, that we might be free and whole and
healed.
Friends, you and Iwe are Naaman. Are you letting pride get in the way of
Gods blessing?
Do you want to encounter Gods healing like Naaman? It will only happen
through obedience to a suffering servant, and his name is Jesus.
Lets pray.

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