Naaman 2 Kings 5:1-19. Matt Reynolds. July 7, 2013 SPUMC. Good morning! Today we continue our Summer in the Scriptures focus.

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1 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. Today s 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 children s 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 children s 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 1

2 and highlight from today s story so I thought I would read it to you from this children s 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. What s 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 today s 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. 2

3 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. Let s start by assessing Naaman s 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 it s just matter of time. Naaman the ultimate insider now has leprosy, the disease of outsiders. Not only is Naaman s health at stake but the noble life that he loves, all that he has worked for, his life as an insider is at stake. 3

4 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 sin in 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 else in 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 healed we have to recognize the inner leprosy that exists on the inside of all of us. That despite how cool or uncool how tremendous a resume or not we may have to 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 society even when we look for love in all the wrong places. 4

5 So let me highlight two things we have to have if we are going encounter God. I think we see both of these in Naaman s story. First, we need to realize that religion won t 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, doesn t 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. That s religion. Let s 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 don t go to the failures, slaves, outsiders. If you are really good, God will bless you so 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 5

6 washes and eventually is healed is because Naaman s own servants come after him. Over and over and over in 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 isn t 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 me look at my life I 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 can t earn this. You can t buy it. Religion tries to do both of those. Thirdly, he comes all ready to do a great deed. Verse 9 so 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 6

7 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 don t want grace at first. We want control over God we want to demonstrate our goodness and show how God owes us. When we recognize that there is nothing we can do to earn God s 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 easy just 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 7

8 may be or have been then we are confused when things don t 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 can t earn God. You can t buy him. You can t 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 God s grace is free. Because it is not free exactly its free to you. But it s 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 someone s house and break something by accident. Or let s say you a kid and you break the neighbor s window with a 8

9 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 old it 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, don t worry about it. If that happens and the neighbor forgives you. What happens to the price of the repair? It doesn t 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 today I 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 father s grave. 9

10 Or, she could do what she did she forgave him. That means that he would not have been saved unless she absorbed the price of Naaman s sin. She took the brunt of the cost. And think about this had 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 10

11 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 can t cure it. We can t do enough good stuff to fix it. Our only hope is recognizing God s 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 I we are Naaman. Are you letting pride get in the way of God s blessing? Do you want to encounter God s healing like Naaman? It will only happen through obedience to a suffering servant, and his name is Jesus. Let s pray. 11