2 Kings 5:1-14

The Ancient Near East (Middle East) was an honor-shame culture, as was the 1st Century Roman Empire. To be honored (whether by your own deeds or someone’s in your family) by those with status was among the highest values, and who had more status than a deity? To be disgraced was to be avoided at all costs.

By refusing to see Naaman, Elisha treated him without the deference that his station and honor warranted. Perhaps this slight was intended to humble Naaman, perhaps not. Yet Elisha’s prescription is not what is laid out in Leviticus. Instead, Elisha declares the possibility of an even greater miracle than what Naaman had imagined—this man of God (a curious designation for this prophet) will not even need to see a man for him to be healed and made clean. Leviticus requires him to be presented, perhaps repeatedly, before the priest in order to be declared clean (Lev. 13-14). Naaman is less than enthused. His anger bursts forth at being told to wash in the Jordan. This is often what we focus on.

Naaman is less than enthused. His anger bursts forth at being told to wash in the Jordan. This is often what we focus on.

Because Naaman is everything we love to hate and hate to face.

Naaman is an outsider, a foreigner, an Aramean. He is the commander of an enemy army, yet the Lord continued to give him victory. We hate to see our enemies succeed. Naaman at first rejects the word of Elisha, and we love to point that out.

Naaman is successful and “in high favor” (v. 1). Yet he also seems to remain approachable, as his servants are able to speak correction to him. We don’t talk about those parts of him either. Instead, we hang our thoughts of him upon his affliction. He may be all those things, but he is also a leper (or a man with another infectious disease). He may have been given victory by God, but he was also given a disease that ought to separate him from us.

It’s far easier to relate to Elisha in this passage. Much of the narrative of evangelical Christianity has centered on “having answers” to the ultimate questions of reality. Because of this, we can relate to the exasperation of Elisha as the king of Israel is unable to imagine the Lord meeting this need. We viscerally experience a distaste when Naaman rejects the instruction of the prophet. We feel our lips snarl with scorn when he offers a gift as recompense, as if the Lord’s miraculous healing could be purchased. We know what it is to have the foolish and arrogant reject the truth that we carry.

The dark truth, however, is that we are reflections of the less-than-holy aspects of Naaman. We have come before God unclean and unworthy. Perhaps we have tried to mask the shame of our disease with the honor of the achievements that God has given us. Perhaps we are not even aware that God is the one who gave them to us. Instead we hide behind the myth of meritocracy—“I have earned what I have! Those who don’t have haven’t earned it!” We have come with expectations and want to believe that our extravagant gifts can make the gift come to us more freely. The very gifts that we have on the basis of God’s grace become that which we attempt to leverage in order to appear deserving of more grace.

Perhaps we have even used the gifts of God to buy and sell others in slavery or oppression. We hide our faces from the sinister realities of children in cages without basic necessities; we close our ears to cries of the homeless around us; we shut our eyes against the destruction of our planet because it’s more convenient to have plastic straws. The blights upon our bodies are festering and open wounds, yet we bring garish gifts before the Lord in hopes of gaining favor.

Yet when the Lord graciously provides a means of our healing, we grow angry when it doesn’t appear in the packaging we expect. Just as we remain unaware of the Lord’s hand in our battles, we remain unable to hear the word of the Lord from the mouth of a messenger. We want unmediated access, but the dark truth is why we want it. We do not desire the presence of the Lord because of God’s goodness. No, we want to be honored by the Lord’s presence, so that everyone will see our honor.

Yet when Naaman is confronted by his servants, he responds in humility and does what the prophet has commanded and returns to pay his respect and honor to Elisha. Instead of continuing in his folly, he listens to those beneath him and repents by obeying the word of Elisha. Naaman then seeks wisdom and blessing from the prophet in order to return to Aram a faithful follower of YHWH, visit www.miraclemovers.com. Even when the greedy servant of Elisha solicits gifts for himself, when he does so in the name of Elisha, Naaman gives freely and without question.

Often the gifts the Lord offers us are not what we desire. They seem too simple or too commonplace, so we overlook them or scoff at their meagerness. Yet Naaman’s story reminds us that the same Lord who glorified the widow’s miter and scorned the glory-seeking wealthy uses those who are outside our boundaries to remind us of our own poverty before God.