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| "In all things transitory resteth no glory" - a good household motto and a key to wholeness |
It is the
encounter between Naaman and the prophet Elisha, although it all starts with an
unlikely, anonymous au pair. A young woman – probably a teenager – had been
abducted from northern Israel by an Aramaic (Syrian, in our terms) raiding
party, and sold into slavery. She became a maid to the wife of a senior
military commander, Naaman.
And at some
point Naaman had a problem. He contracted a disfiguring skin disease that could
have made him an outcast. The text calls it leprosy but the term was used for
several skin conditions. True leprosy today is a curable disease of skin and
nerves but it isn’t definitely known to have existed before the second century
BC – and Elisha was operating in the ninth century. But whatever it was, Naaman
was fragile, and his immune system needed help. And he probably ran the risk of
losing his job and status, if he was thrown out of society through the fear of
contamination.
1. Listen!
So he did the
right thing. He listened. To his wife. She had herself listened to her maid who
said that if Naaman went to Israel, a prophet there would heal him. But would
you as an experienced and well respected national leader listen to a foreign teenage
au pair advising you how to solve a personal medical problem? And that you’d
have to go to her country to do it? It would have sounded like a naive plot so
she could go with the entourage and escape back to her home.
But Naaman
listened, and decided to act on her advice. The German theologian Dietrich
Bonhoeffer once wrote “Christians are talking when they should be listening. He
who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be listening no longer to God
either.” Listening is a key ingredient of wholeness. You never know where or
how God may speak through another person.
2. Wait!
So Naaman set
off for Israel’s capital Samaria and did what anyone in that situation would
do. First he made sure he could pay for the treatment. He loaded his wagon with
gifts. And secondly he went to the king of Israel with whom at the time Syria
had a truce. He assumed that Elisha would be part of the royal court. Which was
a snag. He wasn’t. In fact, the king thought the visit was a clever ruse to
break the truce and pick a fight.
So Naaman
suffered what many of us suffer when we pray, for healing or anything – delay.
We go looking for help and we’re met with either silence or a brick wall. He’d
come a long way. He was probably tempted to turn round and go back home. Just
as when nothing happens after we pray, we too are tempted to give up. But
Jesus, of course, told us to be persistent in prayer. To wait patiently on and
for God.2 Waiting is anathema to us. We know what we want and we
want – and expect – it now. But there’s no such thing as a spiritual credit
card to buy a bargain in God’s shop window. Waiting is essential to wholeness.
Naaman paused, waited. And Elisha stepped in and called Naaman to visit him.
3. Let go of pride and status
Naaman’s hopes
rose. And then were dashed again. Elisha refused to see him. Instead he just sent
his servant with a message to wash seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman was
furious. He was a man of status. He expected to be received with courtesy,
deference even. He was also a man of grand gestures – he was a military
strategist. At the least he expected some visible sign, some dramatic ceremony
to effect healing. And the Jordan? Not much more than a muddy ditch. The rivers
in Syria were fed by melting snows and were clear and pure. Even Naaman knew
that dirty water wasn’t always health-giving.
He went off in
a huff because his natural pride was dented. Elisha was reminding him that
beneath his worldly status and achievement, he was just a man. A fragile man,
who needed help. Humility, like listening and waiting, is a key ingredient in
the recipe for wholeness and vital in every situation for which we pray.
Humility isn’t just about confessing our sinfulness in contrast to God’s
holiness, perhaps mouthing a confession in a church service while thinking of
nothing more than a forgotten appointment. Humility is standing in silence
before the eternal creator God, acknowledging his power and authority, knowing,
feeling we’ve no right to special treatment, and placing ourselves in his hands
come what may.
Naaman was
lucky. He had good advisers. Once again, he listened. They told him he had
nothing to lose and everything to gain. It wasn’t a big deal. Letting go of
pride and status never is a big deal when we get down to it. In fact, it’s
liberating. It’s a burden off our back. So he went.
4.
Do what God says!
He did exactly
what he was told. Obedience is another key ingredient in wholeness and healing.
If you’ve ever had a course of antibiotics, you’ll know that you’re supposed to
finish the course even if you feel better after a few days. You have to be
thorough, to make sure you’re free of the bacteria that invaded your system. Similarly
we’re called to be obedient to God in every part of our lives. In detail. How
can we expect his help in one area if we’re ignoring his wishes in another?
So Naaman
washed, seven times. Seven in the Bible signifies completeness. And I guess he
didn’t rush up and down the bank, dipping his toe in seven times. It reads as
though he washed. Came out. Dried. Changed. Then went down and washed again.
Seven times. With no sign that it was doing any good – until after the seventh
time.
5.
Be grateful!
He was healed. Imagine
the relief. But notice the response. He went back to thank and reward Elisha.
Elisha refused the gift – it was God who’d healed him – but the act of going
back was important. Remember Jesus’ encounter with ten lepers? All were healed
but only one came back to say thank you, to express gratitude. And to him
alone, Jesus said “your faith has made you whole”.3 He received
something more than a clean bill of health. He was changed on the inside too;
he became a better person, and by implication found God in a personal way. Gratitude
is a forgotten source of peace and wholeness.
6.
Be gentle!
But Naaman
hadn’t quite finished. He asked for soil to take home so he could worship God. Bodily
healing wasn’t an end in itself – it led to the greater wholeness of Naaman
finding God. Israel’s God was still regarded as a tribal God so having
Israelite soil meant God would be where Naaman was. Elisha didn’t challenge that
theological inaccuracy although he could have done. He recognised that Naaman’s
faith was real but weak and imperfect. Now was not the time for a sermon.
And he even accepted
that Naaman, in his official role, would have to take part in cultural
ceremonies that were directed to non-existent deities and at which Naaman would
cross his spiritual fingers, as it were, and think of the true God. Elisha was
OK with that too. The fiery prophet was exercising gentleness towards a new
believer: another key to both our’s and others’ wholeness.
Listen. Wait.
Let go of pride and status. Be thorough in your spiritual life. Be grateful. Be
gentle. It won’t make you perfect, but you will feel more fulfilled and you are
likely to be of more use to God and to other people.
Think and talk
1. Take time to
listen. Set aside time each day when you can just be silent in God’s presence.
Don’t jabber on about your needs or go through a shopping list of requests. Just
“Be still and know I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
2. When you are waiting for God to act, what do
you feel? Anxiety or trust? How might you discover more of the latter and
loosen the hold of the former over you?
3. Humility is recognising that we have no
special claim to preferential treatment.
4. Read Galatians 5 19-26. Which of the
negatives do you need to let go of, and which of the positives do you need to
work on if you are going to be thorough in your Christian life?
5. A good spiritual exercise is to find at least
five things (secuolar therapists suggest 10!) that you can be grateful for at
the end of each day. You’ll be surprised at the difference it makes to your life.
6. We expect other people to think and act
exactly as we do, but they don’t because they have different backgrounds,
understandings, personalities and experiences. Who do you need to be gentle
with this week? Look at Jesus’ example in Matthew 12:18-20.
References
1. The story,
the longest account of a single healing in the Bible, is in 2 Kings 5.
2. For example in Luke 18:1-8
3. Luke 17:11-19
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