In ancient Israel, leprosy was a disease that broke society into distinctive subsets: “clean” and “unclean.” In other words, there were insiders and outsiders – as ever, there was a reason to view the world in terms of “us” and “them.”
The story of Naaman is therefore quite remarkable in that the protagonist, Naaman, is doubly the outsider; he is both a leper and a foreigner; and not just any foreigner, but a captain in the enemy army fighting the people of Israel. It is his little captured slave girl who speaks of the Israelite man capable of healing him. Her words then set in motion an extraordinary series of events that lead to transformation, healing--
and the glory of Yahweh being revealed to people beyond the borders of Israel.
While reading this story we discover that nationality is not the required criteria for experiencing God's grace. Instead we learn the importance of humility, and trust. First Naaman must trust the words of his slave. Then he must trust the strange words of the prophet who will not even come out to speak to him in person. He must accept the position of humility that this places him in, and we see the struggle that takes place within him when a messenger and not the prophet tells him “Go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River.” Offended to be greeted by a servant of the prophet, he nearly throws away his one chance at obtaining healing.
His expectations of the prophet were not met, so he mutters that the rivers of his own land were better than this River Jordan, should he not go there instead?
...then his slaves help him to see that if the prophet had required some elaborate and difficult ordeal he would have been willing to do this, why not then do the simple thing required of him. Fortunately Naaman sees their point and is healed; he then understands the power of Israel's God.
Now finally, the prophet is willing to speak with Naaman who has recognized the God of Israel –but when Naaman offers gifts of thanksgiving to the prophet, Elisha refuses them. Naaman then asks to take earth from Israel, for when he is at home in Syria, he wants to make homage to the God of Israel. He vows that from now on, the only God he will truly worship is the God of Israel.
We have then a story of healing, of conversion, of the outsider becoming an insider. But we have also within this story a turning away from the path; we see betrayal. Greed overpowers Elisha's servant and Gehazi goes to get some kind of reward from Naaman. When he returns to Elisha and lies about his actions, the leprosy of Naaman clings to him. And an insider becomes an outsider.
Centuries pass, and yet the culture of Israel still divides its society into “clean and unclean.” The leper remains dead to the community. It is unlawful even for a leprous person to approach a “clean” person without crying out, “Unclean.” A man kneels before Jesus and says, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” It is both a statement that reflects their world view of leprosy—and his faith.
“If you are willing..” he says to a man of God. It was felt that leprosy was a mark of God's judgment. Physical manifestations of God's displeasure marked them as those who were to be shunned.
“You can heal me.” The man's faith is such that he believes in Jesus' ability to restore wholeness.
And Jesus, who is for us the visible expression of the invisible God,
has compassion and reaches out a hand to touch the “unclean” man.
His words speak of God's own willingness to bring healing to each one of us.
The man is made “clean.” But he too is given stipulations. He is not to speak of this healing... rather he is to go to the priests and offer the proscribed sacrifices of thanksgiving for his healing. The healing takes place on more than the physical level.... the man must reenter the world of the cult, resume his life within society, even as Jesus must live more and more at the edges of society.
While there could have been legitimate reasons for creating distance between members of society; the prevention of epidemics for instance...
hopefully we have lost the notion (never consistently held in Scripture) that illness and disease are symptoms of God's disfavour.
Certainly foolish actions and self-abuse can result in illness and disease, but what we see in this story is God's desire for people, all people, to find healing and wholeness.
This freely offered gift of healing to outsiders is part of God's divine plan to mend the brokenness of this world. And so it grieves me terribly to see political leaders –professing to be persons of faith—willing to destroy those whom they perceive as “outsiders,” as “other.” We have not lost that destructive tendency to see the world as broken into groups of “us” and “them.” We do not seriously contemplate the words, “We have seen the enemy and it is us,” because if we did, we would know that the faceless people we fear, look and act very much the way that we do. We all have our glories and our flaws. Or to use theological language, we are all sinners who nevertheless bear the divine image.
Do we understand that Iraq is a country devastated by war and embargo? Do we know that approximately half of its population is made of children and youth? Do we know that along side Muslims, there are Christians in that country the West has named as its Enemy?
War has never been an answer; it has always been an action born of desperation, or greed, or rage.
Jesus shows us God's way. It is the way of compassion, it is a reaching out to touch with healing.
Naaman went home knowing that he would have to give lip service to idols, but he knew also that he would never again worship anything or anyone but the true God, Yahweh. Elisha's servant. Gehazi, turned from worship of the true God to the worship of one of the world's great idols, wealth. Weapons and 'power over others' are other types of idols that seem to dominate our world.
As people who also seek Jesus' healing, we receive our commission as well. We are told to pray.
Let us pray for God's own compassion to touch the leaders of this world. Let us pray for ourselves, for forgiveness for our complacency and complicity.
May there be a conversion from the worship of power and wealth to a simple trust in the grace of God for all human persons
Let us pray for the healing of the nations, for the healing of the divisive notion of “insiders/outsiders”
May we rededicate ourselves to be servants of the living God,
aware and grateful for the giftedness of life.
