Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
November 11, 1984
Honesty for Naaman
2 Kings 5:1-14, KJV
When we dig below the surface we find that our passage today is about honesty. It's what happens to a person when they are willing to admit their condition. But first we have to catch up on what has happened. Last week I preached on how Elijah heard the still small voice of God while he was in the cave on Mt. Sinai. According to the Bible, some time after this episode Elijah chose someone else to take over his ministry. This new man was named Elisha. Then finally in the second chapter of 2 Kings, Elijah was raptured to heaven. While his follower Elisha looked on, a fiery chariot came between them and Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. For all his human faults, Elijah was so obedient to God that he's one of only two people in the Bible who never died but went straight to heaven.
His follower Elisha became a great prophet in his own right. One of his dramatic miracles concerned a foreign general named Naaman. It was no small thing to be a general in those days because it was based purely on merit. If you couldn't win battles you ended up with your head on a pole. Naaman seems like he was a success all-round. Look at how he is described in verse 1. He is captain, or general, over the Syrian army. He was considered a great man. He was honorable, which means his king thought highly of him. He was a mighty man in valor, which means he was famous for his bravery. This was in the days when a general had to be able to whip any man in his army.
With all his successful attributes there was one thing Naaman could not face: he was a leper. Leprosy in the Bible covers a number of skin diseases which were greatly feared by ancient people. They feared leprosy as much as we fear cancer. A leper was considered physically and spiritually unclean. Even if his form of the disease was not contagious, people would have avoided him. Naaman wanted to get rid of this disease at any cost.
His solution came from an unlikely source. After a battle Naaman had captured a Jewish girl and he brought her back to be a servant. She told him about a prophet in Israel who could cure leprosy. Naaman decided to try her advice. First he got permission from his king who encouraged him to go. The king sent along a letter to the leader of Israel, who was probably controlled by the army of Syria at this time. The second thing Naaman did was to take along a little money. To be exact, 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold and ten suits. Altogether, these are worth maybe one million dollars, depending on whether the suits were from Walmart or Macy's.
Now the king of Israel wasn't blessed when he received Naaman's letter. The king knew that God couldn't be controlled by politics. Elisha took the king off the hook by inviting Naaman to his home. Naaman arrives - this great general is in a fancy chariot surrounded by mounted soldiers, he's got a million bucks on hand and what does Elisha do? The prophet doesn't even budge. He just sends a messenger out who says, "Go jump in a lake." At least that's how Naaman took it. Compared to about any river in the world, the Jordan is definitely third rate. It's about a tenth the size of the Tuscarawas and it's the same color. So you can imagine his disgust. He would have given up completely if it weren't for his servants. In verse 13 they say to him:
"If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? How much more then, when he tells you, Wash and be clean?"
So Naaman goes down to the river and takes off all his armor. People see him for what he really is. He had tried everything else. He tried to pay but no one would take his money. He had wanted Elisha to conduct a little healing service, complete with laying on of hands but instead, he finds himself exposed on the bank of a muddy creek. He comes God's way and in complete honesty receives the gift of healing.
One thing I have found in two years of ministry is that the world is full of Naamans. Outwardly they are successful. They've got the nice homes, secure jobs and happy families. Their neighbors wish they could be just like them but underneath all the armor there is disease. Leprosy is no big deal these days. Doctors have medicine to control it. Modern Naamans have a disease that is more elusive. Just think a moment about the diseases of the 20th Century. Every day millions of people rely on drugs or alcohol to get them through. Christians usually focus on these habits and think they have identified the problem but they haven't. People don't become alcoholics for the fun of it. They turn to alcohol or drugs because they have problems they can't face. As our world runs faster and harder each year we see thousands more who turn to this escape -even in our churches. Many people are dissatisfied with their relationships and this is probably one of the deadliest diseases around. We want to find that person who is going to fill in all our empty spots. Usually you can find someone who fills in a few of them but even then your eyes keep looking. We're never satisfied. We're never at peace.
I think one of our basic problems isn't really relationships or habits - it's our low image of ourselves. We see everyone else's successful armor and compare it with the weakness in our own and they're doing the same thing and feeling just as bad. This is probably why the National Enquirer is the most successful newspaper in the United States. I never buy it but I must say that just reading the headlines in the supermarket line make me feel better. Every week the rich, famous and beautiful have their lives exposed. It's reassuring to see they have more hang ups than we'll ever experience. And if you do have one of their problems, it just makes you feel all the more glamorous - as long as no one else finds out.
It's one thing to be exposed on the front page of the Enquirer, it's quite another thing to expose yourself deliberately. In the Bible this kind of honesty takes two forms. First, we have to expose ourselves to God. Part of becoming a Christian is the act of repentance. True repentance involves exposing our sins and failings to God. It's not just saying, "I'm a sinner." To biblically repent you confess your specific sins to God and ask for cleansing. According to the Bible, admitting our condition before God should be tied to a greater openness before people as well. It's a transferable attitude, or at least it is supposed to be. However, few people really master it. Whether it's pride or fear of rejection, most of us can't open up to people but keep all our problems to ourselves.
The nationally known speaker, Charles Swindoll, held a retreat last year for fifty top leaders from Washington, D.C. He found that these very successful people, all of whom were Christians, could not open up to others. They were isolated. Some came right out and called it loneliness. One cabinet member told him that his personal relationships were this deep - [separate fingers by an inch] - he wasn't close to anyone.
I believe that being open to other people is just as important as being honest with God. You don't have to advertise your shortcomings on the front page of the Enquirer, or tell everyone you meet what your latest sin is but as a Christian we should be free to share our lives with other people. It's an honesty that can bring genuine healing.
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Sermon is derived from an article by Calvin Miller in Leadership Magazine, Spring 1983, page 17.
Typed on January 5, 2006, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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