The Sixth Sunday After Epiphany
February 12, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline
2 Kings 5:1-14 1 Corinthians 10:19-11:1 Mark 1:40-45
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is the Old Testament lesson which was just read,
especially these words, “and he was clean.”
Thus far our text.
Dear friends in
Christ. Naaman was an enemy of God. I know that is a very strong and bold statement,
but it was the truth. He was a complete
mortal enemy of God, despising his Word and hating what the true God stood
for. He was diametrically opposed to
everything Godly. He wanted to do
whatever he could to destroy the idea, the thought and even the memory of
God.
Now don’t get me
wrong. Naaman probably was an average
everyday person, even as he was commander of Syria’s army. He was wealthy and influential in his own
land. He probably had a family that he
loved, friends that he laughed with, and people he cared for. He wept when they died, and smiled when
something exciting happened. But even in the midst of all these everyday
things, he was a mortal enemy of God.
So it is quite the
predicament that we have in our text today.
Naaman, the Great Syrian General, the powerful, the great, the wonderful
deliverer of Syria from God, had one small problem. He was a leper. Leprosy was the ancient title for a variety
of skin diseases, diseases that could eat away the flesh, which could slow
healing, and could cause loss of limbs or even death. It was not a good thing to have in that time,
as not only did you have these health issues, but when you contracted leprosy,
people avoided you. They didn’t want
leprosy too, so they avoided lepers. In
Israel they made them cry out from 50 feet away “Unclean! Unclean!
Unclean!”
Imagine the day
they diagnosed such a disease. Imagine
the hurt, the pain, and the questions.
“Why me, why?” It isn’t fair, It
isn’t what I deserve. And yet, here I am
cursed with this disease.
The Father Naaman,
sick. The great general Naaman,
unclean. What a turn of events. It’s not fair, it’s not what he wanted, and
it isn’t what his family wanted. But
Naaman had an Israelite slave, captured in a raid and forced to serve the Great
Leper Naaman for the remainder of her life.
She had nothing that Naaman had.
But she did have something Naaman didn’t. Faith in God.
This young slave, faithful even in her duty to serve, told her master,
“Would that Naaman were with the Prophet in Israel. He would heal you.”
So Naaman goes to
Israel, to find this prophet. All of
Israel is afraid and nervous at the entrance of this great general seeking
healing. This great enemy of God now
seeking rescue in God’s holy land. And
finding Elisha, Elisha says, “Go wash seven times in the Jordan river, and you
will be clean.”
It sounds
preposterous doesn’t it? Washing in a
river can’t heal this. Washing in a
dirty river isn’t going to make him clean.
In fact, it will probably make him worse won’t it? It is just a silly ritual that those
religions crack jobs from Israel told him.
Naaman thinking the same thing, leaves the river behind, deciding to
return to his own land.
But as they are
packing up, to go and try the same thing with the water of the Rivers of Syria,
a servant speaks to Naaman, “My Father, why not give it a try. The prophet said you would be clean, dip in
the water, what could it hurt?” Naaman
washes, and is clean, his flesh no longer leprous, but instead fresh as a
baby’s bottom.
Dear friends, I
know this is quite the long history of Naaman’s life. What in the world does it have to do with us
here this morning? Why take so much time
talking about it? Because dear friends,
at one time you too had been an enemy of God.
I know that is a bold statement, just as it was for Naaman, but one time
you were God’s mortal enemy. For conception
you had turned your back on him. You had
hated him. You had despised the very word
of God and did everything in your power to go against him. You hated!
Hated! Hated God.
And so God made
you sick. Not only as a punishment, but
also so that you might realize how badly had you needed a savior. God made you sick with death, death not just
of your body but also your soul. With
suffering. With weakness. God gave these things to you just as he gave
leprosy to Naaman. And now, before God, you are "Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!"
And just like
Naaman, God also gave you to wash. Not
to heal your bodily ailments, but to heal your soul, so that one day your body
might live forever. He sent a man, just
as he sent Elisha, to wash you, not seven times, but with the sevenfold spirit
– the Holy Spirit – and with the words “In the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit.” There you
were made clean, just as Naaman was.
There your old sinful self was destroyed, drowned forever in dirty
water. There he saved you, “not by
righteous things you had done, but by a washing of rebirth and renewal in the
Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5).
Dear friends, that
washing – baptism – has made you clean, just as Naaman was made clean. And it saves you, not because of magic water,
not because of the water is holy water, but because when God’s word is present with
the water, that water kills you with Jesus.
In that water, Jesus blood covers you so deeply that sinful self drowns
with him as he gives up his life for you , in your place. And then Jesus, having died for you sin rises
again, and takes you with him.
It is as if that
water is glue, that glues you back to God where you belong. “Or did you not
know that when you were baptized you were baptized into the death of
Jesus. You were buried with him,
therefore, through baptism into death, so that just as Christ has been raised
from the dead you too might raise into new life.”
It happened for
Naaman, for when Naaman came out of the water, he no longer hated God simply
because of the work that God had done for him.
And in the same way when your forehead was dried off, you no longer
hated God, because of what Jesus had done for you.
Yes I know, there
are times that sinful self still kicks up out of the water of baptism into your
life. I know there are times when you
would like to turn back to that sinful way, that has been killed in you. There were times in his life where Naaman was
sick still, but know this. That sin is
dead, here today and now, through the baptismal waters of Jesus Christ. That’s your promise, that’s your reality,
that’s God’s promise.
Wash me, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Pour your water and word upon me, and make me your holy, pure, clean child. It happened to Naaman, and through Jesus, it happens to me. Amen.
