"But He Was a Leper"

Well, it's been a wonderful start to the worship to God. Let's continue with the title today.

The title of our sermon today is, But He Was a Leper. But He Was a Leper. Some of you know where that phrase is found. Yeah, so I invite you to turn to 2 Kings chapter 5. This is where we find that phrase in the telling of this story. 2 Kings chapter 5 is where we'll begin. We're going to read verses 1 through 14. So 2 Kings 5 verses 1 through 14. Once upon a time there was a man named Naaman. And before we read this story, I want to give you a little bit of a context here.

Naaman, despite his unlimited access to resources, found himself here dealing with a problem that he could not control. He found himself being overtaken by an incurable disease named leprosy. And the story which is before us today is Naaman's search for a cure. Now, with every story that's told in the Bible, we'll do well to remind ourselves that while that story is being told and carried out here in the physical realm, while that story is being played out, we could say in the horizontal, if you will.

As you delve into biblical stories, we often find that its ultimate fulfillment, the ultimate fulfillment of that earthly story, is actually being played out on the vertical plane, if you will. Where the earthly story in the end actually has its ultimate meaning and ultimate fulfillment in the heavenly realms. And that certainly is the case with Naaman and Naaman's story. We're going to see that ultimately Naaman's story is our story and mankind's story.

So let's get right to it. Let's read this story together, set our scene here. Naaman comes on to the stage here in 2 Kings 5. Let's begin in verse 1. Now, Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria.

He, Naaman, was also a mighty man of valor but a leper. And the Syrians had gone out on raids and brought back a captive, a young girl, from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman's wife. And she, this captive girl, said to her mistress, Naaman's wife, If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, for he the prophet would heal him of his leprosy.

Naaman, no doubt hearing this, verse 4, went in and told his master, saying, Thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel. Then the king of Syria said to Naaman, Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. So he, Naaman, departed and took with him ten talots of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.

And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, king of Israel, that I, king of Syria, have sent Naaman, my servant, to you, that you, king of Israel, may heal him of his leprosy. And it happened when the king of Israel read this letter, well, he tore his clothes and said, Am I, God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends a man to me to heal him of leprosy?

Therefore, please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me. So it was when Elisha, the prophet that the servant girl spoke of, when Elisha, the man of God, heard the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he, Elisha, sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him, Naaman, come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. Then, verse 9, Naaman went with his horses, his chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha's house, and Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Elisha, go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.

But, upon hearing this from the prophet, Naaman became furious, and he went away and said, Indeed, I said to myself, He will surely come out to me, and stand and call upon the name of the Lord God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy. Are not the Abana and the Far Par the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?

So Naaman turned away in a rage, and Naaman's servants came near and spoke to Naaman, and said, My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, Wash and be clean? So, in the end, Naaman went down, dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Well, let's stop there. Well, there you have it. This is our story that we come to today. It's quite a story, as you can see here. And again, I want to just pause here at the beginning of this message, and I want to express the fact that the Bible does tell a story. And the story of the Bible is one story, if you will. One story which runs throughout the whole of the book.

And it's the story of the relationship between God and man, where the Bible details how that relationship began. The Bible details how that relationship was broken. Also, the Bible tells the story of how that relationship can be reconciled again, where this book, of course, tells us the cause of all troubles. But even better, it tells us the answer to the troubles we face.

And it is those elements of that overarching story which is wonderfully illustrated through this man named Naaman here.

This story takes place in Syria. If you look back at that time, you would find that Syria was an incredible country. Its main city was Damascus. A vibrant, prosperous city, to say the least. If you were going to journey to Damascus from Jerusalem, it probably would be about a six-day journey. The city's location was alongside the river. There were, if you want to say it this way, two international highways that was at the crossroads here of Damascus. That guaranteed this city to be prosperous and important. This was also a beautiful place in which this story takes place. It was called the Oasis City, one of the most beautiful cities in the world at that time. Although Damascus was near a desert here, close to the desert, it had ample water from two rivers which would support this area. If you look up the narrative at this time, you would find that there were vineyards, an abundance of crops, fruits, grains, nuts, cotton, wood, silk, olives, and even tobacco. The Albana River was the primary source of water for Damascus, but the Farpar River ran on the outskirts of Damascus. So it was down in the lowlands where this oasis existed, and that's where Damascus was built. So it was this land to which this story emerges was prosperous, beautiful. It was on the cutting edge of cultural advances and significance.

All opportunity was flourishing at that time. So Naaman lived within this context, and not only that benefit, but he had the benefit of just having this very enviable status and position. He was a commander, verse 1 tells us there, a commander of the army, very influential in the community. He was great in the sight of his master. His master would have been the king, no doubt.

So if the king himself considers you quite a great man, that's saying something. So he had the highest of influence. Honorable.

You know, he had been given success in his position, as verse 1 told us. The Lord had given victory to Syria at his command there. He would have had status, esteem. The people would have regarded him as a man of valor, greatly admired, and he was rich. We get a little indication of his richness there in verse 5, where we have a list of some of the possessions that he traveled with there. Gold, silver, plenty of change of garments, you know. So he had extensive worth. So might, favor, esteem, highly regarded, wealth, victorious, valiant.

But, but, that little three-letter word there at the end of verse 1, but he was a leper.

You see, that one dimension of his life overshadowed everything else. All the benefits, all the accomplishments clouded by this one aspect of his life, this disease of leprosy. And it was overtaking him. And it was disfiguring. It was infecting. It was dividing and isolating. Hideous. Absolute hideous condition. Despite all he enjoyed, the power, the influence, the wealth, the possessions, he was being overtaken by this problem. And there wasn't anything he of himself could do about this leprosy which was destroying his life. Yes, all these other things, but he was a leper. And that changed everything. You know, when you became a leper, it was over for you. You became an absolute outcast. Let me read you a little bit about the description of being a leper at this time. I'm going to read just a little portion from some commentary over the book of Leviticus. This is written by R. K. Harrison. R. K. Harrison, Old Testament scholar. Listen to what he says about the condition of leprosy.

A diagnosis of leprosy was a death sentence to the ancient Israelites. Once a man was branded a leper, he had to adopt a posture of a mourner, tearing his clothes, allowing his hair to become unkempt, covering his beard and mustache, crying unclean to announce himself.

He had to live outside the camp, perhaps with the company of other lepers. But his existence was nothing more than a living death. Unless there was a quick remission of the disease, the victim of the clinical leprosy knew his condition to be a lengthy one and a loathsome one, and would prevent significant contact with society. Most of all, the leper would be cut off from spiritual fellowship with the covenant people, and in a real sense, the leper would be without hope and without God in the world." Unquote. So this was what was confronting Nahum here, and he would look down daily, and he would see his skin changing before his eyes, all the different scabbing that would have occurred, and suddenly all the other things that he was, none of it could deal with the problem. So you see how his perspective would begin to change. And make no doubt—so I'm going to state this in case I failed to state it later—again, here before us in the story of Naaman, being described and carried out in the horizontal plane, this points the reader to that of the vertical plane, where this points us to the classic biblical story of the spiritual condition of men and women this afternoon, pointing us to the fact that men and women today find themselves suffering, if you will, from the condition of spiritual leprosy. Spiritual leprosy is the picture here, symbolic here, of what the Bible calls sin. Sin. So the physical condition faced by Naaman is the spiritual condition faced by each one of us today, because the fact is, when we look into the mirror to a man or to a woman, the reflection we receive back is the image of someone that is not as God intended. The Bible is absolutely clear from the beginning God made the heavens and the earth. He planted man in the beautiful Garden of Eden. Everything was good. Everything was wonderful. Everything was perfect. But when you read the beginning chapters of Genesis, you see that sin entered into the experience of mankind, into the human condition, and it spread. And it destroyed like a disease across humanity. Suddenly there's death. Suddenly there's disease. Suddenly there's chaos and confusion. And man is robbed of his goodness and perfection. That's why, if you describe your life today and your condition, despite status, esteem, perhaps wealth, accomplishments here on earth, all of it is still leading us to the inevitable three-word looming over us. But, but.

So again, the story of Naaman leads us to our condition today. Through Naaman's physical leprosy, we're led to the awareness of our spiritual leprosy today, where wages, wages of our spiritual leprosy, sin, those wages of death are looming over us and have spread to every man and woman. And it's no respecter of persons. Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God. No one is free from the all-inclusive nature of all have sinned. And sin destroys everything. It takes away from our ultimate joy. Sin finds us living in regret, wondering, why is it that I cannot get cured of these, of the scabs in my life and of my past?

You know, Naaman could try to deal with this problem with his status and his wealth and his possessions. He could try, but all those things would be futile. So there had to come a point in which he actually began to search, I mean truly search, for the cure. And that search, again, is all here in this wonderful story. And I think it's going to help us. The idea is it's going to help us solidify where we find healing today. So fascinating here. You know, all of the Old Testament points us to Jesus coming. See if you can pick up on some of those themes here in this story. Verse 3, where does his search begin? Well, it begins with a servant girl, an exile, the very opposite of where Naaman would naturally want to begin his search, right? Verse 3, this captive servant girl, this exile, spoke to Naaman's wife and spoke of the prophet in which her master could find the cure to his leprosy. So notice, and again, be thinking about broader terms here, the road to the cure begins with the words and faith of a humble servant girl. A humble servant girl. God would use her to bring about the eventual healing of Naaman. By the way, if you're ever feeling down and insignificant, you know, you can think upon these individuals that God uses in the Bible. Seemingly irrelevant, powerless, worthless.

Well, if God has looked upon you and smiled upon you for his purposes, well, there is no, of course there's no, that's where your worth comes from, of course. But I want you to notice that maybe the key in the study today, and perhaps it's the key in all healing, the healing that we're speaking of, is the process by which the words from this servant girl begins to break down Naaman's pride. This breaking down of his pride is ultimately what leads to his healing here. Naaman is going to have to listen to someone he normally would never listen to. I'm sure she couldn't even approach him. That's why she has to go through the mistress, you know. So that's a little humbling, no doubt, to even give any kind of credence to this no-name servant girl there. So a little bit of, we're starting to see a little bit of humility enter into Naaman's experience here, coming from listening to the servant girl. But you'll notice here that his heart is quite not there yet. You know, God is very patient with us. We don't always get it right at the beginning. So Naaman listened to her. That's a good start, but he doesn't take her advice because you'll notice she said go to the prophet, and Naaman goes to his king first, his earthly king, his earthly master, right? Verse 4, Naaman went to the prophet? No, he went and told his master the king, saying, well, this girl said thus and thus from the, you know, this girl from the land of Israel here. And so then Naaman's king in all of his bravado and elevation says, I've got this name and I'll take care of you. I'll get you set up. Let me just write a letter. And so the king of Syria, verse 5, says go Naaman and I'll send a letter to the king of Israel. We'll get this figured out king to king. Don't you worry. In other words, it's, you know, your solution is not going to come from a prophet of God. What was that servant girl talking about? You know, I'll take care of this. I, your king, will help you. You go, Naaman, load yourself up with gold and silver and the nicest of garments. You go do that. Let me draft this letter for you.

So earthly king to earthly king, that's where the solution comes from, no doubt. So off Naaman goes with the letter in hand, verse 6, and he brings this letter now to the other king, the king of Israel, in which the king of Israel, the king of Syria, writes to the king of Israel this letter, I have sent Naaman, my servant, to you, that you, king of Israel, may heal him of his leprosy. So first and foremost, wrong person, wrong place, of course. It's not what the servant girl instructed, but the king of Israel represents power, earthly power, right? This is where the solution would come from, no doubt, consumed with status here. And, you know, perhaps this is a word for us. These stories being narrated are for us. Think of all the benefits we have from the priceless call of God, and instead of those riches causing us to be humble and grateful, often we can, from time to time, fall into the posture of being elevated by the blessings we have, instead of giving God credit for the provisions and the blessings. And this is where Naaman was. We can appreciate, we can relate, no doubt. You know, and it's so obvious, who was responsible for all the benefits that Naaman had? Well, the indication's there in verse one. Who gave Naaman victory over the battles for Syria? For the Lord! The Lord, right there. All the victory and all the spoils that came with that.

All was a provision from God. But Naaman didn't recognize that. So it's a really good call out for us today. And just notice all the pomp and ceremony there in verse five. He departed the last part of verse five. Took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, ten thousand changes of clothing. I didn't do the conversion for today, but it sounds like a lot of riches.

Brought the letter, verse six, to the king of Israel.

Now, this did not please the king of Israel, as we see in verse seven. He is not pleased at all. Am I God? He says. So at least we have someone in this narrative that is putting forth the sounding, the proper divine note here. So we could say that the king of Israel was responding in the right way. Tourists close. And it is now in which, as the narrative goes, where Elisha overhears, the prophet of Israel overhears, and says to the king of Israel, let him come to me. So, verse nine, Naaman, seeing he was going to get nowhere with the king of Israel, there's some measure of humility that would be needed for him to move over and actually go to the prophet now. So Naaman, perhaps, is growing a little bit. He's still not there. And Elisha, and he goes to Elisha, verse nine, Naaman went with his horses, his chariots, stood at the door of Elisha's house. And I love the first part of verse 10. And Elisha came out to see the man of valor. No. Verse 10, Elisha sent a messenger there. That was a little bit of prick in Naaman's pride there, that Elisha himself didn't even go out. So Elisha, perhaps, was putting his finger on the point of issue with Naaman here. Let's just send one of my servants out there to instruct the great man of valor and what he should do here. Tell him to dip seven times in the Jordan River. That's verse 10. Go and wash in the Jordan River seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you. And you shall be clean here. You know, I'm sure Naaman at this point is just feeling not satisfied with those instructions, you know. He brought all the gold and the silver. And by the way, I have 10 changes of clothing, you know. I want to make payment. I still want to be in control I want to dictate my own healing as if I have some part of it. That way I can take credit for it. You see, don't you want some of these chariots here?

So, you know, no doubt at this point there's this internal battle between this very capable man, educated, capable, needing to bend a knee before the instructions of the one who's representing God, this prophet, the prophet Elisha. And he's furious at this point, verse 11. Indeed, he says to him, he says to, he said, I said to myself, so this is the inner dialogue here, he Elisha, Naaman says in his heart, surely he would have should have come out to me, and surely he should have stood. I had all this played out in my mind, and Elisha should call upon the Lord, his God, perhaps, you know, wave his hand over this place and heal the leprosy. And by the way, you know, that river is not the best. Surely the Abana, the Farpar, those rivers of Damascus, they're better waters of Israel. It makes more sense I should be able to clean in them, right? So he turns away in a rage there at the end of verse 12. So really bring this, brethren, to your heart. Is there a context today where you're still trying to grab on to control? You want things to be done your way? And God, perhaps, is asking you to do it a different way? And it's this battle between your will and God's will here? Surely he'll come out to me. After all, doesn't he know who I am, you know, in this expectation of some grand ceremony here? You know, it's a real problem. Presumably, Naaman would have been willing to do anything, and he would have been glad with those instructions, right? But was he? Was he willing to do anything? Why can't I wash in those waters? No, you can't. Why? Well, we're dealing with something bigger here, Naaman. You can't wash in those waters. See, those waters will allow you to retain your pride. Pride. Right? Why?

You see, ultimately, it's not even about which waters, Naaman, you're still thinking in horizontal terms. You're still thinking in terms of your physical leprosy that you have. It's not about that. We are way beyond the physical nature of this. Naaman, your physical leprosy is, in fact, pointing to your spiritual leprosy.

And the prophet of God is most concerned with that leprosy. But Naaman goes off in a rage. So, by the way, whatever physical issues you're dealing with, it's a spiritual matter. Period. Point blank. It's dealing in the heavenly realms. Yes, you still have to deal with the do your part in this physical realm, but just make sure you're approaching it with the posture and knowing this is ultimately dealing in the heavenly realms, this issue I'm dealing with. It always is. It always is.

Well, I'm glad the story does not conclude with his anger here, because not every biblical story ends in a wonderful conclusion, but this one does. And I love the conclusion here. And you'll notice here, it is again through lowly servants that Naaman is addressed. Verse 13. Verse 13. And his Naaman's servants, once again, came near and spoke to him and said, My father, you know, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then when he says, do you wash and be clean? And here is the crossroads. This is the moment for Naaman in which it all just rushes to him. And it is now, I believe, in this moment, this wonderful moment that there's this rush of humility, the needed cure that comes into his experience. So, in the way that Scripture often gives it to us, the narrative quickly gets to this act of submission, which brings the healing. Verse 14. So, Naaman went down, convicted now, of course, no doubt, dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. No longer his will, right? No longer his way. He is doing things now according to the man of God and then his flesh. And only then his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. So, he began to take on the nature of a child in this way, the humility and obedience and faith and belief that's bigger. You know, often, children, they have a faith that seems to sometimes supersede that which is natural and what we limit ourselves with sometimes. And that's the story, and it's a beautiful story. So, again, let's think about this. There wasn't any amount of gold or silver, no amount of chariots, no amount of change of outfits, no price he could pay that could cure the disease. And so, again, once again, Naaman is to us a picture of man and woman today consumed with ourselves until somewhere along in the journey of our lives, through God's grace, God allows us to see the scabs of our leprosy, scabs not of a physical nature, but the spiritual scabs of sin and the hopelessness of death and destruction it brings. With the hope at some point in our lives, we will look at this mirror that we've been missing the mark, the mirror of the law, and see the scabs of pride, see the scabs of deceit, see the scabs of anger, see the scabs of stubbornness, see the scabs of vanity. What are your scabs? What are your scabs?

And at that time, then bow our heads in humility.

Only then to discover what is the good news, the good news. And the good news is we do not have to stay separated and in isolation.

We do not have to stay in that condition that is destructive and destroying and bringing on death, ultimately. And God's hope is like naming that we'll begin our search to find the cure.

And in that search, the word will come to us not from a humble servant girl, but from a humble servant king who, not with gold and silver or fine robes, rode in, but rather rode in in the humility with a donkey into Jerusalem. And upon accepting him like naming, we have a choice, then, to immerse ourselves in the waters of our own making, trying to relieve the pain. What waters are you bathing in today which temporarily are relieving the pain but ultimately is not the cure?

Or then the choice to come to the one who ultimately provides the cure. And the good news. It's the good news of the gospel. And the good news and the healing will come. You can think of all this symbolism. You may think of more than I can come up with. It'll involve us coming down from our own chariot, removing the garments of our own beauty, humbling our heart, bowing before the servant, the prophet of God, Jesus Christ, bathing not in the waters of a river but in the waters of blood which flowed from his side, Jesus Christ.

And that blood then given us the cure. It only comes from him.

In fact, you see this symbolism all throughout Scripture and through the introduction of Naaman, when you move into the New Testament, you see Jesus Christ pick up this same symbolic narrative through one of the primary healings that he, Jesus Christ, gave was through lepers in the New Testament. And I want to conclude today with just one of those stories. So, as you can be looking for this in the future, this upcoming year, and every time you see and come across a story of a leper being cleansed, you will immediately think on that of the vertical, and you may think back to Naaman. And perhaps all the examples in the Bible. So, in conclusion, I just want us to turn to one New Testament leper healing story. It's a beautiful story, just as Naaman's story is beautiful. And it's found in Mark 1. So, if you'll turn there, Mark 1, and we're going to look at verses 40 through 42 as we look to move to a conclusion here. And what you'll find is most often in every healing narrative, what's the key ingredient?

Humility. Humility. And our posture must be in a humble posture when we come to the great healer. That's certainly the catalyst here with this New Testament leper.

Let's see this humility evoked as mimicking that of Naaman. Mark 1, let's read verses 40 through 42. Now, a leper, another leper in the Bible, came to him, Jesus, imploring him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

Then Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out his hand, and touched him, and said to him, I am willing, be cleansed. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. Let's stop there. Now, I wanted to conclude with this moment, such an awesome moment, especially when you think of it in vertical terms here. The leper here implores, kneels, acknowledges that you're able to make me clean, if you're willing. And by the way, this was really out of the normal. If you're a leper, you do not put yourself within touching distance of someone who is clean. You're not supposed to do that.

But this is an indication of just how badly he wanted to receive healing from Jesus Christ.

He's convinced that Jesus can and will heal him. If you're willing, you can make me clean. Humility and belief. Humility and belief. And what do we see? Compassion. Beautiful compassion. And it's the same response today. When we go to Jesus and we make ourselves close to him, imploring him, we will receive the same compassion today. No doubt.

And filled with compassion, you'll notice, he reaches out and touches the leper.

So he didn't just merely speak to the man. He could have healed the leper with a word spoken, but he touches him.

How long do you think it had been that this leper had been touched? You know, I almost picture Jesus just touching him, and perhaps the leper closed his eyes, you know, took in that personal contact.

And this is the story. This is the story of salvation. This is the gospel. Jesus Christ comes down and he comes down into our circumstances, and he identifies with us. He didn't come and shout from afar. He comes right down and touches this man, just as he touches us today. And in that way, Jesus takes upon himself the punishment that we should get, takes it upon himself, and instantaneously this man is cured here. It's the instantaneous transformation of the gospel. Beautiful. Would you, this year, as we think about the upcoming Passover, would you come with this humility of heart? Would you implore the great Son of God, ask God the Father to apply his sacrifice to us, to touch us in that way? Access the living waters? Whoever believes in me, Jesus said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Will you humble yourself in those waters? You see, Naaman would have continued in his leprosy unless and until he was prepared to humble himself before the one who had the cure. Will you come in your spiritual leprosy today, implore the one for the cure, kneel down before him, and discover the cleansing in your life? And God willing, may God the Father through Jesus Christ be moved by compassion toward you, stretch out his hand toward you, and say, I am willing, be cleansed.