Faith Hears and Does
2 Kings 5:1-14
January 23, 2022
Faith believes what the Lord says. Faith does what the Lord commands, but the Lord doesn’t always say what you want to hear or command what you want to do.
Read vs. 1 up to “but.” Naaman was a Five Star General. He was George Patton, Douglas MacArther, and Norman Schwartzkopf. He was a great man in his country and in high favor with his king. He was Newsweek’s man of the year and a recipient of the Medal of Honor. He had a beautiful wife and 2.7 above average children. He enjoyed the blessings of the Lord, but…
Any time you hear that conjunction you know a change in direction is coming. I wasn’t going to give you a speeding ticket, but. I was going to say yes, but. Last year was wonderful, but. Naaman was a great man, but he had leprosy.
Naaman’s story stands in contrast to the Widow of Nain whom Jesus met one day. Naaman was great but had this horrible disease. The widow of Nain didn’t have it great and couldn’t have had it worse. As Jesus met her coming out of town they met the funeral procession of her son, her only son, and she was already a widow.
There is something greatly amiss in these stories. Naaman couldn’t have been a better model of soldier and citizen, but he had leprosy. This widow had lost her husband. Wasn’t that enough? But now she loses her son, her only means of food and shelter. Now the Lord made her a beggar.
Why? Why must the great and successful suffer? Why must those who suffer great losses suffer even more losses? You could substitute friends and family or yourself for Naaman ort the widow of Nain. No one is immune from sickness, anguish, suffering, or death.
Why? God’s Word gives us the two complementary answers the “why” question? The first answer is not comforting. Naaman got what he deserved. The widow of Nain got what she deserved. When you suffer you are getting what you deserve. You are a sinner who sins and therefore you suffer. You die. You should not ask, “Why me?” You should ask, “Why not me? I’m only getting what I deserve.”
It is solely God’s mercy and love that you are here this morning, that you woke up, ate your Captain Crunch cereal, and survived the drive to church. It is His gift that you have a job, or a wife, or children, or a house, or a full deep freeze. It’s not what you deserve. He provides this all out of fatherly divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness on your part.
That you don’t suffer continually, that your life and the lives of your loved ones aren’t all cut short, is His gift, because you deserve (as you regularly confess) His anger, punishment, sorrow, suffering, death.
Answer number two is the comforting answer. Suffering is not God’s doing. He doesn’t cause it, but He uses it. He redeems suffering to redeem you by His Word. That’s what we learn from Naaman.
Naaman wasn’t perfect. On one of his minor military incursions into Israel he captured a little slave girl and she was put to work for Naaman’s beautiful wife.
It is in this little slave girl that God’s Holy Spirit gives us an Epiphany, a revelation of the way God works. The last person a captured slave girl should care about is her male, foreign, oppressive master, but she cares. She loves him enough to share God’s Word with Naaman’s wife. (Read vs. 3)
Naaman doesn’t have an Epiphany, yet He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t see it. He’s got a serious disease and he knows that Centracare doesn’t do anything for free, so he gets his king to write a big check to the king of Israel. But when the king of Israel rips up the check and says only God could heal Naaman, Naaman doesn’t know what to do, but Elisha does. He tells the King of Israel not to worry. Send Naaman down to me and I will give Naaman the Word – just as the little slave girl promised.
Naaman wears his class a dress uniform, driving his command Hummer when he pulls up in front of Elisha’s house, but his ears are still to closed to see God’s way. Elisha doesn’t come out. He sends a servant. Perhaps you’re starting to see a pattern here – slaves and servants speaking God’s Word. Can you imagine a pastor so rude he doesn’t come out to hug you and say how glad he is to see you? You wonder how Elisha graduated from seminary. They must have been desperate for prophets that year.
Then the servant of Elisha gives Naaman the word that will heal him. (read vs. 10) Naaman has had it. He can’t stand the Word of God. God’s messengers are slaves and servants and the Word they speak is foolishness to a worldly man like Naaman. Bathe in the Jordan. Wash in sewage to be clean. God’s Word is a waste of time.
Once more servants come to the rescue. (Read 13 b & c) Finally, Naaman has an Epiphany. He has heard not from great men, but from servants – a little slave girl, a messenger of Elisha, and his own minions. He bathes in the Jordan, against all common sense, and that dirty water cleanses him not only of leprosy, but of unbelief. He believes the Lord and promises to worship Him alone.
What does this mean? God allows you to suffer and die that you might hear His Word and believe it. He will let you lose what you love the most, so that He can speak through His servants the only Word that matters – the word that will deliver you from suffering, save you from death, wipe every tear from your eye, and give you everlasting joy. He doesn’t use great and powerful men, but sinners like yourself to be His men. Weak men. Slaves of Christ. Messengers of the Most High.
Their message is as foolish as the servants of old. We preach Christ and Him crucified. That’s right. A gross death on a cross 2000 years ago is beautiful. An unjust crucifixion by the Romans is your justification before God. A sinless man is made the greatest sinner, so that you the greatest sinner you know, might be forgiven. It isn’t up to you to please God. God makes you pleasing to Himself by being well pleased with His Son.
Wait, because it gets more foolish. Do you where this foolish work of Christ is to be found? In Saint Cloud tap water. I mean it’s barely fit to drink, but in this font, that water is seized by God’s Word to wash you better than Naaman, to wash away your shame, your guilt, your sin . Holy Baptism washes your ears out so you can hear God’s Word by faith and believe it. It washes your mouth out to confess your sins and sing God’s praises. It washes your heart to beat anew in rhythm with God’s Word.
Naaman teaches us of Epiphany. Faith hears what God says. Faith does what God commands, even when He speaks through slaves and servants of the foolishness of being cleansed in the Jordan, or bering forgiven from as cross, or getting salvation in Saint Cloud tap water. Faith hears and faith does in the name of Jesus. Amen.