3/23/03 L-3 INI 2 Kings 5:1-15

Dear Fellow Redeemed by the blood of God, . . . it was the winter of 1974. A blast of unusually cold weather had hit the eastern plains of Colorado, driving the people indoors. One frigid evening just two days before Christmas, a man, a woman, and a little boy stood shivering on the steps of the Mt. Olive parsonage, seeking food and shelter. Over the next few days the pastor helped the man get a job. The congregation provided food and furniture. Three weeks later the sheriff told the pastor that the congregation had not been helping a family at all. The man was wanted by the law for writing 18 "hot checks" across the state of Kansas. While roaming Florida, he had picked up someone else's unhappy wife and her son. When the pastor expressed the desire to visit this man in jail, the sheriff replied: "Don't waste your time on him! He's just plain no good!"

The sheriff was right. The man in jail for his crimes was no good. But then, neither am I; and neither are any of you, in the flesh. We all must say with the apostle Paul, "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells." (Rom. 7). Did Jesus say that He came to seek and to save that which is good, or that which is "lost"? The thief who was crucified next to Jesus was "no good." But the Savior died for him too and promised him paradise in the last moments of his sorry life. The woman taken in the act of adultery was "no good" in the eyes of her fellowmen, but Jesus offered her forgiveness for her sins.

Leprosy is a hideous disease; not a superficial skin disease, but deep-seated as described in the Bible. Leprosy begins as a rising boil-like skin eruption. As it spreads it turns whitish in color. In Bible-times the leper was excluded from his loved ones in the camp of Israel; he was an outcast. Whenever he approached someone who did not have the disease, the leper had to cover his upper lip and cry out "Unclean! Unclean!"

Naaman was a man of great importance in Syria, a man of courage, captain of the king's army. He was highly respected by all, but he was a leper. No matter what his prominent station in life, Naaman was a hideous sight to his own people -- an unclean thing!

So it is with the ugly spiritual disease of sin. Sin infects the rich and the poor, the great and the small. "One common sin infects us all," says the hymn. That's the sin inherited from our Father Adam. It's this "Original Sin" that causes each and every person in this world to be covered with the ugly, leprous spots of sin.

The great problem for us is that we so easily see the ugly spots of sin all over the skin of others, while being nearly blind to our own. Especially when one of those "lepers" is treating us evilly we are tempted to point the finger at him or her and yell, "Unclean! Unclean!"

The little servant girl might have done the same to Naaman. Instead. She said to his wife: "If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For He would heal him of his leprosy." (V. 3) The little Israelite girl had been forcefully taken from her home by this leader of the Syrian army. Yet she wants only good for her master! She did not return evil for evil. Rather, she overcame evil with good, even as Paul wrote to the Roman Christians. She didn't think of Naaman as a hideous leper. Nor did she refuse to speak of her God to her enemy. The most important thing to this Christian girl was that the man needed spiritual and physical help, and she knew where that help could be found.

She didn't think that Naaman was a "no good," or that she was "too good" to bother herself with the likes of him. She simply knew the Lord God from His Word. She knew her God to be a loving God "Who would have" everyone to be saved "and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim. 2:4) So it is with us and every true Christian: Whenever the Holy Spirit helps us to overcome our proud, fleshly nature, we love everyone because our God loves everyone.

But wishful thinking never gets the job done, does it? The little servant girl wished with all her heart that Naaman might be healed by the prophet Elisha, but there were still some problems to overcome.

The King of Israel was a big problem! For when the King of Syria sent Naaman to Israel with a letter explaining his problem and asking the help of the King of Israel, the king flew into a rage! 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 his leprosy?" He thought the King of Syria was trying to pick a fight with him for not being able to heal Naaman!

The real problem was that the King of Israel did not believe that he had access to the power of God for the healing of Naaman. The king forgot all about God's Word and the prophet Elisha. He felt helpless and personally threatened when faced with Naaman's need.

Don't we sometimes do the same thing when people bring their personal and spiritual problems to us for help? Do we feel helpless and even threatened because someone expects help from us that we feel unable to give? At such times, remember the power of God's Word, and don't forget the prophet whom God has placed in your own midst! Use the Word of God to help your friend with his problem, and refer him to your pastor with confidence that God is able to heal and help everyone by the humblest means!

That's what happened in the case of Naaman. When the prophet Elisha sent a message to him saying, "Go wash in the Jordan (river) seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean," Naaman became angry! He was too important to dip himself seven times in the muddy river Jordan. Weren't the rivers of his own country better? He could have stayed home if a bath was all he needed! What nonsense!

What Naaman didn't know is that the power to heal him lay not in the water itself, but in the Word of God working through the command of the prophet. When Naaman dipped himself in the Jordan River, as Elisha had directed him, "his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." So the Lord healed Naaman of his leprosy. But the Lord did even more: He even created saving faith in Naaman's heart by means of Elisha's word. For we are told that when Naaman returned to Elisha, he said, "Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel!" (V. 15) A similar faith-creating, sin-forgiving miracle takes place in the washing of Baptism. What is more humble than baptismal water. It can be water full of chlorine or nitrates; it makes no difference. No soap is added, and yet no soul is cleaner before God than the baptized soul! Why? Because of the power of the Word of God, whether read or heard. The Lord our God translates sinners from hell to heaven by the hidden, faith-creating life-transforming power of His Word.

The wiseacres in the world laugh at these humble means by which our God reaches out to cleanse everyone of his sins. They say: "Baptism saves no one!" But we rejoice in these humble means -- the gospel in Word and Sacrament -- even though they appear to be so weak. For God has chosen these means alone to help and save sinners. By these means alone we are made certain that our help and salvation never depend upon the pastor's personality, strengths, or weaknesses, or even upon our own feelings, but solely on the gracious promises of God.

He still holds out His arms and calls through His Gospel Word: "Come unto me ALL you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Mt. 11:28) There is no class nor race of people, nor individual that the Lord cannot raise up from the gutters of sin and despair to the heights of heaven through faith in His Son. For just as dynamite has the power to raise the lowest material sky high, so the Word of God is "the dynamite of God unto salvation" to raise up everyone who believes -- Romans 1:16. Remember: God even cleansed Naaman, the Syrian who was a leper! Amen.