KISS (Keep It Simple Silly)
0 Amens
Don’t you hate it when you make something more difficult than it has to be? Other times things are made unnecessarily difficult for you. Let me give a “for instances.” As most of you know, I enjoy wood working, and I have quite the wood shop in my basement. Each tool that I have down there came with “some assembly required.” Now, if any of you have ever put a child’s toy together, you know how frustrating that can be, but my experience is that the instructions for tools are ten times worse. I’m not the typical male. I love owner’s manuals and instruction booklets. I like to learn about everything my new product can do, and I don’t want to miss out on any of its features. So I usually read those little books from front to back (or at least from front until the language changes).
Owner’s manuals for toys usually take you step by step (often ridiculously small steps) and often the screws, nuts, and bolts are labeled, adhered to a piece of cardboard, leaving no room for using the wrong bolt in the wrong hole. But not so for tools. Tools come with a bag full of nuts, bolts, washers, screws, knobs, and doohickeys… many of which look essentially alike, but are vitally different. Then if that weren’t bad enough, the instructions are usually obviously written by a non-native English speaker who has never actually had to assemble the product. They’ll tell you to insert tab A into slot B, but you’re pretty sure that tab A and slot B weren’t included in your package. So you look to the illustration for help, and it’s just a dark blob of black ink from a perspective that no normal person could ever have. But then, in my experience, when the product finally does look like the picture on the box, I often think, they didn’t have to make that nearly as difficult as it was. If they would have switched steps 2 and 5 around and clarified steps 7 through 24 it would have been much simpler.Well, even though a global economy may seem to be the culprit for unnecessarily difficult endeavors, our passage this morning would seem to suggest that this is an age old problem. Whether to take the high road, or the low road. I invite you to follow along as I read II Kings 5:1-14.
2 Kings 5:1-145 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy. 2 Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” 4 So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. 5 And the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.”
He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. 6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” 7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.”8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. 13 But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.
This story is not only a God story, it’s also a political story. It strarts right off with our main character, Naaman. Now, Naaman must have been a bit of an anomily. How so? Well, consider his description. First we’re told he was a “commander of the army of the king of Aram, [and] was a great man and in high favor with his master.” Sounds pretty good, right. He had everything going for him. He was in a high possition and repsected by the king. But that’s not the end of Naaman’s description. It goes on to say that he suffered from leprosy. You may remember that in this time, lepers were at the very bottom of the socail ladder. They were often forced to live on the outskirts of town amidst the garbage. So here we have the man Naaman who was at the very top of the social ladder with a disease which could have rightfully put him at the very bottom.But I said this was a political story, and here’s where the politics come in. This morning, I don’t want to add to any stereotypes or make any assumptions, but it may be helpful for us to gut a bit of an understanding of what kind of a relationship the Arameans and Israelites might have had politically. And the best modern day, local comparison I could think of was the USA and Mexico. As you know, the USA and Mexico are next door neighbors. But the USA is more advanced in its military, economy, and technology, for the most part. So if we kind of keep the relationship of the USA and Mexico in the back of our minds, we can think of the Arameans as Americans and the Israelites as Mexicans. The Arameans would likely have been more advanced than the Israelites in its military, economy, and technology.
So it’s not surprising, then, that the Arameans would have captured an Israelite girl on one of their raids. But as a servant girl, she had a rather high position. She was the servant of Naaman’s wife. Knowing of the plight of Naaman, and knowing of the prophet in Israel, she did her part in hooking the two of them up with one another. But somewhere the lines get crossed. The king of Aram sends Naaman to Israel with a letter not for the prophet, but for the king.But imagine with me for a moment what exactly is taking place here behind the scenes… what’s not being said. The Arameans had the wealth, the power, the technology. For the king of Aram to agree to send Naaman to Israel was an act of humility. In essence, he was saying that perhaps an Israelite could do something that no one in Aram could do… heal Naaman. It was a last ditch effort, so to speak.
But as I said, the king doesn’t write the letter to the prophet which the servant girl spoke of, but to the king of Israel. When the king of Israel receives the letter, he thinks he’s being set up. He thinks it’s a trick. He has no way of healing Naaman. And when Naaman returns saying the Israelite king wasn’t able to heal him, the king of Aram will have a reason to attack.To go back to our comparison, imagine that President Bust sent one of his top officials to President Calderon in Mexico asking him to heal his official. Well, Calderon would have no means of healing the official that the US didn’t have itself. It would be an obvious set up. But now imagine that there was a doctor in Mexico that did a new experimental surgery that wasn’t allowed in the US. The president of Mexico may not have even heard of this doctor, but President Bush might have sent someone to him as a last ditch effort to save his official’s life.
This is exactly what happens in our passage. The letter isn’t sent to the person who can do anything about the problem, and the king of Israel is given a great deal of unnecessary stress. But news of the letter gets to the right person. Elisha hears of the letter and knows that he can do something about the problem which the king of Israel found himself in. He asks the king to send Naaman. And we get the picture that his isn’t just a guy walking down the street. Notice that it says he came with his horses (plural) and chariots (plural). Essentially, he came with a motorcade. I imagine everyone came to their doorways to see this procession pass by. After all, a mighty official from Aram was passing through their town.And when he reaches Elisha house, he waits at the entrance, expecting to be greeted by Elisha, no doubt. But Elisha doesn’t come. Rather, he sends a messenger. And his message, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” And our passage goes on to nonchalantly say “Naaman became angry,” but I can only imagine that this was a bit of an understatement. Can you imagine. Naaman, a high offical in the mighty nation of Aram, had just come from a journey with horses (plural), and chariots (plural), and servants (plural, which are coming later in the passage) and Elisha won’t even come out to greet him! Surely everyone else in town was standing in their doorways to see him, yet this prophet won’t pay him the common courtesy, let alone the respect of welcoming him in.
So why does Elisha stay within his walls. Was he shy? Was he rude? Or was this just one of those weird things prophets do that no one can really understand? I don’t think any of these were the case. Notice what Naaman expected Elisha to do. He expected him to “stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and (he) would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!” But the problem with Naaman’s expectatoins, and I think Elisha knew this, was the subject of his expectations. He expected Naaman to stand. He expected Naaman to call on the name of the Lord his God. And he expected Naaman to wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy. But you see, the problem is Naaman couldn’t do any of these things, and even if he came out and did them in the name of the Lord God, it would still appear that he had done them himself.So he stays in the room and gives simple instructions. All Naaman has to do is go and wash in the Jordan 7 times, and he will be clean. But this is altogether too insulting! Naaman has pride in his home land and sees no reason why those rivers wouldn’t be just as good if not better! Why would he come all the way to Israel to wash in an Israelite river? But more than that… the task is just… well… too simple. Anyone can go wash in the river. It’s like the guy who buys a computer and can’t get it to work. He trys to turn it on, but there’s no picture on the screen. He heres the computer whiring and humming and making all of the sounds a computer makes, but still with nothing on the screen. He spends an hour on the phone with tech support trying to figure out what’s wrong with his new computer. When finally the tech support asks if he has the monitor plugged in… too embaraced to answer, the man polite thanks the person on the other end of the phone and hangs up. The answer is so obvious and so simple that you almost don’t want to admit you didn’t think of it. Go wash in the river! People wash in the river every day… even lepers… but they don’t come out clean!
Nonetheless, that’s what Elisha tells him to do. So caught up in his fury, Naaman’s about to return home when one of his servants approaches him from a little more level headed perspective. He says, “If he had given you something difficult to do, you would have done it in a second. Why won’t you do something simple?” Finally seeing the wisdom in his servant’s comment, Naaman does go down and wash and it is God who does the work of healing. Not Naaman. Not Elisha. Not one of the kings. But God. Why didn’t he want to do something simple? The passage doesn’t say it, but I bet Naaman didn’t want to do something simple because it wouldn’t draw any attention to himself. He was used to being a mighty man in battle. And he was used to the pomp and circumstance that came with it. But who’s going to throw a parade for someone who washes in a river?OK, we have to draw it to a close here this morning, but we do have to ask the question we should always ask when we approach the living word of God. What impact is this story going to have on the way I live. I’m leaving that completely up to the work of the Holy Spirit, but may I suggest something. We often talk about how salvation is a free gift of God, but how often don’t we still try to be good enough to deserve it? We know we’re supposed to do good works in gratitude for what God has done for us, but in the back of our minds we think it might put us in a better standing with God. And I don’t know about you, but I often get caught into this trap when I think of other people’s salvation too. I think if I would only do more, or come up with a better argument, or if I only knew scripture better, I would be able to win so and so to Christ. But the problem there is the same problem Naaman had. The subject is the wrong subject. It’s me and not God. It’s God who saves. I can be faithful in befriending them… in sharing my faith with them… in inviting them to church… but ultimately it’s in God’s hands whether they’ll accept the good news or not.
And one more quick point, and then we’ll be done. Did you notice God didn’t tell him to go wash in any river he wanted. I think Naaman could have gone, and would have prefered to have gone, to any of the rivers in Damascus. He could have dipped himself seven times in Abana or Pharpar, but I don’t think he would have been healed. Naaman had to do it God’s way. And I believe the same is true of our salvation… of our healing. Contrary to popular belief, not all roads lead to heaven. I can’t choose whatever religion or faith or belief system I want and trust that in the end God’s going to say I was close enough and let me into Heaven. Jesus said, “I am the way (singular), the truth (singular), and the life (singular), no one comes to the Fahter except through me.” There doesn’t have to be any wondering about what’s going to happen when you die. You don’t ever have to say, “Well, when I die, I hope I’m going to heaven.” Scripture tells us you can know. I John 5:13 says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Not that you may hope you have eternal life. Not that you have a good chance at eternal life. No… The verse just before 5:13 puts it in black and white. “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” And I bring this good news to you this morning so that you may know that you have eternal life.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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