Healings

Leper

You know how many times I have heard people talk about being a blessed person. Does being blessed also mean that you have no afflictions? If you are paying attention here you must say no. 5 Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Ki 5:1. Now look at verse 2 and 3, 2 Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Ki 5:2–3. Now know that this little girl was taken from her home and taken to serve in another kingdom. We can take from the story that she knew the Prophet Elisha. Now we can recognize that the girl can see herself as afflicted by becoming a captive. We can recognize that the girl might be angry about this captivity. What I want you to consider is that instead of withholding a blessing she offers what she knows about the Prophet as a blessing upon her new master. When we can do this we become a tool for God. I have heard this so much in my past and it is something that bothers me about the current state of the denomination, us and them.

The King of Israel has a bad reaction to the letter from the King of Syria. Is this the reaction that you might have? Think for a minute how you would react if someone outside of your congregation asked you for help. Would you feel compelled to help? What if someone asked you to get your pastor to come, would you be open to share that with me?

English Standard Version Chapter 5

8 But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

Does Elisha’s response bother you? Why did it bother the king? The young girl was in captivity giving compassion in the midst of suppression, why? God calls us to be set apart, different. We can lean into that and expand the kingdom, or we can make what we know a social club event that only like-minded people can attend.

Remember during these days of struggle, in the UMC, that we are called to love people, all people, even when they are different. But what we need to know and understand is how do we love.

Why is Naaman upset? 1. He is a respected person and deserves to be met face-to-face. 2. Leprosy is a very significant illness and is obvious to those around you. Perhaps he feels that Elisha is afraid to get the illness. 3. Also Naaman traveled to see the prophet and the prophet didn’t even come out to greet him. Lack of respect. 4. Don’t we all have our own understanding of what healing looks like?

English Standard Version Chapter 5

13 But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 14 So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.