Monday of the Third Week in Lent
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today’s reading from the book of Kings records that Naaman, a general of the army of the king of Syria, was a rich and valiant man, but also a leper. He was told that there was a prophet in Israel who would be able to heal him. He received permission from the king of Syria to travel to Israel. He had an official letter and brought gifts. “And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he rent his garments and said: Am I God, to be able to kill and give life, that this man hath sent to me, to heal a man of his leprosy?” When the prophet Elisha heard that the king had rent his garments he sent word to him saying that the man should come to him. Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. The prophet sent a messenger to him instructing him to go and wash seven times in the Jordan and he would be cured of his leprosy. Naaman was angry because he expected the prophet to come out in person, invoking his god and place his hand on him to heal him. He said that there were rivers in Damascus better than those in Israel. But his servants persuaded him to do as the prophet had said. He went down and washed seven times in the Jordan and was made clean. “And returning to the man of God with all his train, he came and stood before him, and said: In truth I know, there is no other God in all the earth, but only in Israel.”
The prophet Elisha had taken on the mantle of his great predecessor Elijah as an uncomfortable and disturbing figure who spoke truth to power, whether they would hear or whether they would forbear. His name became known even in the rival kingdom of Syria. It was thought that he would be able to heal Naaman, a warrior and high ranking official. Naaman travelled to the king of Israel in style with his entourage and official documentation. The king was unable to deal with his request for healing, but the prophet Elisha could. Naaman was expecting a spectacular miracle, and was greatly angered when he was simply told to go and wash seven times in the Jordan and he would be healed. This seemed hardly in keeping with his high status, but he was eventually persuaded to agree and was healed. He returned to the prophet with a great confession of faith that there was no God in all the earth but in Israel.
But why was he told by Elisha to wash in the Jordan to find healing? The Jordan was the river that the Israelites who had spent forty years wandering in the wilderness had to cross in order to reach the promised land. There was no other way for them to reach their destination, whether they were high or low, rich or poor. In the same way there was no other way for Naaman to be healed without him renouncing his pride in his worldly status and learning the humility that would come from following instructions that he believed were beneath him. His healing came about not through the spectacular miracle that he was expecting but through the simple action of washing seven times in the Jordan.
There is much that we can learn from this today. Our contemporary culture is just as obsessed with dignity and status as it was then. We can become so proud about our wordly titles and position that we come to believe that certain actions are beneath us. But, whether we are high or low, rich or poor, all of us need to repent of our sins and be forgiven. This comes through the regenerating waters of baptism, a sacrament that is necessary for all, Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. Baptism marks the beginning of our spiritual journey, not the ending. Just as Naaman had to wash in the Jordan to be healed of his leprosy, so we have to be baptised in order to be forgiven of our sins.
Today’s Gospel from St. Luke records an occasion when Jesus preached in his home town of Nazareth and was received with hostility. “And he said: Amen, I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country. In truth, I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there was a great famine throughout all the earth; and to none of them was Elias sent but to Serephta of Sidon, to a widow woman. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet: and none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian.” The people in the synagogue who heard this were so angry that they rose and cast him out of the city, but he managed to escape from their grasp.
Jesus had proclaimed in the synagogue of his home town of Nazareth that the words of the prophet Isaiah were now being fulfilled in their hearing. The Spirit of the Lord was upon him to proclaim the dawning of the messianic age in which there would be freedom for those in captivity, the recovery of sight for the blind and the good news would be preached to the poor. But the people received the message with baffled incredulity. Was not this the man who they had grown up with? Who did he think he was making such grandiose claims about himself? Jesus responded that he was a prophet without honour in his own country. This was a recapitulation of what had happened in the days of Elijah, who had faced such hostility that he was forced to find refuge with a widow woman of Serephta of Sidon. Likewise, there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, but only Naaman the Syrian was cleansed. It is often said that the proclamation of the truth generates hatred and this seems to be be precisely what happened in this situation, as they rose in fury and cast him out of the city. He came to that which was his own and his own received him not.
This provides a terrible warning to us of the dangers of spiritual blindness. It is all too easy to be so blinded by our preconceptions about what is possible that we harden our hearts when the truth is in our midst. Naaman, for all his limitations, did eventually overcome his anger and went and bathed in the Jordan and was healed. But many of Jesus’ contemporaries were so angered by his proclamation that the Kingdom of God was now breaking into history in his person and his ministry that they repudiated him. In so doing they brought judgment upon themselves.
l.et us pray for grace that we will have the humility to confess the truth that alone sets us free.
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