Pride
As in many of the stories in the Bible, our text from 2 Kings is difficult to date and offers a few conundrums. Our dating is left entirely up to the internal information we gather from the Bible since there is no other outside source related to this story. This story occurred in the ninth century BC maybe around the time of Amos’ prophecy. The scenario is during the time that Aram (Syria) had conquered and controlled the northern kingdom of Israel. We note that the text tells us that Naaman’s victory was because God (the Lord) had given him the victory – which would be a strange thing for the losers to admit they lost because their God gave victory to the other side. That loss is the reason Naaman was able to take a young Israelite woman to be his wife’s slave. That he would take counsel in this woman and go to a prophet of the enslaved nation to be healed is highly improbable. Yet, he did.
He went as the world would go – expecting to pay to be healed. He first went to the king of the Arameans who gave him a letter to give to the king of Israel. So he took with him money and gifts to pay for his health. Then he went to the king of Israel for this healing. The king’s reaction can be read in the light of the situation. Here, the man that just conquered him has come to ask for his help bearing a letter from the king to which Israel was a vassal. Help, by the way, that he could not give. Was this a trick? Why the letter? Unable to heal Naaman and worried about ulterior motives he rips his clothes – a sign of great loss – and dismisses him. If it were not for the rumor mill it would have ended that way. Instead Elisha hears of the matter and summons Naaman to his doorstep and gives him instructions on how to heal his leprosy. Naaman, at first, is offended by Elisha’s refusal to meet him. He is the mighty warrior who conquered Elisha’s people. Surely Elisha would meet with him. And why did he have to wash in the muddy Jordan river? Could he just as well have bathed in one of the rivers of Damascus? His pride and ego got in the way of his hearing. Fortunately his servants (other slaves? it seems that the true stars in the story are slaves) convince him to do as Elisha instructed. He then returns to Elisha and confesses the God of Israel as the true God.
We note that this only happened because Naaman’s servants convinced him to swallow his own pride and that of his nation, and wash in the Jordan river. How often have you seen others miss opportunities because of their pride? How many times have you? We seem to have an overabundance of pride. I wonder: how many times does your pride prevent you from seeing God’s call to you? All you have to do is watch the news these days to see an overabundance of pride. People are too proud to answer God’s call to love others as he loves us. Instead of heeding God’s call to take care of the widow, orphan, and foreigner in our land we ignore them and try to ship them off to another place. I am not telling you that you can solve all the problems of the world and our nation by yourself. I am reminding you that you are a member of the body of Christ. Together we are called to put down our pride and hypocrisy and pick up our cross and follow Jesus. With Jesus leading us and filled with the Holy Spirit we can share the love of God with all. Remember, you do not have to do it to receive a reward, you have already received God’s reward of salvation through the blood of Jesus. Together, we get to leave our pride behind and proclaim God’s love that was made manifest in Jesus with the world.