Powerful leaders can make some exceedingly difficult demands. Diplomacy used to be carried out behind closed doors between gentlemen schooled in numerous languages and skilled in crafting communiques and agreements between parties to a dispute. Now, leaders let their demands be known on X in block capitals, or in briefings to the world’s press. Whilst speaking the language of peace their demands are actually declarations of war. So, for Vladimir Putin, his offer of peace with Ukraine is based on that country ceasing to exist as a sovereign nation. For President Trump, Iran can have peace if it is utterly humiliated and voluntarily gives up its nuclear programme, and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the people of Gaza can have peace provided Hamas is totally wiped off the political scene. The offer is supposedly there…but none of these things are possible.
‘I’ll send the King of Israel a letter’ says the King of Aram. We’re in the area to the northeast of Israel (Aram encompasses modern day Syria). The King of Aram is a powerful man heading up a middle eastern superpower. To the southwest of him lies the Northern Kingdom of Israel (something of a prize for someone who wants more territory) and the Israelite slave girl’s presence in the story shows us that King’s armies have already spent time testing the borders between the nations and found little resistance. The letter is sent and the King of Israel tears his garments in response. ‘Heal my servant Naaman!’ – what sort of request is this? It’s so impossible it reads like a declaration of war.
Some context would be helpful. The two books of Kings chronicle the histories of both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. The story moves through the time of King David, records the rule of his son Solomon and flows on down the years that saw civil war break out between the 12 tribes of the kingdom. Eventually that war gave way to an uneasy truce between the kingdoms both of which are slowly squeezed by the larger powers that surround them. ‘History’, they say, ‘is written by the winners’. But there are no winners. The tribes have much in common, but the writer of Kings writes from a theological perspective that sees the Northern Kingdom’s very existence as based on apostacy. From the off, the kingdom sits under God’s judgement. This theology is rooted in the covenant made by the tribes with God at Mount Sinai: the covenant said that He would be their God and protect them provided they were faithful to His covenant law. But Israel had broken from the southern kingdom of Judah, separated itself from the temple there and established alternative centres of worship on its ‘high places’, it had worshipped ‘foreign gods’ – the covenant was well and truly broken.
And yet, in our story, God heals Naaman. Indeed, over the next few chapters of 2 Kings, God acts to protect Israel from the Arameans. So, whilst the story definitely records a healing miracle, perhaps the point of the story not so much the healing as the faithfulness of God to Israel, to a nation that has been unfaithful to Him? What does the psalm say: ‘God’s anger is but for a moment, His favour for a lifetime’. The theology of the books of Kings is difficult: put crudely it says that ‘bad stuff happens if you disobey God’ BUT even within scripture this theology is challenged: after all it didn’t offer righteous Job much comfort! Here, in this story, we have the apostate nation of Israel unwittingly, perhaps even reluctantly sheltering under the wings of the Almighty – He does not let them go.
Two things might be drawn from this thought. Firstly, that God’s covenant faithfulness is rock solid. We might fail Him. He does not fail us. Even when judgement falls on both Kingdoms – there is hope. ‘There is nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God’ : it would seem that this ‘nothing’ even includes our unfaithfulness and sin for He is faithful. But Secondly: it would be wrong for us to take God’s goodness, mercy and loving kindness for granted. The apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans addressed this issue: ‘should we sin all the more’ he says, ‘so that God’s mercy can be seen to be even greater: of course not!’ Christian people are called to live by Kingdom values, not because we seek to earn God’s approval, or indeed because morality of itself is the highest good, but because we love Him and we love His ways. As we ponder God’s care for Israel perhaps we might ask ‘Do I take His care for me for granted. Are there parts of my life, things I am doing or have done that need to change, things that offend Him and wound His love?’
And then a question. What price would you put on your health? On both sides of the Atlantic this week people have been crunching the numbers over healthcare. The Big Beautiful Bill signed in the White House yesterday will remove rafts of the poorest people in the US from Medicaid and continue tax breaks for the wealthiest. Illness in the US can leave you destitute. Here we are anxiously seeing the costs to the state of universal healthcare and support rise exponentially beyond anything the country can afford. You and I want more spending in every area of our national life but none of us want to pay for it.
Naaman however could pay, faced with illness he could bring his immense wealth into play. I looked up the figures quoted in our reading: ‘ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold’ – the conversion rates vary from year to year, but rest assured, Naaman has arrived in Israel with millions of pounds to exchange for his healing. Leprosy. He has had the worst possible diagnosis; all the worse because diagnostics all those centuries ago could not hope to be precise. Since 1982 we have been able to treat Hansen’s disease but back then…? How far advanced was Naaman’s condition? Presumably enough for him to be worried. Had he started to develop ulcers…had his face started to droop, his hands begun to claw? We don’t know, but the progress of the disease was known and feared so he travels across the border into Israel.
Notice the details of what happens. The King of Israel is more than happy to send Naaman to see Elisha. Israel had abandoned the sole worship of the Lord but there was still a place (just) for the Lord’s prophet. Perhaps the king assumed that should no healing be possible he could blame the failure on Elisha and so save some face himself.
Accordingly, Naaman brings all his wealth to Elisha’s door and Elisha does not even meet him: he sends a servant out to speak to him. Why? Perhaps to make the point that any healing was not dependant upon him (the prophet) but upon God alone: Elisha cannot heal, God does. Maybe the lesson here is for us to recognise that all healing is God’s gift: whether it takes place in a hospital through the care of medical professionals or not.
And then comes the instruction to bathe 7 times in the River Jordan and Naaman’s indignation over doing something so simple. Except it is not simple, is it? We want to pay, we want to be in charge, we want to have earned God’s favour to have Him do what we want of Him. But He says: ‘No. I don’t need your money, I need you to look to me and to me alone and that will require you to let go of your pride and stand before me just as you are.’ And Naaman sees what is being asked of him. He lays aside all the trappings of who he is and entrusts Himself to God’s grace (a grace that far exceeds any payment he might offer) and he finds healing.
I’m reminded of the coronation and the moment when King Charles (behind those beautiful screens) laid aside his robes of office, stripped down to his shirt and was anointed with Holy Oil. God sees us and loves us ‘as we are’. And He sees us here, Sunday by Sunday as we lay aside the roles, costumes and masks that life places upon us and stand in God’s healing presence as His children. We turn ourselves towards Him and so are soothed and strengthened by Him. There is no charge for this healing, but the cost is our lives – old lives humbly let go and a new life put on.
In our reading, God remains silent as powerful men make their difficult demands, but it is God’s actions we are to remember today. We have seen His faithfulness even as we know ourselves to be unfaithful. And we have seen his priceless grace bringing healing to one who, like us, could never deserve it. This is the God we worship – the one whose faithful, healing, saving love transforms us and the whole world.