Good things come in small packages...right?
The smallest of gifts is a gift just the same. Yet it's the smallest of gifts that's often overlooked by our "bigger is better" hearts. Valentines day is this week, directing many of us to think about that perfect gift that will show our love for another.
2 Kings 5:1-14 isn't exactly the first place one might look for the enormous gift of God's love. Naaman, a warrior - commander of a foreign army - a "great man" , in "high favor"...yet a man with a bad rash! Leprosy- or "a skin affliction" as the Hebrews might say! Nasty, oozing skin sores! Naaman really needs a tube of Neosporin! In all of his greatness, all of his achievements, Naaman still needs something more. Naaman needs to be healed of this affliction, and that's no small gift! Well, good things DO come in small packages. Instead of the gifts of salves and medications, all the cures the sages can offer to such great man, Naaman gets a little gift from a little person. It's the smallest gesture, but the one which will have greatest impact on a man who is by all accounts outside the love of God. Naaman is directed to one who has a cure for his affliction, a prophet of God - who knows and speaks of trusting God to heal - even if it means taking a bath in the scummy old River Jordan. Hmmm...water and the word that heals? The Jordan no less, where one would come and be baptized, a small thing that fulfills all righteousness. While the love of God may come in the small package called "trust" or "faith", this gift is no small thing! It is eternally huge, healing in the cosmic sense, restoration and life given as a precious gift. For what purpose? Well, that's for all of you to discuss and discover - for each of us has been healed by the cross of Christ, each of us has been endowed with this gift....NOW WHAT???
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The story of Naaman is a story of two worlds. One world is that of mighty kings, commanders, armies, war. The other world is that of a lowly, almost invisible young girl who is nameless. God works in both worlds to the same purpose. While Naaman was being used by the Lord to give victory to the King of Aram, there was a young girl who was stolen from her family in Israel. She was enslaved in Aram, and her family must have given up hope for her. But the young girl had a hope that did not die despite her circumstances. Perhaps she remembered Ps 119:116: “Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.” God had given her a gift that really must seem small when compared to the world of kings. Yet, her faith was instrumental in healing Naaman, physically and spiritually. Because of her compassion for her oppressor and her faith in God, she dared to share her heart-felt belief with Naaman’s wife that the God of Israel can heal. No other mention is made of her in the Bible, but what does that matter to her who now is with God (and probably with Naaman). No work of faith by each of us is too small for God to use in a great way because He is great.
1Cor 1:18-19: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’”
When I studied a bit more about this story of Naaman and his healing of leprosy, I found that Jesus also mentions it in Luke 4:27 "And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian".
Jesus' words makes that young girl's faith even more amazing. One could surmise that while living in Israel, this girl had seen many lepers, but none of them were ever healed to her knowledge. So why did she tell Naaman's wife: “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.” It seems like she was taking quite a chance in making herself look foolish, not to mention dealing with Naaman's wrath, if he wasn't healed. In fact, Jesus took a big chance even telling the story about Naaman because right afterwards it says in Luke 4:28-29 "So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff." I think that the young girl would have suffered a similar fate if God hadn't come through.
In spite of all this, why did the young girl still witness about the power of the living God? I think part of the answer is in what Jesus says in Luke 4:18-19 before he told the story of Naaman and got the crowd all riled up:
"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." (Isaiah 61:1-2)
The young girl did not limit God to what her experience allowed but took God at His word that He is able to do what He promises. Her heart told her to help Naaman, and she did so, leaving the consequences to God. I know that she didn't meet Peter in this life, but I'm sure that she would agree with him in 1Peter 3:13-14 "Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. 'Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.'"
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