The Muddy Waters of Grace: Naaman's Cure Text: 2 Kings 5:1-14
Introduction: The Offense of a Simple Gospel
We live in an age that loves complexity in its religion and simplicity in its morals. Men want a God who can be summoned by an intricate ritual, a secret knowledge, or a grand, heroic gesture. And in exchange, they want a moral code that can be boiled down to "be nice." The modern man, like the ancient, wants a religion that impresses his neighbors and a god who coddles his sins. He wants to be the hero of his own salvation story. He is willing to do some "great thing," provided it is his choice and brings him honor. He will climb the mountain, slay the dragon, or write the big check. What he cannot stand, what his pride will not tolerate, is being told to do something simple, something foolish, something that makes him look ridiculous.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is an offense to this kind of pride. It does not ask for our impressive deeds; it asks for our death. It does not ask for our strength; it demands our weakness. It does not offer a complicated path for the elite; it offers a simple washing for the filthy. The story of Naaman the Syrian is a Technicolor illustration of this very conflict. It is the story of a great man with a great problem who is offered a simple solution that he almost rejects because of his great pride.
This is not just a quaint Old Testament story about a skin disease. Leprosy in Scripture is the premier physical manifestation of sin. It is unclean. It corrupts. It isolates you from the community of worship. And it is utterly incurable by human means. You cannot fix it with a better diet or a positive mental attitude. It requires a divine intervention, a creative act, a resurrection. Naaman's story is our story. We are all great men in our own estimation, commanders of our own little armies, but we are all lepers. And God's prescribed cure is not what we expect, and it is certainly not what we think we deserve.
We must therefore come to this text prepared to have our own expectations challenged. We must be prepared to see our own sophisticated preferences for what they are: a spiritual tantrum. God's ways are not our ways, and His plan of salvation is designed to do two things simultaneously: to cleanse the leper and to crush his pride.
The Text
Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master, and highly respected, because by him Yahweh had given salvation to Aram. The man was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Arameans had gone out in marauding bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said to her mistress, “I wish that my master were before the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.” Then Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus spoke the girl who is from the land of Israel.” Then the king of Aram said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went and took in his hand ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, “So now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” Now it happened that when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to put to death and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But know now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me.” Now it happened when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent word to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.” But Naaman was furious and went away and said, “Behold, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’ Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in wrath. Then his servants approached and spoke to him and said, “My father, had the prophet spoken with you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” 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 young boy and he was clean.
(2 Kings 5:1-14 LSB)
A Great Man's 'But' (vv. 1-5)
The story opens by building a very impressive resume for Naaman.
"Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man with his master, and highly respected, because by him Yahweh had given salvation to Aram. The man was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper." (2 Kings 5:1)
He is a great man, a respected man, a victorious general, a mighty man of valor. He has power, prestige, and success. But notice two stunning details. First, we are told that it was Yahweh, the God of Israel, who gave victory to Aram through this pagan general. This is a radical statement of God's absolute sovereignty. God is not a tribal deity who only works for His home team. He is the king of all nations, and He raises up and puts down whomever He pleases for His own purposes. He will use a Syrian general to chasten Israel, and He will use that same Syrian general to display His grace.
The second detail is the great "but." After listing all his worldly accolades, the text drops the hammer: "but he was a leper." This one fact negates all the rest. His greatness cannot stop the decay. His power cannot halt the corruption. His wealth cannot buy him clean flesh. This is the human condition. You can be a CEO, a PhD, a celebrity, a decorated soldier, but you are a sinner. And your sin, like leprosy, is a creeping death that all your accomplishments are powerless to stop.
And how does the hope of a cure arrive? Not through a diplomatic envoy or a council of physicians. It comes from "a little girl from the land of Israel" who was a captive slave. God's grace enters the story through the weakest, most powerless, and most unlikely of instruments. This is the consistent pattern of God's work. He chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. This little girl, stolen from her home, still has a robust faith in the God of Israel and His prophet. She does not repay evil for evil, but instead offers a word of grace to the man who represents the very army that enslaved her. This is the spirit of the gospel.
The Panic of Power (vv. 6-8)
Naaman, acting on the slave girl's tip, does what powerful men do. He works through the chain of command. He goes to his king, who sends him with a letter and a massive payment to the king of Israel. They think a miracle can be commissioned like a construction project.
"Am I God, to put to death and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy?" (2 Kings 5:7)
The king of Israel's reaction is telling. He panics. He tears his clothes. He sees a political trap. But in his panic, he speaks a profound theological truth. Curing leprosy is tantamount to raising the dead. It is a work that only God can do. The king has the right theology but the wrong heart. He knows that only God can do this, but it never occurs to him to seek the God who can. He is the head of God's covenant people, yet he is a functional atheist. He sees the impossibility of the demand but has no faith in the God of the impossible.
Elisha hears of the king's despair and sends a sharp rebuke. "Why have you torn your clothes? Now let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." Elisha is not concerned with geopolitical maneuvering. He is concerned with the reputation of Yahweh. The honor of God is at stake. This is not about healing Naaman for Naaman's sake; it is about healing Naaman so that this pagan commander, and by extension the world, will know that the living God resides with His people.
Pride at the Prophet's Door (vv. 9-12)
So Naaman arrives, but he does not arrive like a humble supplicant. He comes with his entourage, "with his horses and his chariots," a full military procession. He pulls up to Elisha's humble house and waits. He expects the prophet to be impressed, to come out and perform.
"But Naaman was furious and went away and said, 'Behold, I said to myself, "He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper."'" (2 Kings 5:11)
Elisha does not even grant him a face-to-face meeting. He sends a servant with a simple, humiliating instruction: "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times." This is a calculated, triple-barreled assault on Naaman's pride. First, the prophet won't see him personally. Second, the cure is absurdly simple. No incantations, no fireworks, no waving of hands. Third, the location is insulting. The Jordan was a muddy, unimpressive river compared to the beautiful, clear rivers of his home in Damascus.
Naaman's reaction is pure, uncut pride. "I said to myself..." He had a script. He had a pre-written drama in his head where he was the star and the prophet had a supporting role. When God refused to follow his script, he flew into a rage. This is the heart of all unbelief. We want a God who conforms to our expectations, who plays by our rules, who uses methods we find respectable. Naaman's objection, "Are not Abanah and Pharpar... better than all the waters of Israel?" is the cry of every sinner who thinks his own righteousness, his own works, his own rivers, are better than the foolish, bloody cross of Jesus Christ.
The Logic of Grace (vv. 13-14)
As Naaman storms off in a huff, salvation comes again from a lowly source: his own servants. They approach him respectfully, calling him "My father," and apply a dose of sanctified common sense.
"My father, had the prophet spoken with you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?" (2 Kings 5:13)
This is the logic of the gospel in a nutshell. They expose the central idol in his heart. His pride was ready to do a "great thing." He would have charged a machine-gun nest or funded a cathedral. The human heart loves to earn its salvation through heroic effort. But the gospel does not call for a great thing. It calls for a simple, obedient trust in God's Word. The offense is not that the command is too hard, but that it is too easy, too humbling.
The servants' logic prevails. Naaman repents of his tantrum. He humbles himself. "So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God." Notice the key phrase: "according to the word of the man of God." The water of the Jordan has no magical properties. The power was in the promise of God, and it was accessed through simple, trusting obedience to that promise. He had to obey exactly. Seven times. A number of divine completion and perfection.
And the result is glorious:
"...and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy and he was clean." (2 Kings 5:14)
This is not just a healing; it is a re-creation. He is not just cured; he is made new. His flesh becomes like that of a child. This is a beautiful Old Testament picture of regeneration. This is what Jesus meant when He said you must be born again. God did not just patch up Naaman's old, leprous flesh. He gave him new flesh. This is what God does for the sinner who, by faith, washes in the fountain of Christ's blood. He does not just forgive our sins; He makes us a new creation.
Conclusion: Dipping Your Dignity
The story of Naaman is a permanent testimony against all forms of self-salvation. We are all Naaman. We are all impressive in some way, and we are all rotting with the leprosy of sin. We all come to God with our horses and chariots, our resumes and our bank accounts, expecting to negotiate the terms of our healing.
And God, in His mercy, insults us. He sends a messenger who points us to a muddy river. He points us to the cross, a place of shame and humiliation. He points us to the simple command to repent and believe in His Son. He tells us to be washed in the blood of Jesus. It is an offense to our pride. It is foolishness to our wisdom. We would rather be saved by our own pristine rivers of Abanah and Pharpar.
But there is no cure there. The only cure is in the place God has appointed. The only way to be made clean is to go down. You must dip your dignity in the muddy waters of the gospel. You must abandon your own scripts and your own ideas of what is respectable. You must obey the simple command of the prophet: "Wash, and be clean." When you do, in simple faith, you will not just be improved. You will be made new, with the clean flesh of a newborn child, and you will know that there is a God in heaven.