God uses ordinary means to accomplish extraordinary results—water and dirt and words spoken by servants.
God uses ordinary means to accomplish extraordinary results—water and dirt and words spoken by servants.
Advent Day 14, The Healing.
Today we consider how God uses ordinary means to achieve extraordinary results.
In this case, ordinary people, ordinary materials, water, and earth-- horses, servants and slave girls, words and messengers.
But to receive an extraordinary gift demands much from a person.
For Naaman, a mighty man of valor, it means setting aside his pride, listening to others, and submitting to their instructions.
The truly desperate, though, accept this cost so that they can be made well.
Naaman, commander of the Syrian army and a mighty man of valor, has a problem.
He is a leper.
No matter how high he rises in his king's favor, he cannot change his skin condition.
He can't strategize his way out of it.
He can't pin it to a wall with a javelin or spear.
It sticks with him closer than his shadow.
What is something that you can't solve or fix on your own?
Naaman may be the commander of the army, but he and most likely his wife exist in a kind of social purgatory.
Will they or won't they be invited to an event?
Will they or won't they be asked to stand as witnesses at a friend's wedding?
Will they have children?
Can they?
Should they?
When have you felt like an outsider longing to be let in?
Naaman's leprosy drags at him, far heavier than his shield and sword.
He longs to be rid of this thing that makes him the subject of whispered conversations, the recipient of pity and sideways glances.
Who dares to look at him in case they accidentally reveal the content of their thoughts?
Then something extraordinary.
From an ordinary slave girl who faithfully serves his wife, his wife reports to him, trying to laugh lest she cry, you shall never guess what the Israelite girl said to me today.
Would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria?
He would cure him of his leprosy, 2 Kings 5, verse 3.
The gold remembers the prophet and the Lord whom the prophet serves.
She could have kept this knowledge to herself, but she shares it.
Why do you think she does this?
Naaman considers.
Naaman weighs the pros and cons.
Naaman strategizes and puzzles over the possible ramifications.
Finally, though, a single thought.
What can it hurt?
Naaman goes to the king.
His king sends him to the king of Israel, and that king sends Naaman to God's prophet.
When he arrives at the prophet's house, the prophet refuses to see him face to face.
The prophet sends an ordinary messenger who tells him to wash in the Jordan River seven times.
Naaman is incensed.
He is angry.
He scowls and stomps towards his chariot.
Why do you think Naaman is so angry?
His servants, his ordinary servants approach, likely trembling, afraid of their master's wrath.
What can it hurt, they ask?
A mighty prophet has spoken to you.
Will you not listen?
In what ways might the servant's posture appease Naaman's anger?
One day of extraordinary wonders, Naaman listens to his servants and to God's prophet.
He washes in the river and emerges clean, free of leprosy.
And then something odd, something even more miraculous.
Naaman asks the prophet for earth.
Then Naaman said, if not, please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth.
For from now on your servant will not offer burnt offerings or sacrifice to any God but the Lord.
In this matter, may the Lord pardon your servant.
When my master goes into the house of Rimon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.
He said to him, go in peace, 2 Kings 5:17-19.
Naaman uses the Israelites' name for God Yahweh, not the general term for God, Elohim.
What does the name suggest about the condition of his heart?
God uses ordinary means to accomplish extraordinary results.
Mary, Jesus' mother, Elizabeth, and Zechariah, the shepherds overflowing with an angelic message, the uneducated, sometimes uncouth disciples who speak boldly and winsomely when called to the religious court.
All ordinary people, but people open to the extraordinary God.
In what ways is surrendering to God's mighty power necessary to being used in extraordinary ways or for extraordinary things?
And of course, the Son of God Himself, born as a baby, God with us.
What could be more ordinary and altogether extraordinary than a baby?
Each infant is altogether precious, and the one promised to Mary the most precious of all.
As Jesus grows up and begins his public ministry, he upholds the pattern of using the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary.
Water into wine, earth pressed against the man's eyes so that he can see the fringe of a robe, a word of authority.
Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
Luke 8 tells us, "There was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.
She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.
And Jesus said, who was it that touched me?
But Jesus said, someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.
And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed.
And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well.
Go in peace.
Luke 8:42-48.
What similarities do you notice between the woman and Naaman?
Jesus, like the prophet, tells us the person who has been healed to go in peace.
Why might the words be important to the woman?
Why might they be important to Naaman?
What does the phrase go in peace mean to you?
What do you want God to do for you?
Take some time to tell him about it. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the lighting and the little things and using them to do incredible things.
Water and dirt, friends and spouses, children and servants, words that give life and restore us to ourselves, to you and to others.
Thank you for making us dependent creatures.
Thank you for all the ways you're healing us and making us new.
Amen.