Two Lepers
(2 Kings 5:1-14; Mark 1:40-45)
Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany, 2009
There was a woman who recently went to a local clinic. She was seen by one of the new doctors,
but after less than five minutes in the examination room, she burst out, screaming as she ran down
the hall. An older doctor stopped and asked her what was wrong, and she explained. He had her sit
down and relax in another room.
The older doctor marched back to the first and said, "What's the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 63
years old, she has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was
pregnant?" The new doctor smiled benignly, and as he continued to write on his clipboard, he said,
"Stopped her hiccups though, didn't it?"
There are unconventional cures, and then there are really unconventional cures. I hope it’s not a
news flash to anyone here that healing runs deep in our DNA here at Hope-in-the-Desert. So it sort
of catches the attention when our readings contain accounts of at least two unconventional cures.
In fact, both of these healings involve the dreaded disease of leprosy.
This is something we don’t hear about all that often these days, because now we’ve found a cure. It’
s known as Hansen’s Disease, and thankfully the stigma associated with it has vanished from most
corners of the globe. But in Bible times, it was a dreaded disease indeed. It was contagious, and
progressively interfered with the body’s ability to sense pain or pressure. Eventually, sores would
cover the person and their flesh would become deformed and would literally be worn away.
And if this wasn’t bad enough, in Hebrew culture those with leprosy were considered ritually unclean
and were prevented from having access to healthy people in any meaningful way. If someone
approached, they would have to shout out “Unclean!” to avoid any possibility of contact. It was a
lonely and miserable existence.
Imagine, then how disorienting this disease must have been to a man like Naaman, whose story is
told in our reading from 2 Kings. The text says that Naaman was an army commander for the
Arameans. Given his description I have to imagine that he was the equivalent of a general, and was
held in very high esteem by his king. This great, popular man now suffered from the disease of
leprosy.
Now, during one of his raids, Naaman had taken captive a young Hebrew girl who served as his wife’
s servant. She kind of off-handedly remarked, “Gee, too bad my master isn’t with the prophet who
lives in Samaria! He’d take care of his problem.”
So Naaman tells his king about this prophet, and the Aramean king sends a letter to the Israelite
king asking for help. The poor, harried Israelite king reads the letter, slaps his forehead, tears his
clothes, and says, “Oy, vey! Now the King of Aram wants me to cure some leper! Is he just trying to
pick a fight or what?” I think he could have used last week’s message about burnout.
The prophet Elisha hears about this, and tells the Israelite king, “Hey, take a chill pill! Send this man
to me!” But then, something kind of strange happens. The commander shows up for his healing,
expecting the great prophet Elisha to come down and give him the special attention he deserves as
an Aramean VIP.
But instead Elisha sends a messenger to instruct the commander to go down to the muddy old
Jordan River and wash himself seven times. Then he would be clean.
And Naaman replies, “What is this? I mean the least this prophet could do is to come down wave his
hand over the leprosy spot and make it disappear! And heck, aren’t the rivers in my own country
better than the muddy old Jordan? Why did I have to come here anyway?” But again it’s the
humble Jewish servant who speaks words of wisdom. She alerts the commander to the fact that
really, Elisha’s instructions are pretty simple, and encourages him to just give it a try. The result is
that the commander washes himself as directed, and is completely healed.
Contained in this interesting story is one very important facet of divine healing. And that is an
attitude of submissive humility. In some way there’s an interplay here between obedience and
healing. The commander almost blew his chances by insisting that the healing be accomplished in
his way—and for that matter, insisting upon being given due recognition because of his social
status.
Is this not related in some ways with something many of us struggle with? We may show up for our
healing (and it doesn’t have to be just physical healing, but many other kinds as well), but then
perhaps try to call the shots as to what the process or result should look like. And if the answer we
get doesn’t correspond with what we think is sensible, we’re inclined to reject it.
For that matter, it may be tempting for us as agents of God’s healing to perhaps instruct God as to
how exactly He should heal the person we’re praying for. And really, I suppose that’s OK in some
ways as long as we’re prepared for a response that may surprise us. You see, healing is not a
conjuring act, but a humble request placed before God. The Aramean commander wanted Elisha to
wave his hand over the spot and mumble some kind of incantation, but God’s way of healing was
different. And when Naaman submitted to God’s way, he was healed.
The same is true in our Gospel reading. St. Mark says a leper came to Jesus begging to be
healed. He knelt before Jesus and said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” And moved with
pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”
And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. This leper imprinted himself for
posterity as a model of humility and faith.
This leads to the second great facet relating these two readings. It has to do with how Jesus has
changed everything for us. Whether intentional or not, these readings supply us with a picture of
how things have changed in our relationship with God “BC” as opposed to “AD”. In the case of
Naaman, we have what in some ways may be called “healing from a distance.” God had not yet
become incarnate in the Son, Jesus, and it was the age of the prophets. God communicated to His
people through special individuals He selected to carry His message. The thought of witnessing the
very presence of God was terrifying. You may recall that when God identified Himself to Moses in
the Book of Exodus, Moses hid His face, because he was afraid to look upon God. And later, when
the presence of God passed by Moses, God prepared Moses by saying, “When my glory passes by,
I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will
remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” It’s very much like the
hymn we sing: “Immortal, invisible, God only wise; in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes.” Naaman
is healed through the agency of God’s prophet, Elisha, but even Elisha isn’t actually present for it.
So in a sense, Naaman is twice removed from his source of healing. God works through the waters
of the Jordan.
But then comes Jesus. God in His fullness, present in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, is
approached by a leper. As is so often the case, the English rendering of Greek words doesn’t quite
fully capture their significance. When the leper humbly makes his request, Mark reports that Jesus
is “moved with pity.” The phrase “moved with pity” really is an understatement. The Greek word
used here is splanchnizomai. One Bible commentator catches the nuance well when he says that
this word “identifies a profoundly intense emotional response that viscerally (from the gut) propels
one feeling compassion into action on behalf of others.”
This is no casual sentiment of sympathy. It’s being moved right down to the marrow with deep
compassion for another. And I think it’s more than safe to say that this compassion extends to the
ultimate breadth of the suffering that characterizes being a human being in a fallen world. This is
the heart of the God that often seemed to remain hidden in many of the stories of the Old
Testament. The God who inspired fear, and who spoke and acted through human representatives
has broken into the time-space world of His human creation, and become as “hands on” as He
possibly could get by becoming incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and being made man.
And to magnify the significance of this event, think of what I was saying earlier about the social and
religious status of a leper. A leper was one from whom to flee. And actually touching a leper was
unthinkable. But Mark says, “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘Be
made clean!’” In Jewish eyes this would have made Jesus unclean. It would have made him an
untouchable! But this is actually what Jesus does or all of us! In purity he reaches deep into our
impurity to make us pure. In a sense he sacrificially soils his hands to make us clean.
But this, too, fails to acknowledge the depth of God’s sacrificial love through Jesus. Because there
was an even greater curse than laying hands upon a leper. Remember in the book of Deuteronomy
where it is written: “Anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse.” And this, of course, was what
happened to Jesus. But St. Paul writes to the Galatians, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’—in
order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Jesus descended to the very depths of human existence to rescue us from the curse, and the
promise made to Abraham made some 2000 years previously—that promise that through his seed
all peoples would be blessed—was thus fulfilled. And the result is, that through faith we receive the
promise of the Spirit. It’s this same Spirit through whom God now uses us as agents of His healing
to a hurting world. We are vessels of God himself to be used for His purposes.
Naaman and the nameless leper in our Gospel story highlight both the depth of God’s love for you
and I, and just how fitting it is for us to bend our knee in response to that incomprehensible love,
humbly submitting ourselves to His authority and to His divine will as we offer and receive healing.
May we ever be mindful of the extraordinary cost and incalculable benefit of Jesus Christ’s work for
you and for me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
(2 Kings 5:1-14; Mark 1:40-45)
Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany, 2009
There was a woman who recently went to a local clinic. She was seen by one of the new doctors,
but after less than five minutes in the examination room, she burst out, screaming as she ran down
the hall. An older doctor stopped and asked her what was wrong, and she explained. He had her sit
down and relax in another room.
The older doctor marched back to the first and said, "What's the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 63
years old, she has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was
pregnant?" The new doctor smiled benignly, and as he continued to write on his clipboard, he said,
"Stopped her hiccups though, didn't it?"
There are unconventional cures, and then there are really unconventional cures. I hope it’s not a
news flash to anyone here that healing runs deep in our DNA here at Hope-in-the-Desert. So it sort
of catches the attention when our readings contain accounts of at least two unconventional cures.
In fact, both of these healings involve the dreaded disease of leprosy.
This is something we don’t hear about all that often these days, because now we’ve found a cure. It’
s known as Hansen’s Disease, and thankfully the stigma associated with it has vanished from most
corners of the globe. But in Bible times, it was a dreaded disease indeed. It was contagious, and
progressively interfered with the body’s ability to sense pain or pressure. Eventually, sores would
cover the person and their flesh would become deformed and would literally be worn away.
And if this wasn’t bad enough, in Hebrew culture those with leprosy were considered ritually unclean
and were prevented from having access to healthy people in any meaningful way. If someone
approached, they would have to shout out “Unclean!” to avoid any possibility of contact. It was a
lonely and miserable existence.
Imagine, then how disorienting this disease must have been to a man like Naaman, whose story is
told in our reading from 2 Kings. The text says that Naaman was an army commander for the
Arameans. Given his description I have to imagine that he was the equivalent of a general, and was
held in very high esteem by his king. This great, popular man now suffered from the disease of
leprosy.
Now, during one of his raids, Naaman had taken captive a young Hebrew girl who served as his wife’
s servant. She kind of off-handedly remarked, “Gee, too bad my master isn’t with the prophet who
lives in Samaria! He’d take care of his problem.”
So Naaman tells his king about this prophet, and the Aramean king sends a letter to the Israelite
king asking for help. The poor, harried Israelite king reads the letter, slaps his forehead, tears his
clothes, and says, “Oy, vey! Now the King of Aram wants me to cure some leper! Is he just trying to
pick a fight or what?” I think he could have used last week’s message about burnout.
The prophet Elisha hears about this, and tells the Israelite king, “Hey, take a chill pill! Send this man
to me!” But then, something kind of strange happens. The commander shows up for his healing,
expecting the great prophet Elisha to come down and give him the special attention he deserves as
an Aramean VIP.
But instead Elisha sends a messenger to instruct the commander to go down to the muddy old
Jordan River and wash himself seven times. Then he would be clean.
And Naaman replies, “What is this? I mean the least this prophet could do is to come down wave his
hand over the leprosy spot and make it disappear! And heck, aren’t the rivers in my own country
better than the muddy old Jordan? Why did I have to come here anyway?” But again it’s the
humble Jewish servant who speaks words of wisdom. She alerts the commander to the fact that
really, Elisha’s instructions are pretty simple, and encourages him to just give it a try. The result is
that the commander washes himself as directed, and is completely healed.
Contained in this interesting story is one very important facet of divine healing. And that is an
attitude of submissive humility. In some way there’s an interplay here between obedience and
healing. The commander almost blew his chances by insisting that the healing be accomplished in
his way—and for that matter, insisting upon being given due recognition because of his social
status.
Is this not related in some ways with something many of us struggle with? We may show up for our
healing (and it doesn’t have to be just physical healing, but many other kinds as well), but then
perhaps try to call the shots as to what the process or result should look like. And if the answer we
get doesn’t correspond with what we think is sensible, we’re inclined to reject it.
For that matter, it may be tempting for us as agents of God’s healing to perhaps instruct God as to
how exactly He should heal the person we’re praying for. And really, I suppose that’s OK in some
ways as long as we’re prepared for a response that may surprise us. You see, healing is not a
conjuring act, but a humble request placed before God. The Aramean commander wanted Elisha to
wave his hand over the spot and mumble some kind of incantation, but God’s way of healing was
different. And when Naaman submitted to God’s way, he was healed.
The same is true in our Gospel reading. St. Mark says a leper came to Jesus begging to be
healed. He knelt before Jesus and said, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” And moved with
pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”
And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. This leper imprinted himself for
posterity as a model of humility and faith.
This leads to the second great facet relating these two readings. It has to do with how Jesus has
changed everything for us. Whether intentional or not, these readings supply us with a picture of
how things have changed in our relationship with God “BC” as opposed to “AD”. In the case of
Naaman, we have what in some ways may be called “healing from a distance.” God had not yet
become incarnate in the Son, Jesus, and it was the age of the prophets. God communicated to His
people through special individuals He selected to carry His message. The thought of witnessing the
very presence of God was terrifying. You may recall that when God identified Himself to Moses in
the Book of Exodus, Moses hid His face, because he was afraid to look upon God. And later, when
the presence of God passed by Moses, God prepared Moses by saying, “When my glory passes by,
I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will
remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” It’s very much like the
hymn we sing: “Immortal, invisible, God only wise; in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes.” Naaman
is healed through the agency of God’s prophet, Elisha, but even Elisha isn’t actually present for it.
So in a sense, Naaman is twice removed from his source of healing. God works through the waters
of the Jordan.
But then comes Jesus. God in His fullness, present in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, is
approached by a leper. As is so often the case, the English rendering of Greek words doesn’t quite
fully capture their significance. When the leper humbly makes his request, Mark reports that Jesus
is “moved with pity.” The phrase “moved with pity” really is an understatement. The Greek word
used here is splanchnizomai. One Bible commentator catches the nuance well when he says that
this word “identifies a profoundly intense emotional response that viscerally (from the gut) propels
one feeling compassion into action on behalf of others.”
This is no casual sentiment of sympathy. It’s being moved right down to the marrow with deep
compassion for another. And I think it’s more than safe to say that this compassion extends to the
ultimate breadth of the suffering that characterizes being a human being in a fallen world. This is
the heart of the God that often seemed to remain hidden in many of the stories of the Old
Testament. The God who inspired fear, and who spoke and acted through human representatives
has broken into the time-space world of His human creation, and become as “hands on” as He
possibly could get by becoming incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and being made man.
And to magnify the significance of this event, think of what I was saying earlier about the social and
religious status of a leper. A leper was one from whom to flee. And actually touching a leper was
unthinkable. But Mark says, “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘Be
made clean!’” In Jewish eyes this would have made Jesus unclean. It would have made him an
untouchable! But this is actually what Jesus does or all of us! In purity he reaches deep into our
impurity to make us pure. In a sense he sacrificially soils his hands to make us clean.
But this, too, fails to acknowledge the depth of God’s sacrificial love through Jesus. Because there
was an even greater curse than laying hands upon a leper. Remember in the book of Deuteronomy
where it is written: “Anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse.” And this, of course, was what
happened to Jesus. But St. Paul writes to the Galatians, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the
law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’—in
order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Jesus descended to the very depths of human existence to rescue us from the curse, and the
promise made to Abraham made some 2000 years previously—that promise that through his seed
all peoples would be blessed—was thus fulfilled. And the result is, that through faith we receive the
promise of the Spirit. It’s this same Spirit through whom God now uses us as agents of His healing
to a hurting world. We are vessels of God himself to be used for His purposes.
Naaman and the nameless leper in our Gospel story highlight both the depth of God’s love for you
and I, and just how fitting it is for us to bend our knee in response to that incomprehensible love,
humbly submitting ourselves to His authority and to His divine will as we offer and receive healing.
May we ever be mindful of the extraordinary cost and incalculable benefit of Jesus Christ’s work for
you and for me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Two Lepers
2 Kings 5:1-14, Mark 1:40-45 ~ Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
2 Kings 5:1-14, Mark 1:40-45 ~ Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
February 15, 2009
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton
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