2 Kings 5:1-14 Mark 1: 1:40-45 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27
What are your goals?
Maybe you aren’t sure about your goals because sometimes it takes a while for all our wants and wishes to get sorted and distilled into something that looks more like a plan than just wishful thinking. If you aren’t sure, goals are the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning even if your goal is just to get to work on time and pay your bills. But we often have bigger goals. When we’re in our teens our goal might be to finish school and buy a car. In our twenties and thirties, we might dream of a career, success, advancement, a family, and a home of our own. Later, we might have a goal of owning our own business, or climbing the corporate ladder, travel, hobbies, or writing a book. And at some point, many of us begin to add retirement to our life’s goals (and the earlier we begin planning for retirement the better off we are, though that’s a whole subject of its own).
But did you know that the lepers that we read about in scripture had goals? And, what do the goals of ancient lepers have to do with the goals that we have a Christians, and as a church, hundreds, even thousands, of years later?
Let’s begin with the story of Naaman, the commander of the armies of Aram, found in 2 Kings 5:1-14. Aram, at that time, was one of the most powerful nations in the world and so, as the commander of its armies, Naaman was important, powerful, wealthy, and perhaps second only in influence to the king of Aram himself, and with whom Naaman had a close relationship. But Naaman had a problem that money and power and influence couldn’t solve, and we join the story at that point.
5:1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.
2 Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
4 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. 5 “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talentsof silver, six thousand shekelsof gold and ten sets of clothing. 6 The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
7 As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”
8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be cleansed.”
11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So, he turned and went off in a rage.
13 Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” 14 So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
First, I am certain that I am not the only person that just needs to know how much money that we are talking about when they start throwing around words like “talents of silver” and “shekels of gold.” And so, before we go any further, I will do the math for you. One Babylonian talent is a bit over sixty-six pounds, with translates to 800.2 troy ounces per talent. Multiply 800.2 troy ounces times ten talents, and times Monday’s silver spot price of $22.34 per ounce and you end up with a 665.6-pound pile of silver worth $179,165 in today’s market. That’s a fair amount of money and a lot of weight to carry, but then we have six thousand shekels of gold. Six thousand shekels would weigh 262.5 pounds, or 3150 troy ounces, time Monday’s spot price of $2056.37 per ounce and we end up with a current value of $6,477,565.50 which is a serious amount of running around money.
But, when the Naaman shows up in front of Israel’s king, the king tears his robes as a sign of distress and mourning because he thinks that he is being set up and that somehow Aram wants to find a reason to be offended and declare war against them. Naaman knows, the king of Aram knows, and the king of Israel knows that he can’t heal leprosy because no one can cure leprosy so it must be a trap… right? Leprosy was the great equalizer. It didn’t matter if you had money and power or if you were poor. There was no cure, at all, ever, for leprosy and it would, eventually, after much suffering, kill you. But Elisha hears about the king’s problem and asks that Naaman be sent to him.
You see, Naaman’s goal was not to declare war on Israel because he really had leprosy. So far, he had been able to keep it a secret among a small group of people, but sooner or later the truth would come out and he would be cast out of polite society as unclean and when that happened, he would lose everything and become a beggar on the streets of Aram. Naaman’s only goal was to be healed and become whole again. He stumbles over his pride and his nationalism at first because why would Israel’s river be any better than any of Aram’s rivers, but he humbles himself, does what Elisha asked of him, and is healed.
And then almost a thousand years later, in Mark 1:40-45, we meet another person with leprosy. This man has the same problem, but he is already poor, and already an outcast. But he hears about Jesus, goes to him, gets down on his knees in humility, and begs Jesus to heal him.
40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
41 Jesus was indignant [some translations “he was filled with compassion]. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.
43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
Even though he was poor, this man’s goal was the same as Naaman’s, to be healed and become whole again. Both men with leprosy had a goal and they did whatever they could to attain it. One offered money and traveled to a distant country only to discover that what was needed wasn’t money, but humility. The second didn’t travel with an entourage but fell at Jesus feet in humility and faith. In the end, though they could hardly be more different, both men did all that they could to reach their goal.
But where does that leave us, and what does any of that have to do with us, or with the church, in the twenty-first century? If we’re honest, it has everything to do with us. In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul writes to the church in Corinth about what they should be doing, and what we should be doing, to achieve our goals. He said…
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
If your goal is to run in the Olympics, then you cannot train for one hour every other Saturday. If you want to accomplish your goals, your everyday actions must reflect those goals. The two men with leprosy wanted to be whole again and they did whatever they could to find someone that could help them to get there, and with humility, did whatever was asked of them. If we as individuals, and as a church, or as a pack, or as a troop, have goals, then we must, every day, do whatever must be done in order to achieve those goals.
If we intend to gain rank and one day earn our Eagle Scout award, then we must be busy doing the work of scouting to earn rank and community service hours. If we want to grow closer to God, or grow our church, then we must be busy doing that work as well, not just for one hour every other Saturday, but we must daily, diligently, do the work of reading and studying scripture, inviting our friends and neighbors to church, being busy in prayer, sharing the message of the gospel and the Good News of Jesus Christ, and just like we would of we were training for the Olympics, having the humility to patiently, and persistently, do the work, day in, and day out.
All runners run, but only one will win the prize. We must pursue our goals, and run our race, in such a way that we will not be disqualified for the prize.
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