Degree of Difficulty
2 Kings 5:1-14
by Jim Westmoreland
The 2006 Winter Olympics have officially begun. I still remember seeing TV coverage of the Olympics and hearing the voice of Jim McKay. There were many events that were intriguing and interesting as I watched the competition, but I have always been fascinated by those events where there were some choices made by the competitors that were described using the words, "degree of difficulty."
In the summer Olympics the divers and the gymnasts choose dives and routines that have varying degrees of difficulty. The more difficult routines are said to have a higher degree of difficulty, and if they are done well, they are given a higher score. In the Winter Olympics figure skating and snowboarding the half-pipe are two events that will cause the TV commentators to talk about degree of difficulty. I've been intrigued watching 19-year old Shawn White come zig-zagging down the half-pipe. Shawn, who has the big, bushy red hair, has the nickname of the "the Flying Tomato" because of his hair.
The half-pipe has a panel of five judges. One judge scores the standardized moves, another scores amplitude (the height of maneuvers), one scores quality of rotations, and two score overall impression.
For the amplitude score each maneuver is given an additional point for every 30 centimeters (about 1/8" less than a foot) that the competitor reaches above the lip of the pipe, and the Flying Tomato gets up to 18 feet above the lip of the pipe.
The athletes in the Olympics choose routines with a high degree of difficulty and strive to do it well to demonstrate their superior performance and mastery of their event. In our text from 2 Kings, we are introduced to Naaman who had to deal with degree of difficulty in a quite different way than Olympic athletes.
Naaman was the commander of the army of the king of Aram, the area around Damascus, which later became known as Syria. It seems that he has received every honor that military skill and good fortune can bring, but he has leprosy. The isolation that was imposed on lepers was obviously not as severe in this account from 2 Kings as it was later during New Testament times when lepers were run out of the city and often lived in leper colonies that were completely cut off from the rest of the world. Nevertheless, leprosy was still dreaded and feared, and a person would go to extraordinary lengths to get relief or to seek to be healed.
God uses a young Israeli girl who had been taken captive by the Arameans who was now a servant to Naaman's wife. She tells Naaman's wife about the prophet in Israel who could cure Naaman of his leprosy. She tells Naaman, and he tells the king. The king is obviously appreciative of all Naaman has done and sends him to the king of Israel with a great sum of money and gold.
Well, Jehoram, king of Israel is in shock when he learns that Naaman has come to him to be healed. He reacts strongly, tearing his clothes and saying, "Am I God, to give life or death? He thinks he is being set up by the king of Aram to fail to heal Naaman. He fears that this will be pretext for a misunderstanding and maybe a fight.
Jehoram was not making things any better with his reactions to Naaman and the letter from the king of Aram. So, it was a good thing that Elisha heard about it and got involved. Elisha sends a letter to Jehoram, saying, let Naaman "come to me and learn that there is a prophet in Israel." This story is one of those stories that served to remind Israel of the power of Yahweh over the gods of the surrounding countries. It was a story of "My god is better than your god!"
Naaman, the general, came from Aram to Israel, trying to get well, and he went to Elisha's house. He expects Elisha to come out to talk with him, but, instead, Elisah sends a messenger out who tells Naaman to go and wash seven times in the river Jordan and so that his flesh will be restored and he will be made clean. Naaman reacts as one who has just been insulted. He felt insulted because Elisha didn't bother to come out and meet him, this one who was the commander of the armies of the king of Aram. And not only that, he was told to go bathe in the dirty, insignificant river Jordan.
"Go, wash in the Jordan seven times," suggests the prophet, and to a military man like Naaman, accustomed to strategies grounded in precedent and practicality, these words sound absurd. Naaman would have reacted better to instructions that required a "higher degree of difficulty." There were better, cleaner rivers back in Aram. There was no challenge or special requirement to go down to the Jordan. Anybody could do that! But some of Naaman's servants, knowing full well that the mighty military man couldn't resist a challenge, egg him on by taunting, "You would have accepted a truly DIFFICULT command from the prophet. Why not respond to an easy one, 'Wash, and be clean'?" So Naaman nods in reluctant agreement, strides down to the Jordan, dunks himself in the muddy river seven times, and emerges without a spot of leprosy -- he's completely healed and made whole.
We are sometimes like Naaman when we want to make things complicated. We can't do what God is leading us to do because of something that has yet to happen or that we need to do first or whatever . . . and that is what keeps us from God or keeps us from doing what we should do.
Sometimes the solution to moral and spiritual improvement is not all that complicated. To most of us, they are basic and common sense solutions. An auto mechanic received a repair order that said to check a clunking noise when going around corners. This could be serious. So, he took the car out for a test drive and made two right turns, and each time, sure enough, he heard a loud clunking noise. Back at the shop, he returned the car to the service manager with this note: "Removed bowling ball from trunk."(1)
Sometimes, we make things harder than they are. We try to make every problem have a high degree of difficulty when most things are much simpler.
As we hear this story of Naaman, we need to ask ourselves, "what can cure us of our spiritual leprosy?" And the answer to that question is already known to us: Go wash in the Jordan and you will be healed! Or, to put it into a more familiar phrase: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!"
The problem is that we think that is too simple. Most of us have heard that advice so often, many of us from childhood on, that it has a trite ring to it. But think with me for a moment about what following the way of Jesus really means.
For one thing, it means being a part of the believing community that we call the church.
What other institution is there that sanctions the pursuit of holiness, compassion and the meaning of life as legitimate enterprises?
What other alternative is there that so fully provides the resources for spiritual growth?
What other place is there where children are nurtured in faith?
What other place energizes and stimulates the examination of societal issues not only in terms of what would be helpful, but also in terms of what would be right?
Where else are deaths not only mourned but mourned in the hope of eternal life? ...
Many of us stand with Naaman pondering strange instructions. Naaman's was, "If you want to be cured of your leprosy, go wash in old Jordan." Perhaps, in our loneliness and isolation we have been told, "Learn to pray." Both Naaman and us have been hearing forms of the same advice that the church has been giving for centuries: "Trust God and be made whole." We want to make things more complicated than that. We want a higher degree of difficulty. We still want to do it on our own.
It may not be the instruction we were expecting, but it's the one we need to hear.(2) "Trust God and be made whole." Amen.
Century Christian Church, February 12, 2006 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
1. Wesley Taylor, Tualatin, Oregon, quoted in Homiletics magazine.
2. Stan Purdum, "Washing in Old Jordan," Centenary United Methodist Church, July 27, 1997.