Note: This post is an adaptation of a sermon preached on 30th July 2006 at St Peter’s Anglican Church in Lilongwe, Malawi by the author.
Readings: 2 Kings 5v1-14 Mark 1v 35-45
Two of the above stated readings mention someone being healed of leprosy. In the Old Testament reading, Namaan, a high-ranking officer in the Syrian army, was suffering from leprosy and he went to Elisha the Prophet where God miraculously healed him using the dirty, muddy waters of the Jordan River. In the New Testament reading a leper cried out to Jesus, confident that he would be healed, and indeed he was.
The story of Namaan demonstrates God’s providence (vv1-14), His saving power (vv15-19), and His judgment on sin (vv20-27). The story confirms the truth that God’s grace and salvation are not confined to Israel and the Jews, but that He desires to have compassion on non-Israelites and lead them to know the one true God. Elisha instructed Namaan to wash himself in the dirty waters of the Jordan River as a simple test on humility and obedience. Furthermore, by doing so, Namaan would find it impossible to attribute his healing to humans or to natural means; both Israelites and Arameans knew that the Jordan did not heal leprosy. Namaan needed to know that his healing came miraculously by God’s grace and power through the instruction given by the prophet. Surprising in the story of Namaan is, in the words of Jesus, the fact that “there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed – only Namaan the Syrian.” Luke 4:27 First let me give a brief background to the issue of leprosy. Leviticus 13v 45-47 reads “And the leper’s clothes shall be rent, and the hair of his head shall hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, “Unclean, unclean”. He shall remain unclean as long as the disease of leprosy is in him; he is unclean; he shall live alone and his dwelling shall be outside the camp. The garment also that the disease is in, whether a wool or a linen garment, is to be burned by the Priest.” This shows us why the two lepers mentioned in our readings wanted so much to be healed of the disease. It was a disease that made you to be an outcast. A note in the Amplified version of the Bible says leprosy is symbolic of sin. Let us see why. In the Bible God has said that as long as we continue to sin we will have to dwell outside of His presence because he is a holy God (Habakkuk 1:13a says “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on injustice.” Hebrews 12:14 says “Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will ever see the Lord,” and 1 Peter 1:16 further says “For it is written You shall be holy, for I am holy.” Compare this with the Old and New Testament leper who had to dwell outside the camp, alone. For us to once again dwell in His presence He requires us to wash our bodies of this sin. To do this we must forsake our pride, humble ourselves before God (as James 4:10 says Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you, and 1 Peter 5:6 reads Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you). In addition to forsaking our pride and humbling ourselves we also have to seek to be cleansed in the blood of Jesus, God’s provision for our cleansing. 1 John 1:7 says “the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. Namaan humbled himself when he obeyed the prophet’s command to wash in the muddy waters of the Jordan River where he would find his healing.
Today we are being asked to emulate Namaans example. Notice that the lepers sought to be cleansed because they were considered unclean. Namman was cleansed by washing in the Jordan river. As has already been pointed out, today we have the blood of Christ, and it is this that will cleanse us from all our sins. But washing ourselves in the blood of the Lamb is not the end of it. We also have to change our clothes, which are symbolic of our character (or righteousness). The Bible says once we are in Christ we are a new creation the old has gone, the new has come 2 Corinthians 5:17. We need to burn our old clothes, as the lepers did, and ask God to provide us with new clean clothing because on our own we cannot attain the holiness he requires. This can be seen in Zechariah 3: 1-5 where Joshua is given new clothes by God. Verses 3 and 4 of this scripture read “Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the Angel of the Lord. And He (God) spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And He said to Joshua, Behold I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel.” This clothing is provided with the help of the Holy Spirit whom we receive once we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior.
However, for us to keep the clothing God has given us we need to make a conscious effort to remain pure. We can do this by constantly renewing our minds as Romans 12v2 and Ephesians 4:23 say. In all this we need to remain humble under the mighty hand of God as Peter has told us in 1 Peter 5:6. In addition to humility, obedience is also required of us in our walk with God. Zechariah 3:7 reads “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule My house and have charge of My courts, and I will give you access to my presence and places to walk among those who stand here.” Obedience to God’s word comes high on the list of God’s requirements for the Christian because it is lack of obedience that usually leads us to sin. And God hates sin as we have already seen. These two are very vital ingredients for the Christian. Paul in Philippians 2:5,8,9 tells us how because of His humility and obedience Jesus has been given a name above all names, and he tells us to have the same mind as Jesus had. Today, God is calling each one of us to re-examine our lives. Are we suffering from leprosy, do we need his cleansing. This leprosy is any sin we are struggling with at an individual level as well as at a society level. Galatians 5:19-21 and Revelation 22:15 give us just some examples of such sins.
For the youth, I think we are mostly suffering from the leprosy of rebellion mainly as a result of wanting to follow the crowd and yet Exodus 23:2 says Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. Many youths today, also do not take the advice offered by the Bible to honor their parents in order for them to have long life (Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:1-3 and Colossians 3:20). In all these cases we need to ask God for His cleansing and He is willing to cleanse us and heal us. The leper in the New Testament reading asked if Jesus was willing to heal him and Jesus said He was. He is still the same Jesus today who is willing to cleanse us of all unrighteousness if we confess our sins (1 John 1:9). Jeremiah 3:22 says “Return faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding.” The day to return to God is today. Isaiah 55:6 says “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on Him while He is near.” And Hebrews 3: 15 says “Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Perhaps the best scripture for today would be 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says “If my people who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” If, however, we have already been cleansed and healed, then today we need to make a decision to remain obedient to God and we need to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. James in James 4v17 says “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” And in James 1:22-25 says “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who, listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.”
