I preached this sermon on August 14, 2011, at the Dawson Creek Church of the New Jerusalem in Dawson Creek, BC.
NAAMAN’S LEPROSY
“My father, if the prophet had spoken unto you of a great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Bathe and be clean’?” (2 Kings 5:13)
What should we do to be cleaned? How can we be cured of our spiritual diseases? The answer is simple: wash, and be cleaned. Cease to do evil, learn to do good. But that simple answer is often unsatisfying. Sometimes we want something much bigger, something immediate and powerful that heals us in an instant. In those times, we are like Naaman, who we read about this morning.
Naaman was the commander of the army of the king of Syria – “a great man.” He was a hero of his people – but he suffered from leprosy. In those times, there was no known cure for leprosy. It would have disfigured Naaman, and made his skin hard and white. Besides this, when a person has leprosy they lose sensitivity, and they can easily hurt their bodies because they don’t feel pain.
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