2 Kings 5:1-19 (RSV)
Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little maid from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the maiden from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten festal garments. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you rent your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and halted at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry, and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, if the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when he says to you, ‘Wash and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
Then (Naaman) returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him; and he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.” But (Elisha) said, “As the Lord lives whom I serve, I will receive none.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused. The Naaman said, “If not, I pray you, let there be given to your servant two mules’ burden of earth; for henceforth your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the Lord. In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter. He said to him, “Go in peace”
Emily Dickenson is one of my favorite poets, and this is my favorite of her poems. It’s called “Nobody.”
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – Too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! They’d advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!
This story of Naaman is a story all about Somebodies and Nobodies. Naaman was a really big Somebody, “a great man,” the text says. He was the commander-in-chief of the Syrian army, the king’s right-hand man.
But, he was a leper.
In his household, there was a little slave girl taken from Israel – a real Nobody. A foreigner, a girl, a child, a slave. A quadruple Nobody. She speaks to Naaman’s wife, and Naaman speaks to the king – the biggest Somebody in the whole land.
The king of Syria writes a letter to the king of Israel, another big Somebody. And Naaman packs up a bunch of gold and silver and fancy clothes – presents “fit for a king,” so to speak.
And he takes off with his whole retinue to speak with Israel’s king.
Nobody seems to notice that the little slave girl hadn’t said anything at all about kings. She was talking about a prophet in Samaria – probably another Nobody in a Nothing place.
But the men all carry on with being Somebody.
The king of Israel doesn’t seem to even know that there is a prophet in the area. Instead, he says, “Woe is me! The Syrian king is planning war on us. Again!” Finally, Elisha has to send a messenger to the king, to say, “Excuse me. But Naaman probably wanted to see me.”
So Naaman gets directions to Elisha’s house, gathers up all his troops and horses and chariots and goes off, and the whole crowd pulls up in front of Elisha’s house. Now notice. Naaman doesn’t even get off his horse. He just sits there, waiting for Elisha to come out.
But Elisha doesn’t come out. He sends a messenger, who tells Naaman to go bathe in the Jordan. At this, Naaman gets furious. “Who does he think he is, sending a messenger out to me? Doesn’t he know who I am? He should come out here and perform some great power ceremony with lightening bolts and deafening thunder and call down his God and heal me. Instead, he tells me to go jump in the river. Bah! He can go jump into his own stinkin’ river. I’m out of here. Let’s go.”
But his servants – who are such Nobodies that they remain nameless and faceless – think otherwise. The servants say, “You know, if he’d asked you to do something grand – slay ten dragons, say – you would have rushed off and done it. But he told you to do a simple thing. Why not just try it?”
Doesn’t that remind you of what’s going on in our world today? Here we are, with wars all over the place. A world filled with terrorists and suicide bombers and nuclear weapons and armies. All led by Somebodies, who are so busy thumping their own chests that they can’t see the plain truth. Instead of trying to fix the problem, they seem to think that dropping more bombs will solve it. And then all of these Somebodies act surprised when it just makes people madder.
They are so full of their own power and importance that they are blinded to what any school child can see:
If you want people to be nice to you, you have to be nice to them.
But presidents and prime ministers seem not to know that. They just go on bombing things and killing people and wondering why people hate them.
The Somebodies are blind. The Nobodies see.
Now, Jesus had some things to say about this. In fact, it seems he had a lot to say about it.
He said things like, “I thank you, Father, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to babes.”
Or “Unless you become like a little child, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Of himself, he said, “I am meek and humble of heart,” as if to say, “and therefore you can trust me.”
He went around sticking pins into the balloons of all the Somebodies of his time, saying, “The prostitutes and tax collectors – all the Nobodies – see what’s going on. Why don’t you?”
No wonder they hated him!
The Somebodies are blind. The Nobodies see.
I don’t mean to say that everyone who has power or prestige or money is a complete ignoramus. Nor do I mean to say that all of the little people – the poor and disenfranchised – are full of wisdom. Nor do I think that Jesus was trying to say that.
Rather, I think we are all both. We all, in our hearts, know that we are really Nobody, but we desperately want to be Somebody. And we know that we are Somebody, that we matter, but we are terrified that underneath we might really be Nobody after all.
But when we put it like this, we see that our values are upside-down. We want to be Somebody. We are terrified that we might be Nobody. And we fail to see the plain truth.
The plain truth is that as long as we wander around trying to prove that we are important, that we are Somebody, we are blind. We are so full of ourselves that we can’t see.
But when we allow all of that to drop away, when we allow ourselves to be stripped naked – then we can see. When we allow ourselves to be empty – to be Nobodies – we are open. We can see.
Naaman was a major Somebody, but he was a leper. Perhaps it was his disease that let him feel his own weakness, his Nobody-ness. Maybe it was the leprosy that let him open up, that made him hold still for a minute and hear what his servants were saying. Whatever it was, Naaman let go of all of his opinions and waded into that river.
Now, our story says that after Naaman had dipped himself into the Jordan seven times, “his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child.” He became like a little child.
We see that somehow, while he was dipping himself into the Jordan, all of Naaman’s pomp and self-importance was rinsed away. He became like a little child.
Naaman went back to Elisha a much humbler and wiser man. This time, he did get off his horse, and he stood in front of Elisha. And he refers to himself as Elisha’s servant. Naaman has become a Nobody.
And now he sees! Now he is able to recognize the one true God.
First, Naaman offers Elisha the gold and silver and fancy clothes he had brought with him. But Elisha refuses.
Then Naaman asks Elisha for two donkey loads of Israeli soil, a truly humble request. He wants to take home a piece of Israel on which to worship the God of Israel, the God he now recognizes.
But Naaman is also a pragmatist. He knows he is going back to his old job as the commander-in-chief of the Syrian armies. And, as a part of that job, he will have to go with the king to the temple of Rimmon and bow down to the idol. Naaman asks Elisha and God to pardon him in advance. He now knows it’s idolatry, but he has to do it.
Elisha simply says, “Go in peace,” as if to say, “You are a person of power and position, You have to do what you have to do. But I know that you now know God. You see.” “Go in peace.”
And so it is with us. We are constrained by our ordinary lives. We have to live in the world. Some of us have or will have positions of power and importance. We will have to be in the role of an important person. Others of us may not feel that we have much power. But no matter who we are, all of us have to be Somebody some of the time. We need to put on our positions. Puff ourselves up. Act as if we were important, and carry out our responsibilities.
But once in awhile, we need to stop. We need to let go of our own self-importance. Let go of our selves.
We each need to wade into our own private Jordans, and rinse away all of our pomp and prestige and position. Be washed clean.
We need to allow ourselves to simply be who we are. Nobody.
And then we can see. Go in peace.
