24 March 2014 - a simple remedy

24 March 2014 - a simple remedy

Today we are called to have a simple and trusting faith.

The first example of this faith is the "little girl" taken captive from Israel and made a servant of the wife of Naaman.  These sound like very difficult life circumstances which would challenge anyone's faith. But not her.  Taken from her land, made a servant, she still has a simple yet deep trust in God.

“If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,”
she said to her mistress, “he would cure him of his leprosy.”

Amusingly, her simple trust causes all types of problems for those whose faith is less strong.

“Am I a god with power over life and death,
that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy?
Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!”

Naaman himself shows us the wrong way and eventually the right way to receive healing from the LORD.  First the wrong way:

Naaman came with his horses and chariots
and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.

He shows up with the full power of his own strength on display.  It is as if he says that he deserves healing.  Or in other words, it is almost as if he says that healing is something he can take by force.  'Look at all these areas of life that are under my control,' we imagine he says.  'I'll just add this final one to the list.'

But healing cannot come to a heart like this. 

But Naaman went away angry, saying,
“I thought that he would surely come out and stand there
to invoke the LORD his God,
and would move his hand over the spot,
and thus cure the leprosy.
Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar,
better than all the waters of Israel?
Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?”
With this, he turned about in anger and left.

He must humble himself.  He must take the simple action of washing himself in this foreign river.  He has pride in the place from which he comes but he must lay this down.  All that he counted as gain he must regard as loss to receive healing (cf. Phi. 3:8). 

He does eventually humble himself.  The simple faith of the servant girl paves the way for this mighty commander to enter into a simple faith himself.  The healing which is unleashed, wherein "flesh became again like the flesh of a little child," is secondary to something that happens deeper within him.

He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God.
On his arrival he stood before him and said,
“Now I know that there is no God in all the earth,
except in Israel.”

This simplicity is a guard against pride.  If we are simple we do not begrudge the prodigal son's welcome home party.  The people in the synagogue at Nazareth are also looking for something out of the ordinary, something which is not simple.  Simplicity guards against insistence on novelty and extravagance.  Without it Jesus cannot be accepted in Nazareth.  Our lack of simplicity masks our pride.  It is really just a different way of saying that we deserve God's favors.  Like the elder brother, we are already working in the vineyard.  Where is our party?  Like those people in the synagogue at Nazareth, we won't look to the salvation offered to us, preferring something flashier and more exotic.  It is the same with Naaman at first.  Washing is too simple and the Jordan river too dirty.

But the faith of the simple servant girl can overcome all of these blocks and unleash God's grace in us.  It can bring us to a trust in God that thirsts for him alone.  And when we thirst for the living God he satisfies us more than we can even imagine.

Then will I go in to the altar of God,
the God of my gladness and joy;
Then will I give you thanks upon the harp,
O God, my God!