2 Kings 5:1-14

This is a “Once upon a time….” story, part of a series of stories in the Hebrew Scriptures legitimating royal succession and describing the holy men, in this case, the prophet Elisha, through whom God speaks and legitimates rulers. In the process, these stories also tell us something about Israel’s God.

Naaman is a powerful general of the Aramean army who has led his country to many victories, including over Israel – thanks to God. In the ancient worldview, it made sense that God granted an enemy victory. Given that Israel confessed their God as the one true God, supreme over all other gods, the only way to explain a defeat like the one suffered at the hands of the Arameans (1 Kings 22) was to interpret it as God’s will.

Naaman’s life should be a bed of roses except for the fact that he has leprosy, which in biblical terms could have been any number of skin diseases, not just Hansen’s disease. What matters is that because of his disease, he is considered unclean. This was a serious issue, not just physically, but also vocationally and socially; it’s likely he’s unable to do his job. Skin disease stands between Naaman and full honor.

General Naaman owned a slave girl captured in a battle with Israel. Though pivotal to the story, the girl is not named. She tells Naaman’s wife (also unnamed) that there is a prophet in Samaria (the southern portion of what would later be called Israel) who could help Naaman. The wife passes this information along to Naaman. Naaman figures it’s worth a try; nothing else has worked. He takes it up with his own king, who gives him the green light. The king probably wants his general fully functional. The king offers to write a letter of introduction to the king of Israel. Kings talk to other kings, not to prophets and certainly not to slave girls or wives.

The king’s letter of introduction says, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” Letter in hand, Naaman and an entire entourage head out to meet with the king of Samaria with what Frederick Buechner summarizes as “a suitcase full of cash”: gold, silver, lots of clothes (no idea why), chariots, horses.

Before arriving at the Samarian court, Naaman has his king’s letter of introduction delivered to the king of Israel/Samaria. Upon reading it, however, the Samarian king is beside himself with fear and anger. He tears his clothes (a sign of mourning) because he believes the general has concocted this impossible request as an excuse to provoke war. He says, “Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me” (2 Kings 5:7).

Somehow the prophet Elisha gets wind of the king’s concern. He sends word to his king to calm down and just send Naaman to him, “that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel” (2 Kings 5:8). Naaman shifts gears and drags his whole entourage and all that treasure to Elisha’s house. I believe that we, the audience, are supposed to be giggling at this point.

Elisha is home, but instead of coming to greet the general himself, he sends one of his messengers. Through the unnamed messenger, Elisha tells Naaman he should go wash himself seven times in the river Jordan. That’s it.

The general is furious. He came all this way, with all these fabulous gifts, with his entire entourage, expecting to be treated like the important man he is, and not only does this guy tell him to degrade himself by dipping into a local river, which he could have done back home, but Elisha doesn’t even have the courtesy to come out and greet him and tell him this himself. He turns around to head home.

But then an unnamed aid stops him and says, “If the prophet had given you a hard task you would have done it. Why not do it when it’s something easy.” So Naaman returns to the Jordan River and after immersing himself seven times, he is miraculously cured.

The lectionary doesn’t include the verses that follow, in which Naaman goes back to Elisha’s house to thank him and offers to pay him a princely sum, which Elisha refuses because it was God who made it happen, not Elisha.

This compelling little story offers us a handful of lessons:

• Naaman had a lot of things working against him. He was a foreigner, pledged allegiance to a foreign king, and most likely had defeated Israel in battle. He was ritually unclean. He worshiped a foreign God. And yet, Elisha heals him. God heals him. The scandal of this story is the reason Jesus mentions it centuries later (Luke 4:27). God’s healing, favor, and blessing are not limited to “our side” – our tribe, our religion, our ethnicity, our nation.

• While this story features two kings, a general, and a prophet, it is the unnamed, ordinary, “less than” people who make things happen. The slave girl, the wife, the messenger, Naaman’s aid; these people have the compassion, the wisdom, and perhaps the vulnerable creativity to think outside the box, to see that things don’t have to work the way we might expect them to work, or even the way we might think we deserve to have them work. The slave girl, in particular, a spoil of war and likely separated from her family, showed Naaman unexpected compassion. God can work through anyone, of course, but this isn’t the only place in Scripture where it seems God prefers ordinary folks. Don’t be surprised if God accomplishes God’s goals through someone you might not expect, including you.

• It would be unfair and cruel and to say that one must be humble in order to be healed. That puts the responsibility for healing on the person in need of healing, in a “blame the victim” sort of way. However, there are situations in which pride and power get in the way of learning, growing, and discovering. Here, Naaman was able to set aside his assumptions about the treatment he deserved. Disease is indeed the great leveler. But it was a near miss. We do well to keep an open heart and mind to the movement of God’s Spirit.

© Joanne Whitt 2025 all rights reserved.

Resources:
Brian C. Jones, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14-3/commentary-on-2-kings-51-14-7
Stephen B. Reid, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-14-3/commentary-on-2-kings-51-14-5
Dennis Sanders, “In 2 Kings 5, the VIP Characters Aren’t the Ones Who Make a Difference,” https://www.christiancentury.org/sunday-s-coming/ordinary-people-2-kings-5-1-3-7-15c
W. Dennis Tucker, Jr., https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/sixth-sunday-after-epiphany-2/commentary-on-2-kings-51-14-4
Robert B. Coote and Mary P. Coote, Power, Politics, and the Making of the Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1990).