Feb. 12, 2012 2 KINGS 5:1-14 NRSV

Feb. 12, 2012

2 KINGS 5:1-14 NRSV

¹Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was a great man and in high favor with his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man, though a mighty warrior, suffered from leprosy.²Now the Arameans on one of their raids had taken a young girl captive from the land of Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. ³She said to her mistress, “If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” ⁴So Naaman went in and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said.⁵And the king of Aram said, “Go then, and I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” 
        He went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments. ⁶He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you my servant Naaman, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” ⁷When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “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.”

⁸But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, that he may learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”⁹So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the entrance of Elisha”s house. ¹⁰Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” ¹¹But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, “I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!¹²Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” He turned and went away in a rage. ¹³But his servants approached and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” ¹⁴So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.

MARK 1:40-45 NRSV

⁴⁰A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”⁴¹Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. ⁴³After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, ⁴⁴saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” ⁴⁵But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

***

Choice. Choice. It’s a powerful and a stressful word. I think its power, and also its stress, comes from the fact that we must choose. Not choosing is itself a choice, likewise choosing is a choice. Either way, we choose.  Either way, we make a decision, either way our path changes. You know that famous poem by Robert Frost; “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…” people often misquote the title, or miss the title. The tile is, The Road Not Taken. Frost named the poem after the choice he did not make. Naaman is faced with this same choice of action or inaction. His servant says,

“If the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, “Wash and be clean.”

The servant and Naaman are discussing the options of choice, of action or inaction. For Naaman the choice was whether to wash himself in the river, or to simply go home. His choice is between the road, and the river. He is choosing between hopelessness and hope. Naaman been insulted, he’s worn out, he’s grieved, and he’s angered. In the midst of these emotions he faces his choices. I get this human side of choice.

When have you faced a choice with similar feelings? What are the choices before you now? A friend of mine, after years of choosing to stay, chose to separate from her husband. Another friend, talks of loosing her temper and feeling badly afterward. Another decides to wait for others to take action. I get this human side of choice.

I get this human side of choice, but I don’t like that Jesus also chooses. I would rather Jesus be robotic in his decisions, and those decisions always be for healing. I don’t like, or understand why, if Christ has the power to heal, there are times healing does not seem to take place. Is this something Jesus chooses? The leper in Mark seems to think so, and confronts Jesus.

The leper says to Jesus, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” The leper could have simply said, “You can make me clean.” but instead he prefaces it with, “If you choose.” It makes me wonder if the leper said this with distain. How long has he been waiting to be healed? Have you ever gotten angry with God while you wait for healing? The leper is not only in need of physical healing, but also social, and religious, for he has been kicked out of society by the priests for being unclean. I can understand why the leper would be angry with God. If the leper knows God has the power to heal, and God waited, it makes sense the leper would be angry. The leper also could be devastated. Was the leper was crying out in lament? “If you choose, you can make me clean.”  Was it plea for healing, for change? ‘Please choose; please choose to make me clean.’ No matter how the leper says the phrase he knows two things; Jesus has a choice, and Jesus has the power to heal.

The scripture then turns to Jesus. Some translations say Jesus was moved with pity, others say anger, still others compassion. The translators are trying to describe the feelings, which led to Jesus’ choice of healing. It makes sense to me that we don’t know. What feelings lead Jesus to heal?

Did Jesus have pity, feel sorry for the leper as one who looks down from a place of power? Have you ever done the right thing out of pity? Been a friend because you felt sorry for someone? Was this what Jesus felt? Did he feel sorry for the leper?

Was Jesus angry? Was he angry at being questioned about his choices? Did he heal because the leper had called him out about not healing? Was Jesus trying to prove the leper wrong? Have you ever made a decision to prove someone wrong?

Was Jesus angry at the injustice the leper had faced? Was Jesus angry at the priests, and at society? Was Jesus angry that Jesus had been given this Godly power to heal? Have you ever been angry that you had to do the right thing because you had the power to do so?

Was he moved with compassion? That’s the translation I like the best, because compassion seems to hold the passion of anger, the power of one who is able to pity, and mostly I like word compassion because it shows care for another. I’ll choose compassion for my translation, but I still would rather there be no choice. I would really like to choose the robot Jesus who just heals automatically.

But Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the leper, and I don’t think it was a robotic gesture. It could not have been, because by Jesus stretching out his hand, Jesus made himself ritually unclean. Jesus became like the leper. Jesus took on the leper’s pain.

This is part that gets me. It means a lot to me that Jesus is with us in our suffering. I really don’t know why Jesus heals, and doesn’t. I don’t know why sometimes Jesus seems to take action, and other times he seems simply inactive. But I value that Jesus is with us in our suffering. I don’t want Jesus to suffer, really. I don’t see what good that does. I also often wonder if Jesus is so powerful why did he have to suffer? Could he not just heal the world without suffering? I don’t know those answers. I just know what it feels like to not be alone in the midst of pain. There is healing in that presence. There is healing in not being alone, and healing is change.

Even if we question the choices of Jesus’ healing, we are still questioning a presence. Even if we question the choices of Jesus’ healing, we are still questioning a present Jesus. In that presence itself, there is healing. That’s the part I get. I get the part about Jesus stretching out his hand and touching the leper. I get the part where Jesus becomes as the leper, and understands the leper’s experience, and cares deeply. That’s the choice part of Jesus that I understand. I understand because it’s the human part of Jesus, the part that we experience too. From what I have heard, it is why many of you are a part of this church. You reach out to one another, and people have reached out to you. It’s the human part, but also think it’s the part where the divine reaches in. It’s a part in our lives where Jesus is present. Jesus is present when we reach out and understand one another. It may not be the total healing we want, but it is one way that Jesus enters in. This is the part I know, and know deeply.

It’s the same with the story of Naaman and the prophet. The prophet said to Naaman, ‘Wash, and be clean.” I get why Naaman would be upset. He can see no rhyme or reason behind the instructions or their timing. Yet Naaman’s servant encourages Naaman to have hope. That encouragement is the part I understand, and I have to wonder, in fact I don’t wonder, I know, there was healing in the way the servant reached out to Naaman.  I know that.

The other part, I don’t know.  Jesus said to the leper,

“I do choose. Be made clean.”

I don’t get it. I really don’t. The choice part gets me. I don’t like it. I wish Jesus just walked around like a robot saying, “Be made clean.” “Be made clean.” “Be made clean.” But unfortunately, Jesus’ choice is not that simple. Fortunately, we can choose to reach out to one another in the midst of our human sufferings, and in that reaching out, the Jesus enters in. That’s what I know. The other part, is your choice to figure out.