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THE HANDICAP OF BEING AN ADULT!
What complicates this matter of laughter, what
makes you and me hesitant to laugh, is that we are no longer children. We've
grown up, which means we've outgrown the foolishness of childhood. We're
beyound making faces at each other and laughing our heads off. We're beyond
passing a dish across the table to someone only to suddenly yank it out of their
reach. After all, we've learned that the dinner table is no place to play
games. We're more concerned that I spelled "beyond" with a "u" as
if I had not been taught any better.
Furthermore, when a comedian, like Groucho Marx
says "I would horsewhip you if I had a horse," some of us see it as
mere foolishness. The statement is a waste of our precious time as there
is no value in it. But if Groucho Marx said, and he did, "When I
came to this country I hadn't a nickel in my pocket - now I have a nickel in
my pocket." It's also a joke but because it has some redemptive value
we allow its foolishness into our very-serious world.1
In short, most adults are in no mood for playfulness
and find little to make them laugh. No where is the adult world better
seen than in the story of Naamam as found in II Kings 5. In the first verse
we read,
The king of Aram (Syria) had high admiration for Naaman, the commander of his
army, because through him the LORD had given Aram great victories. But though
Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy.
In Elisha's day, as in our day, the common man
in the street was able to name most of the key political players in his world. There
was King Jehoshaphat of Judah, Ben-Hadad II who was the king of Aram (Syria),
and King Joram of Israel. But there was another name that was consistently
talked about on the grapevine. An Aramite commander by the name of Naaman who
was making a name for himself the old-fashioned way; by piling one victory on
top of another.
Verse one tells us that this man was "great
in the sight of his master and highly regarded" by the king as well as those
under his command. He was a man who knew how to exercise authority
and how to work through channels while accomplishing his mission. He
was a man whose influence reached to the king himself simply because as the commander
of the army he was very good at what was required of him.
But, he was a man who had leprosy. He
was a man of stature and great potential, but his career had come to a screeching
halt and his life, well he had no life. For in Naaman's day, as in Jesus'
day, being a leper was like being a walking dead man. If
there had ever been any playfulness in him at all it had been drilled out of
him as a soldier. Laughter, as you can imagine, had been squelched for
he found nothing to laugh about as he stood on the corner of No Hope and No Help. As
a soldier and as an adult Naaman knew first hand the awful realities of the world
in which he lived.
But while he stood on the corner of No Hope and
No Help an unnamed little girl from Israel, a captive, his wife's maid, set in
motion a chain of events that eventually led to playfulness and laughter in Naaman's
world. Picking up the story we read:
Now groups of Aramean raiders had invaded the
land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given
to Naaman's wife as a maid. 3 One day the girl said to her mistress, "I
wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his
leprosy."
So Naaman told the king what the young girl from
Israel had said. 5 "Go and visit the prophet," the king told
him. "I will send a letter of introduction for you to carry to the king
of Israel." So Naaman started out, taking as gifts 750 pounds of silver,
150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing. 6 The letter to the king
of Israel said: "With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you
to heal him of his leprosy."
When the king of Israel read it, he tore his clothes
in dismay and said, "This man sends me a leper to heal! Am I God, that I
can kill and give life? He is only trying to find an excuse to invade us again."
But when Elisha, the man of God, heard about the
king's reaction, he sent this message to him: "Why are you so upset? Send
Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel."
So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and
waited at the door of Elisha's house. 10 But Elisha sent a messenger out
to him with this message: "Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan
River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of leprosy."
But Naaman became angry and stalked away. "I
thought he would surely come out to meet me!" he said. "I expected
him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the LORD his God
and heal me! 12 Aren't the Abana River and Pharpar River of Damascus better
than all the rivers of Israel put together? Why shouldn't I wash in them and
be healed?" So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.
Adults! The adults in this chain of events
were acting just like adults who take life all too seriously. In other
words, they were acting like normal adults. Naaman's wife reluctantly
communicated the little girl's suggestion knowing full well that her husband
would probably dismiss it as "stupid." I mean, what made this
little girl think that she had the answer to one of life's toughest question? Her
faith in God!
Undoubtedly, Naaman scoffed at the idea of going
to a third-rate no-account country to be healed. But his options in Syria
had come to naught and he was literally being reduced to an isolated and shunned
outcast of his community. With nothing to lose, as his wife repeatedly
told him, he decided to take the girl's advice. But not without saying
to his wife something like, "You know full well this is going to be a waste
of time and money - but if it will make you happy I will go." (That's
guy talk for, "If it will get you off my back I will go.")
The King of Aram also took this matter very seriously. He
dictated a letter of introduction to the king of Israel. As an adult he
followed the protocol of his day, his intent was to do things in the right way
for the sake of this valiant soldier. It was also his intent to introduce
Naaman to the right people, those with connections, for he figured that it was
who you knew that really counted in life.
The wording, however, left something to be desired. Or
perhaps King Ben-Hadad didn't fully understand who was actually recommended by
the girl. Or maybe the confusion was with the recipient of the letter. For
the letter, in part, read:
"With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you (perhaps
not meaning the king of Israel personally) may cure him of his leprosy." (v.
6b)
Well you can see how the King of Israel, an adult,
could take this to mean him personally; especially if the king tended to be paranoid. He
read the letter, perhaps having had a bad day already, and took it as international
provocation. He felt the king of Aram was just itching for a fight and
this was his way to provide the excuse needed to launch an attack, as if Syria
needed an excuse.
"What," he bellowed, "does he think
I'm God? Does he think that I can kill and make alive? He's just
looking for an excuse to invade us!" (v. 7)
While the VIPs took a simple matter and turned
it into an international crisis, while tensions increased between the two nations,
there was a little girl in the background who had watched her master pack up
all necessary documents plus his life savings and head toward her native land.
She knew that to a large extent that this trip
of his was of her doing. If the mission failed she'd be embarrassed, which
was okay, but her God would be discounted as just another impotent god among
gods. That thought, which wasn't okay, prompted her to pray that Naaman
would indeed be healed by the prophet in Samaria. It prompted her to pray
that things would work out for good and not for evil.
As she prayed, as the VIPs bungled international
relationships, God communicated to Elisha, perhaps through the grapevine, that
his help was needed. Consequently, he sent a message to King Joram suggesting
that the king send this commander from Syria to him. Needless to say,
the king was greatly relieved and with much enthusiasm gave Naaman directions
to Elisha's office.
There are at least two lessons we can learn from
this part of the story. First, in Aram, or Syria, we have a nation closed
to the land of divine revelation. It was not simply a mountain ridge that
separated Syria from Israel, though one does, it was a more formidable barrier. It
was the barrier of national hatred against the laws and customs of God's people. It
was also the barrier of pride that told the Syrians that they had no need of
the God of Israel. Across this barrier, God sent a little chatterbox of
a girl who couldn't help but talk about what God had done through the prophet
Elisha. Through her, God began breaking down the barriers.
Second, despite all the bungling by the VIPs in
this story, despite all of their influence, despite all of their plans, despite
all of their intentions, and despite their paranoid behavior, God's will was
done. Things must have looked bleak for both Naaman and his world as the
king of Israel overreacted to his letter of introduction but God calmly worked
through the chaos and led Naaman to the prophet's waiting room.
It's called the waiting room, as we all know,
for good reason. But for Naaman it was a new experience. He wasn't
used to waiting for his turn to see someone, unless it was King Beh-Hadad. He
was used to having the path cleared for him so that he could simply walk-in and
walk-out without his time being wasted. Plus, he was dead tired from the
trip and that idiot Israel called their king had nearly turned the whole trip
into a total disaster.
So while he sat there and waited and waited and
waited - he stewed. Finally, the secretary opened the door, but instead
of inviting him in to be weighted and escorted to a tiny room she, in a matter-of-fact
no-nonsense tone, told him to go dip himself in the Jordan River seven times. The
secretary of all people! Naaman didn't come all the way from Syria to
see a common secretary - he came to see the prophet. If he had wanted
to simply contact the secretary he would have sent his own secretary!
I mean at the very least the prophet could have
taken a few minutes to introduce himself and give him a legitimate prescription
or two - something that would have set him back a few bucks. But NOOOO
. . ., his secretary came out with an attitude and said, "You need to go
dip yourself in the Jordan River seven times."
The muddy Jordan of all things! I mean people
who have absolutely nothing wrong with them don't like dipping themselves in
the Jordan River. If you've ever seen the Jordan River it's worse than
telling someone to go dip themselves in one of our irrigation canals.
Fortunately, Naaman had some levelheaded associates
with him who calmed the turbulent waters of his pride. In vv. 13 - 19 we
read:
But his officers tried to reason with him and
said, "Sir, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn't
you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply to go
and wash and be cured!" 14 So Naaman went down to the Jordan River
and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his
flesh became as healthy as a young child's, and he was healed!
Then Naaman and his entire party went back to
find the man of God. They stood before him, and Naaman said, "I know at
last that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. Now please accept
my gifts."
But Elisha replied, "As surely as the LORD
lives, whom I serve, I will not accept any gifts." And though Naaman urged
him to take the gifts, Elisha refused.
Then Naaman said, "All right, but please
allow me to load two of my mules with earth from this place, and I will take
it back home with me. From now on I will never again offer any burnt offerings
or sacrifices to any other god except the LORD. 18 However, may the LORD
pardon me in this one thing. When my master the king goes into the temple of
the god Rimmon to worship there and leans on my arm, may the LORD pardon me when
I bow, too."
"Go in peace," Elisha said. So Naaman
started home again.
Elisha consistently blessed the lives of others
by asking a very simple question of them. He habitually ask, and he did
it here, though not directly, "What can I do for you?" That's
what servants do, they simply ask, "What can I do for you today?"
As a result Naaman, this all too-serious adult,
laughed all the way home. He laughed because;
- his wife's maid, the little girl with her simple
faith was wiser than the adults.
- the only thing he had to swallow was his pride. At
the time, this was very
hard to do but as he looked back on it he saw
it as a small price to pay for what
he had gained in return.
- the dirt he was carrying back with him was more
valuable to him than the
silver and gold. For he knew it to be holy
ground.
- this amazing cure cost him nothing and yet he
was willing to give everything
away in appreciation for the life he had been
freely given.
- God had put him, an adult of all things, in
an eternally playful mood!
THE JOY OF LAUGHTER 10/01/06 1
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