2 Kings 5:1-15
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It appears as if Elisha was indifferent to the whole matter; sending a messenger to the mighty man of valor with the simple instructions to wash seven times in the Jordan River and his leprous flesh shall be clean. It is a bit like our Lord Christ, asleep in the stern of the boat while the disciples are franticly bailing out, convinced they are going to drown. And Jesus doesn’t care. But He does care. He cares immensely. And so does Elisha.
Dr Luther was fond of remarking that the Reformation happened while he and Melanchthon were drinking Wittenberg beer. What he meant was that the Word does the work. It is preached in its truth and purity and taught according to the doctrine of the blessed Apostles, founded upon the Cornerstone of Christ, and men will rise and fall, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
This is how it was for Elisha and Naaman. The Commander of the Syrian army assumed himself someone. He expected special treatment, doting prophets, awestruck crowds. His uncleanness was not only his leprosy. It was also pride. St Paul warns us: If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself (Gal 6:3). Elisha was certainly something. Allowed to see his master Elijah as he was taken from his sight, the prophetic successor was given the gift of a double portion of his spirit. This meant not only that he was strong and courageous, readily defending pure doctrine within the political establishment while faithfully and diligently managing the Church and school of the prophets; but also that he quite literally performed twice the number of miracles as his predecessor.
Sixteenth century Lutheran reformer and coauthor of the Formula of Concord, David Chytraeus, eloquently catalogs our Lord’s signs through His prophet Elisha: “He brought aid to a widow and poor orphan vexed by creditors with a never-ending flask of oil, and he raised the son of the Shunammite. He made the bitter waters healthy by sprinkling salt in Jericho; by this image he at the same time showed that the roots of doctrine and virtue are bitter, but when God blesses and the salt of wisdom seasons, the fruits are most sweet. He provided for one hundred scholars in Gilgal at the time of famine, with the meager provisions of herbs of the field and wild gourds, whose bitterness he took away by pouring in the flour of the Word and divine promises. He cleansed Naaman the Syrian from his leprosy and punished his greedy and lying servant Gehazi with the same misfortune. He made the iron of the ax that fell into the Jordan river to float on the surface of the water. Finally, in sickness he prophesied concerning the victories of Joash, king of Israel, and he died. When the body of a traveler who was killed by robbers was cast into Elisha’s grave, the traveler came back to life” (Treasury of Daily Prayer, 14 June).
The chapters devoted to Elisha in the Second Book of the Kings read like a graphic novel of an Israelite hero. Perhaps together with Elijah, Judas Maccabee, and Sampson they could be the Old Testament equivalent of the Avengers.
In all seriousness, though, he understood his authority and power only to come from the Word of the Lord; the self-same Word which called him to be a prophet and the Word which he was commissioned to proclaim. Not unlike St John the Baptist or Elijah before him, Elisha was no respecter of persons, he did not show partiality, and he certainly was not a reed shaken by the wind. He called a spade a spade, as they say. The modern Church could learn well from him.
But more than merely interesting tales of his adventures and heroic escapades, the prophet Elisha followed in the train of prophets who went before him; the divine means appointed by the Lord God to speak to our fathers of old. Thus the prophesy of Moses echoes for us: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers - it is to Him you shall listen. And I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And whoever will not listen to My words that He shall speak in My Name, I Myself will require it of him (Dt 18:15, 18-19).
Dear people loved by God, the Lord is not indifferent to your sorrow and suffering; He cares immensely for you. He who in many and various ways spoke to your fathers by the prophets, has, in these last days, spoken to you by His Son, the Prophet whom He has raised up (Mk 6:4); the very Word of the Lord made flesh. And if John the Baptist is Elijah who was to come, surely Jesus is Elisha, receiving the double portion of God the Holy Spirit, first descending on Him at His Baptism and then raising Him from the dead after His crucifixion.
He is the true Man of God who restores your leprous flesh of sin; not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death. He has washed you by the cleansing water and holy Word of Baptism, by which you are cleansed from all unrighteousness. Like Naaman, you would prefer Him to make a spectacle and show, to send men to wave their hands and entertain. But He simply sends the Word and you are made clean. He is not indifferent. He trusts the Word, for it is His own Word; indeed it is the means by which Christ Himself, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, come to you and make their home with you.
Consider then Elisha’s others miracles: Is not Christ the Salt by which the bitterness of sin is removed? Does He not pour on the oil of His mercy? And is He not the Bread by which He feeds the widows and children of the Household of His Church for eternal life? Does Christ not raise you up to be sons of His Father in heaven? And lift you as drowned iron axe heads from the water of Baptism, having paid your debt in full with His own blood? And that last story - the one of the traveler falling in Elisha’s grave - is this not what happens to you? For you are but a traveler here, a pilgrim on this earth, beset by thieves and robbers, by sin and Satan, and when you are preyed upon and finally die, you shall be laid into the earth, the grave, sanctified and hallowed by Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life, and there even death can’t hold you, but in Christ, your great Elisha, you shall be raised from the dead and carried by the chariots of Israel unto the eternal rest of all the saints.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
It appears as if Elisha was indifferent to the whole matter; sending a messenger to the mighty man of valor with the simple instructions to wash seven times in the Jordan River and his leprous flesh shall be clean. It is a bit like our Lord Christ, asleep in the stern of the boat while the disciples are franticly bailing out, convinced they are going to drown. And Jesus doesn’t care. But He does care. He cares immensely. And so does Elisha.
Dr Luther was fond of remarking that the Reformation happened while he and Melanchthon were drinking Wittenberg beer. What he meant was that the Word does the work. It is preached in its truth and purity and taught according to the doctrine of the blessed Apostles, founded upon the Cornerstone of Christ, and men will rise and fall, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
This is how it was for Elisha and Naaman. The Commander of the Syrian army assumed himself someone. He expected special treatment, doting prophets, awestruck crowds. His uncleanness was not only his leprosy. It was also pride. St Paul warns us: If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself (Gal 6:3). Elisha was certainly something. Allowed to see his master Elijah as he was taken from his sight, the prophetic successor was given the gift of a double portion of his spirit. This meant not only that he was strong and courageous, readily defending pure doctrine within the political establishment while faithfully and diligently managing the Church and school of the prophets; but also that he quite literally performed twice the number of miracles as his predecessor.
Sixteenth century Lutheran reformer and coauthor of the Formula of Concord, David Chytraeus, eloquently catalogs our Lord’s signs through His prophet Elisha: “He brought aid to a widow and poor orphan vexed by creditors with a never-ending flask of oil, and he raised the son of the Shunammite. He made the bitter waters healthy by sprinkling salt in Jericho; by this image he at the same time showed that the roots of doctrine and virtue are bitter, but when God blesses and the salt of wisdom seasons, the fruits are most sweet. He provided for one hundred scholars in Gilgal at the time of famine, with the meager provisions of herbs of the field and wild gourds, whose bitterness he took away by pouring in the flour of the Word and divine promises. He cleansed Naaman the Syrian from his leprosy and punished his greedy and lying servant Gehazi with the same misfortune. He made the iron of the ax that fell into the Jordan river to float on the surface of the water. Finally, in sickness he prophesied concerning the victories of Joash, king of Israel, and he died. When the body of a traveler who was killed by robbers was cast into Elisha’s grave, the traveler came back to life” (Treasury of Daily Prayer, 14 June).
The chapters devoted to Elisha in the Second Book of the Kings read like a graphic novel of an Israelite hero. Perhaps together with Elijah, Judas Maccabee, and Sampson they could be the Old Testament equivalent of the Avengers.
In all seriousness, though, he understood his authority and power only to come from the Word of the Lord; the self-same Word which called him to be a prophet and the Word which he was commissioned to proclaim. Not unlike St John the Baptist or Elijah before him, Elisha was no respecter of persons, he did not show partiality, and he certainly was not a reed shaken by the wind. He called a spade a spade, as they say. The modern Church could learn well from him.
But more than merely interesting tales of his adventures and heroic escapades, the prophet Elisha followed in the train of prophets who went before him; the divine means appointed by the Lord God to speak to our fathers of old. Thus the prophesy of Moses echoes for us: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers - it is to Him you shall listen. And I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And whoever will not listen to My words that He shall speak in My Name, I Myself will require it of him (Dt 18:15, 18-19).
Dear people loved by God, the Lord is not indifferent to your sorrow and suffering; He cares immensely for you. He who in many and various ways spoke to your fathers by the prophets, has, in these last days, spoken to you by His Son, the Prophet whom He has raised up (Mk 6:4); the very Word of the Lord made flesh. And if John the Baptist is Elijah who was to come, surely Jesus is Elisha, receiving the double portion of God the Holy Spirit, first descending on Him at His Baptism and then raising Him from the dead after His crucifixion.
He is the true Man of God who restores your leprous flesh of sin; not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and innocent suffering and death. He has washed you by the cleansing water and holy Word of Baptism, by which you are cleansed from all unrighteousness. Like Naaman, you would prefer Him to make a spectacle and show, to send men to wave their hands and entertain. But He simply sends the Word and you are made clean. He is not indifferent. He trusts the Word, for it is His own Word; indeed it is the means by which Christ Himself, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, come to you and make their home with you.
Consider then Elisha’s others miracles: Is not Christ the Salt by which the bitterness of sin is removed? Does He not pour on the oil of His mercy? And is He not the Bread by which He feeds the widows and children of the Household of His Church for eternal life? Does Christ not raise you up to be sons of His Father in heaven? And lift you as drowned iron axe heads from the water of Baptism, having paid your debt in full with His own blood? And that last story - the one of the traveler falling in Elisha’s grave - is this not what happens to you? For you are but a traveler here, a pilgrim on this earth, beset by thieves and robbers, by sin and Satan, and when you are preyed upon and finally die, you shall be laid into the earth, the grave, sanctified and hallowed by Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life, and there even death can’t hold you, but in Christ, your great Elisha, you shall be raised from the dead and carried by the chariots of Israel unto the eternal rest of all the saints.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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