The Baptism of Namaan

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time - 2 Kings 5:14-17

Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times

at the word of Elisha, the man of God.

His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child,

and he was clean of his leprosy.

Naaman returned with his whole retinue to the man of God.

On his arrival he stood before Elisha and said,

"Now I know that there is no God in all the earth,

except in Israel.

Please accept a gift from your servant."

Elisha replied, "As the LORD lives whom I serve, I will not take it;"

and despite Naaman's urging, he still refused.

Naaman said: "If you will not accept,

please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth,

for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice

to any other god except to the LORD."

This week, we are treated to the dramatic conclusion of Namaan’s healing and conversion. He was an Assyrian military officer who had contracted leprosy. A young Israelite girl taken captive in a raid told his wife’s servant about the Prophet Elisha who lived in Samaria, close to the Assyrian border. She was convinced that Elisha could heal Namaan. However, when Namaan arrived in Samaria, Elisha wouldn’t even meet with him. Instead, he sent a messenger to tell Namaan to go dip himself seven times in the Jordan River. Initially, Namaan was very upset about this. He traveled all this way, didn’t get to speak with the prophet himself, and was told to bathe in a dirty river when he had plenty of rivers back home. This is the backstory for our reading.

Namaan’s healing is an icon of Baptism. By plunging (baptidzo in Greek) in the water seven times (a sacramental number), he is not only cleansed but renewed: his flesh became like that of a little child. He also experienced an interior renewal. Whereas he was frustrated and angry before entering the water, upon coming out he became joyful and grateful and put away his false gods to worship the One True God. He could have allowed his frustration and his lofty position to stand in the way of his physical and spiritual healing. Thank the Lord he did not. 

But what about us? Are we too prideful and stubborn to do the simple things we must do to experience transformation? Namaan’s servants asked him a poignant question: “My father, if the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” (2 Kings 5:13). If the Lord had told us that by climbing a certain mountain range or running a marathon or some other difficult task we could experience miraculous healing, we would probably do it, or at least try. He promises his greatest miracle of all, the grace of conversion, in the Sacrament of Confession, sometimes called the Second Baptism, and in living a life in alignment with that conversion. We just have to decide to do it.