Unknown; Illustrator of 'Speculum humanae salvationis', Cologne, c. 1450
(Ed – when I speak to Evensong on Sunday evenings I do not prepare a full “manuscript” but rather use brief notes. So when I “publish” them I throw in some some words here and there to help the reader make sense of something that is not much more than an outline.)
(Relationship between physical salvation/actions and spiritual transformation/salvation)
2 Kings 05
Richard M. Wright
Evensong
University Baptist Church
August 08 2010
[2 Kings 5:1-15]
What is salvation?
What is the relationship between salvation and physical reality? How do we understand salvation in spiritual terms and/or physical terms?
Story of Naaman one of my favorite in Scripture. Several dimensions of the narrative to explore.
Naaman – a foreigner. Enemy state. Worships different god. “Through him the Lord had given victory to Aram”.
Israelite girl – normally “us/native”. Foreigner. Captured. Worships Yhwh.
Powerful but powerless. Powerless but powerful.
Success and brokenness. Naaman is “successful” – king likes him his men like him he probably has a nice house and a good salary. But he experiences “brokenness” in the form of a disease. All that in verse 1!
Men and women/girls. Role of women in story. Especially Israelite slave and Naaman’s wife.
Servants. Israelite girl slave versus servant of Elisha.
Immigration policy and procedure. Naaman enemy general visits Israel. How does that work exactly?
What is the problem? Verse 1. Naaman is a great man but he has a disease. Issue is physical healing. Naaman needs salvation. Here salvation in the physical sense.
What does he expect? Perhaps religion and/or magic. Based on human pride and effort. “Elisha will come to me. Wave his hands say the magic words”. And then Naaman will pay for the service.
What does he get? Something simple. Not dramatic. No magic words. Take a bath. Seven times. All he said was “wash and be clean”. If you would do something hard would you do something simple? Washes and his flesh is returned to him clean like a small boy and he is clean.
Earlier in story Elisha says to king of Israel, “So that he will know there is a prophet in Israel”. Then he says, “Now I know there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. I will no longer offer or sacrifice to any god except Yhwh”. Issue of physical salvation (healing) now becomes spiritual transformation. Salvation in the spiritual sense.
What is the problem? Disease. What is the issue? Naaman will know God.
What is salvation? For Naaman salvation means physical healing. For story (also?) spiritual transformation. Salvation as relationship with God. (Verb shub in story – “returned to him clean” – can mean “turn/return to God”. Tshubah in later Hebrew “repentance”. Naaman does not use shub to talk about healing in Syria. But servants do not use shub in “wash and be clean”. Story understands his healing in terms of shub even if Naaman and servants do not. This may not be valid interpretation especially since tshubah as “repentance” is post-biblical Hebrew.) The story presents salvation as physical reality. And salvation as spiritual reality.
Chris Andrew of First Methodist last Sunday raised this issue. Salvation is about forgiveness and eternal life and heaven. But not only that. In Hebrew Bible salvation always has concrete meaning. When we talk about salvation solely in spiritual terms we cheapen and limit its meaning.
In the Old Testament: Save me! from my enemies. From sickness. From death. Salvation as healing or rescue.
Several months ago (when Church of the Nations met with University Baptist Church) I talked about salvation as healing. Several times in the book of Luke – “You faith has saved you”. Physical healing. Emotional/mental healing. Social healing. New Testament also save/salvation often physical reality. And often spiritual reality. But raises question of whether they are so separate.
Back to Naaman story.
Physical condition. Physical act – wash in water. Physical healing. But also spiritual result.
Or physical/spiritual condition. Spiritual/physical act – because Naaman trusts Elisha/God. This produces a physical/spiritual change.
To what extent can physical actions have spiritual effects? And spiritual actions/changes have physical effects? *** Do we separate too much and/or too often spiritual/physical (a) salvation (b) change/transformation (c) work of God?
Consider stories of the saints – sometimes saints would shine with light, or get along with wild animals. Their spiritual condition sometimes produced concrete visible physical results. What is resurrection if not a physical/spiritual sign? (We do not teach “immortality of the soul” but the radical healing/transformation of the body.) We pray “Your will be done on earth as in heaven”.
To what extent have we removed God from physical reality (without realizing it of course)? To what extent do we overlook the dynamic relationship between spiritual changes/salvation/reality and physical actions/salvation/reality? What difference would it make in how we pray/worship/believe/minister?
