Today's scripture reading is from 2 Kings 5,
starting at verse 1. Now Naaman was commander
of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great
man in the sight of his master, unhighly regarded
because through him the Lord had given victory
to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had
leprosy. Bands of raiders from Aram had gone
out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel
who served Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress,
If only my master would see the prophet who is
in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy.
So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and
stopped at the door of Elisha's house. Elisha
sent a messenger to say to him, go wash yourself
seven times in the Jordan and your flesh will
be restored and you will be cleansed. So he went
down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times.
as the man of God has told him, and his flesh
was restored and became clean like that of a
young boy. Then Naaman and all his attendants
went back to the man of God. He stood before
him and said, Now I know that there is no God
in all the world except in Israel. So please
accept a gift from your servant. The prophet
answered, As surely as the Lord lives whom I
serve, I will not accept a thing. And even though
Naaman urged him, he refused. Go in peace, Elijah
says. And Naaman had traveled some distance.
Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God,
said to himself, My master was too easy on Naaman.
this Armenian, by not accepting from what he
brought. As surely as the Lord lives, I will
run after him and get something from him. So
Gehazi hurried after Naaman. When Naaman saw
him running toward him, he got down from the
chariot to meet him. Is everything all right?
He asked. Everything is all right, Gehazi answered.
My master sent me to say, two young men from
the company of the prophets had just come to
me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give
them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.
By all means, take two talents, said Naaman.
He urged Gehazi to accept them and then tied
up the two talents of silver in the bags with
two sets of clothing. He gave them to two of
his servants, and they carried them ahead of
Jehazi. When Jehazi came to the hill, he took
the things from the servants and put them away
in the house. He sent the men away, and they
left. When he went in and stood before his master,
Elisha asked him, Where have you been, Jehazi?
your servant didn't go anywhere gehazi answered
but elisha said to him was not my spirit with
you when the man got down from his chariot to
meet you is this the time to take money or accept
clothes or olive groves and vineyards, or flocks
and herds, or male and female slaves, Naaman's
leprosy will clung to you and to your descendants
forever. Then Jehazi went to Elisha's presence,
and his skin was leprous. It had become white
as snow. The word of the Lord. Well, in a courtroom,
sometimes when you think everything has been
said and all the witnesses have spoken and we're
just about done here, all of a sudden something
quite unexpected can happen. One of the lawyers
can get up and call. A surprise witness. Now
a surprise witness is this unexpected person
who's going to show up and bring some brand new
testimony. And so the courtroom usually goes
into a bit of a furor when the surprise witness
is getting called. And then the doors of the
courtroom open and everybody turns in their seats.
You've seen the TV shows. Everyone turns in their
seats to see who this surprise witness is. And
there's usually gasps as they walk down the aisle.
And then the judge has to kind of bang. his gavel
to kind of bring the courtroom back into order
back into order and then and then when they finally
have calmed down the judge will swear this witness
in this witness will then go take the stand and
now they get a chance to say what they're going
to say and often actually what a surprise witness
brings to the case is enough to change everything
and to force the jury to rethink everything Today,
we're bringing to a close this little teeny tiny
teaching series that we've been doing here in
February called Filed Away, The Case of Naaman.
And we've been looking at this little story that's
buried deep in your Bibles, in the Old Testament,
in the book of 2 Kings, that talks about the
story of Naaman. And it's a short story. You
might even miss it. And you might think, actually,
that by now, surely, we've heard all that needs
to be heard. There can't be much more. here,
but actually no, no, not all the witnesses have
spoken. There's actually somebody else that we
need to hear from today. There's actually a surprise
witness in the case of Naaman. Ooh, who is it?
Well, let's think it through. Surely it's not
Naaman. Right? Because we've actually heard a
lot from Naaman already. Naaman was, of course,
that man who had everything until he realized
that without God, he had nothing. He had money.
He had connections. He had power. But he had
leprosy. And there was nothing that he could
do. And there was nothing that anybody else could
do to save him or heal him until, that is, he
encountered the grace of God. When he encountered
the grace of God, not only was he healed of his
leprosy as he came up out of the waters of the
Jordan River, but he found a brand new faith.
And so that's why Naaman declared, now I know
there is no God in all the world except in Israel.
That is a wonderful piece of testimony. That
is great testimony. But actually, we've heard
this testimony before. We've heard it for the
last two weeks. So no, Naaman is not our surprise
witness today. Well, then you might say, maybe
it's Elisha. Elisha was the prophet of God who
refused great wealth so that God's grace could
remain a gift. You see, Naaman came to Elisha
for help and Elisha told him where to go and
how to dip himself in the Jordan River. And then
after he was healed, he came back to Elisha and
he wanted to pay Elisha for this wonderful miracle.
But Elisha said, I will not accept anything.
In fact, he says, is now the time for me to accept
money? I think there probably is a time for someone
like Elisha to accept money, but he knew this
was not the time because he knew to take money
from Naaman would be to take credit from God.
And it was so important for Elisha to make sure
that Naaman understood what God's grace was all
about and that it was purely a gift and it could
not be bought and it could not be earned. That
is a wonderful, wonderful testimony. But we've
heard this story. And so, yes, Elisha is not
our surprise witness today. So then you might
say, well, then it must be Gehazi, right? Gehazi
was this quote -unquote holy man who was so completely
lost, choosing empty religion over the grace.
You know, Gehazi had great exposure to religion.
He was like the sidekick to the greatest prophet
in the land. And yet he could not grasp God's
grace. Instead, all he did was grasp for greed.
And we heard today that at the end of the story,
he goes chasing after Naaman. And he says, oh,
this. My master, Elisha, he let the Syrian off
too easily. I'm going to go get something out
of him. And he made up some lie about people
needing money. And Naaman, of course, gave him
the money and he hid it. But Elisha knew and
God knew about this sin. And so by the end of
the story, Gehazi now is the one with leprosy.
It's a sad story. It's tragic testimony. But
Gehazi, is not our surprise witness. Well, if
it's not Naaman, if it's not Elisha, if it's
not Gehazi, then who is it? Who is this person
that is coming to us today to bring us a brand
new tidbit of information that is going to change
absolutely everything? Well, the courtroom doors
swing open, everyone turns around, and what do
they see? Who do they see walking into the courtroom?
None other than a little girl. A little girl
who most people probably in that courtroom don't
even see at first. But she is the surprise witness.
She's the slave girl. She's the person upon whom
this whole case depends. Because this is the
little girl who lost everything. And chose to
forgive. And transformed her suffering into healing.
and hope. And you're probably like, little girl?
I don't even remember there being a little girl
in the story. Rob, what are you talking about?
Well, at the very beginning, right after we find
out that Naaman has leprosy, the author tells
us, now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out
and taken captive a young girl from Israel. And
she served Naaman's wife. And she said to her
mistress, if only my master would see the prophet
who's in Samaria. he would cure him of his leprosy.
And that's it, two verses. And yet without her,
there would be no healing for Naaman. There would
be no new faith for Naaman. Without her, Naaman
would just have slowly deteriorated from leprosy
until he finally died. So let's learn why this
whole case depends on this overlooked. surprise
witness. I've given you some notes. I encourage
you to follow along as we go through this surprise
witness. Well, let's get started with the hidden
trauma behind the testimony. Because before this
little girl was a witness, she was a victim,
actually. And before we talk about her courage,
we have to talk about her trauma. Her life was
not a Hallmark movie. She had experienced horrible,
horrible evil and violence in her life. She had
seen her own family torn apart. She had seen
her home burned to the ground. And she herself
had been dragged away, kicking and screaming.
Let me just slow down and unpack what this sentence
means that we just read. First of all, bands
of raiders. What is that all about? Well, yeah,
Israel and Aram were in the midst of a war at
this time. And there were always these incursions,
these border clashes that were happening as soldiers
would swoop in past the borders and exact all
sorts of horrible damage and violence before
they swooped right out again. And if you lived
on the border, it was a very, very dangerous
place. to live. This little girl lived on the
border. It was brutal. She was taken captive,
we are told. Now that is very sanitized language.
What that means is that she was separated from
her family and she was dragged away. You know,
children were often the ones who were taken away
because they could still be assimilated, right?
And they would make good slaves, children. And
her village probably burned to the ground. Her
family, probably all killed or scattered, for
sure. She would likely never see any of them
again. She's a young girl. The Hebrew here tells
us she's pre -adolescent. Think of someone who's
10, 11, or 12 watching their front door be smashed
in by soldiers. She's from Israel. That just
reminds us that her exile from her homeland wasn't
just geographical, it was also spiritual. This
was the promised land. This is where she worshiped
the God of Israel. Now she was gone from there.
And then finally, again, Some very polite language,
but it says she served Naaman's wife. Nah, she
became property. She became property with no
legal rights. And to make it even crueler irony,
she served in the house of the very man who had
caused all her pain. Naaman was no average Joe.
Naaman was a commander of the armies of Syria.
And he was the one who had done all this. It
was at his command that her whole life had been
destroyed. And so, yes, every day she heard his
voice. Every day she walked through the kitchen
and saw him. And she had to serve him. I cannot
imagine how all that would feel. Maybe it felt
like those exiles who were taken from Jerusalem.
This is another story to Babylon. But in Psalm
137, we kind of read how they were feeling. It
begins with this longing for home. Oh, alongside
Babylon's rivers, we sat on the banks and we
cried, remembering the good old days in Zion.
I bet you she felt that way, remembering the
good old days. But did she feel this way too?
The revenge? Oh, reward. For whoever gets back
at you for all you've done to us. Is that how
she felt? Was she full of revenge? Well, as we're
going to see, no. Because what we're going to
learn is that the strongest faith often comes
from the deepest. And trauma like she endured
can either do one of two things. It can harden
your heart with bitterness and revenge, or it
can refine and transform your heart. Now that
may seem like impossible to imagine, but let
me tell you this. I know for a fact that some
of the deepest faith right here at Trinity Streetsville
was forged in the deepest wounds. You never know
the hidden pain. That is sitting beside you in
the pews here on a Sunday morning. Some people
in this room, they have lost loved ones. Some
people have lost marriages. Some people have
lost their livelihood. They've lost their health.
Some people have lost safety. There are people
here at Trinity who, like this girl, have lost
their country. They have lost their homeland.
And yet, they're still here. They're still here.
And so the real question is not, are you going
to go through suffering in your life? Of course
you are. The question is, what is that going
to do to you when it happens, when someone hurts
you? Well, we know that she didn't let revenge
control her because of what she spoke. Now, when
I say spoke, I don't mean she got up and. yelled
something. I don't mean she got up on a stage
with a microphone in her hand and preached a
long sermon. No, she just whispered a few tiny
words. But you know what? God doesn't always
work through the loudest voices. Sometimes he
works through the quiet whispers of a witness.
And here's what she said. She said to her mistress,
if only my master would see the prophet who is
in Samaria. He would cure him of his leprosy.
This again, this little whisper didn't happen
in a pulpit, didn't happen on a stage, it didn't
happen in a palace. This probably happened in
a kitchen, actually, in one of the most ordinary
places ever. A private conversation between this
little girl and her mistress. But yet, this ordinary
place and this ordinary moment led to extraordinary
consequences. And you know what? She didn't have
to say anything, did she? She could have just
zip, kept her mouth shut and watched with delight
as day after day after day, Naaman deteriorated,
deteriorated. She could have said, good, serves
him right. Let him suffer. But she doesn't do
that. Instead, she whispers these words of hope.
And you might wonder, you know, what could a
little whisper from a slave girl do in such a
world? Well, we know what it did. That whisper,
moved Naaman's mistress to talk to Naaman, which
moved Naaman to go down and talk to his king,
which moved Naaman then to go down and talk to
the king of Israel, which then moved him to go
and talk to Elijah, which then moved him to the
Jordan River, which then moved him toward healing,
which then moved him toward a brand new faith
in the God of Israel. It seemed like all the
geopolitical machinery in the world at that time
moved because of this little girl's whisper.
Heaven itself moved because of this little girl's
whisper. And that is because God works through
overlooked people who speak hope into broken
places. A little bit of faith, a few words can
have massive consequences. It's like that quiet
invitation you give to someone to come to Alpha.
Or that youth leader who keeps showing up week
after week after week. It's that person who prays
faithfully. Without anybody knowing. It's that
apology that someone offered in private. It's
those encouraging words that you say to somebody
after church this morning. Movements do not start
with people like me standing on stage with microphones
in their hand. They start with small conversations.
The world runs on power. But God's kingdom runs
on whispers. But the greatest miracle of this
story. Actually, I don't think that she spoke
up. The greatest miracle is not that Naaman was
healed. The greatest miracle. There was a miracle
before all of those miracles. The real miracle
in this story is that this little girl wanted
Naaman to be healed. I mean, did you hear her
voice earlier on? If only my master would go
and see the prophet. If only. There's compassion
there. Right? There is a longing there. Where
the heck does that come from? And it comes from
this. There was a miracle that happened in that
little slave girl's heart long before a miracle
happened in the river down in Israel. And that
miracle is the miracle of forgiveness. And you
might say, Rob, since when is forgiveness a miracle?
Well, yes. Leprosy falling off someone's body
is pretty astonishing, but I'll tell you, hatred
falling off of someone's heart is nothing less
than a miracle, right? She had every right to
revenge. She had every right to bitterness, every
justification to stay silent and watch him suffer.
And yet by the grace of God, I don't even understand
it. The grace of God, she was able to forgive
Naaman for all that he had done. And so centuries
before Jesus would stand on a mountain and preach
these words, they were being lived out by a little
girl in Syria. Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you. I mean, she didn't just
tolerate Naaman secretly wishing he was dead.
She loved him, loved him enough. to want him
healed. That is enemy love. It's like she had
Naaman's life in her hands. If she kept quiet,
Naaman died. If she spoke up, Naaman would live.
Forgiveness is just that. It is the power of
life and death. Bitterness kills people. Mercy
saves people and gives life. My goodness, this
could not have been easy for her at all. Forgiveness
is the hardest thing in the world, but the greatest
miracle is, hands down, the power of forgiveness.
I mean, we tend to think that a miracle has got
to be something that somehow disrupts the natural
forces in the world or disrupts the cycles of
nature or something. But you know what forgiveness
does do? It actually disrupts the cycle of revenge.
It disrupts the forces of retaliation within
us. When someone faces real harm and they forgive,
when someone forgives real evil, that's not normal.
It's actually quite shocking. This story is actually
quite shocking, which means this is supernatural.
God has done something in this little girl's
heart. It is a miracle. And I just wonder about
you. I wonder about me, actually. Would I have
spoken up? If somebody who harmed you was suffering,
would you want them healed? Or would you just
want to see them squirm a little bit? And I know,
of course there are. There are people here today
who are carrying hurts. And you can't even begin
to imagine letting go of that anger. It would
take a miracle, you'd say, for you to forgive
that person. Lewis Smeeds. once said that to
forgive someone is to set a prisoner free and
to realize that that prisoner was you. This little
girl was a prisoner to Naaman. Yes, she was,
but she refused to also be a prisoner to her
resentment. You know, we don't think that this
girl was set free, right? When she forgave, it
didn't free her from Syria. But when she forgave,
it freed her from the bitterness. It freed her
from the anger. She said, I'm not going to be
a prisoner to that as well. And as a result,
she was turned into someone that God could use
in an amazing way. What an amazing witness she
is. Wow. But here's the thing. After giving this
great testimony, something very surprising happens
to our surprise witness. She just disappears.
The real hero of the story is never mentioned
again. She disappears from the pages of history.
You know, actually, if you read Luke's gospel,
Jesus even remembers Naaman, but no one remembers
this little girl. There's no reward for her.
There's no spotlight. We have no record of Naaman
saying thank you to her. There's no, and she
lived happily ever after. No, she just speaks
and then she vanishes. Naaman, of course, gets
the healing. Naaman gets the new faith. Naaman
gets two bags of dirt from Israel to take back
home to his home country. But she gets nothing.
She just fades into the history books. She fades
into the margins. But, you know, that's how it
works. In the kingdom of God, it is often the
hidden heroes who do the work. The kingdom of
God runs on people that no one applauds. Who
was that woman who gave those two coins? I don't
know what her name was. What was the name of
that boy who gave his loaves and fishes so that
all those people could be fed? I don't know.
What was the name of that slave girl, the Israelite
slave girl down in Syria who saved Naaman? I
don't know. No one knows. Well, that's not true.
Actually, God knows. God knows. You know, the
prophet Zechariah once said, do not despise the
day of small things. You know, the world measures
importance by visibility, but God measures importance
just by quiet faithfulness, which means that
you can be central to the purposes of God and
no one knows your name. You never trend on TikTok.
You never get famous. The kingdom of God is not
sustained by celebrities. Instead, the most important
kingdom work often happens in obscurity. The
kingdom is actually built by unseen saints who
no one notices. That volunteer who set up chairs
this morning in there, you know, who did that?
Or the anonymous donation that pays for the program.
The parent who just reads scripture to their
children at bedtime, night after night. The kid's
church volunteer who steps in at the last moment.
You never know these people, right? And you may
never know how your quiet obedience changes someone
else's eternity. Because I mean, without her,
none of this story would ever have happened.
Are you willing to be faithful even if you're...
forgotten? Are you willing to serve even if you
never get the credit? It reminds me of Jesus,
who was the greatest hero of all, of course,
and yet he never got the applause. He never got
the appreciation. And that's where I want to
end today. The last reason why this surprise
witness is so important to us is that she is
a symbol of the Savior. She is not just an example
for us to follow. She, a suffering servant, is
pointing us to the true suffering servant, Jesus
Christ. You know, Isaiah writes this about Jesus.
Surely he took up our pain and bore our sufferings,
and by his wounds we are healed. Just as this
little girl was torn from her home and lived
in a foreign land, Jesus left his heavenly home
and came and lived among us. And just as she
had to live among her enemies, Jesus came into
a world that rejected and hated him. And just
as she bore sufferings that she did not deserve,
Jesus suffered as an innocent man on the cross.
He did nothing to deserve that. But just as her
forgiveness healed and saved Naaman, us all.
The reason that Naaman was healed is because
he had this suffering servant. And the reason
we are healed is that we have a suffering servant,
Jesus Christ. Just like that little girl looked
at Naaman and forgave him and saved him on the
cross, Jesus looked at us and said, Father, forgive
them. They don't know what they're doing. And
in so doing, he healed us and he saved us too.
If you just see the little slave girl, as an
example for you to follow, we're all going to
leave here feeling very, very challenged for
sure. But if you see the slave girl as a symbol
of Jesus, then we're going to leave here with
joy, knowing how much God loves us, just like
that little slave girl loved Naaman. And that
realization might just be the thing that you
need in order to do some forgiving of your own.
So no sooner did our surprise witness appear,
then she's gone, and the case of Naaman is now
closed. But I want to say to you, the Spirit
is still calling witnesses. Witnesses who will
speak words of hope. Witnesses who will serve
without applause. Witnesses who will refuse revenge.
And witnesses who know that before they ever
forgave anyone, they themselves had already been
forgiven by God. a suffering servant who bore
our wounds so that we could be healed. That is
the greatest miracle of all. Thanks be to God.
Amen.