Sermon: “Go in Peace.” (2 Kings 5:19), July 6th, 2025

2 Kings 5, Galatians 6:1–10, and Luke 10:1–20
Introduction
There’s a lot to digest from our passages from 2 Kings 5, Galatians 6 and Luke 10. But there’s a thread that has a clear message for us as believers and messengers of God’s word. They call us to live humbly, act faithfully, and share God’s truth boldly, relying on His grace and provision in a world that may resist or embrace His message, all while taking responsibility for our own walk with Him. It’s wrapped up in the story of a fatally flawed military commander, a wise prophet, the apostle Paul and Jesus himself. It’s a story in five lessons.
I. God’s power flows through the humble.
In 2 Kings 5, Naaman is a powerful military commander—a man of reputation and influence—but he is also a leper. He comes to Elisha expecting honor and spectacle. Instead, the prophet sends a messenger with a simple command: dip in the muddy Jordan River. Naaman is offended. His pride flares. He wants a miracle on his terms.
But Naaman’s leprosy isn’t just physical, it reflects a deeper spiritual disfigurement, shaped by his allegiance to Rimmon (Baʿal/Hadad), the pagan god of Aram-Damascus (2 Kgs. 5:18). That demonic influence speaks in the voice of his pride, his status, and his ethnocentrism (vv. 11–12). He embodies a nation and a heart, deformed by power and idolatry.
Naaman is us. He mirrors a post-Christian world: fragmented, prideful, spiritually sick. Like Aram, we live apart from “the God… in Israel” (v. 15). Our modern Baʿal worship, whether consumerism, individualism, or secularism, has eroded community, distorted morality, and left a vacuum of meaning. We are searching for a cure.
And ironically, the hope comes not through status, but through a little maid—an enslaved Israelite girl. Her humble words, “Would God my lord…” (v. 3), are the seed of Naaman’s healing. She has no power, yet she embodies what Naaman lacks: humility, faith, and spiritual clarity. She is proof that God’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
Her wisdom doesn’t come from position but from a spirit-taught certainty: that healing comes from God alone, from a contrite heart (Ps. 51:17), through lives marked by surrender (Ps. 62:5), and every good gift (Ps. 16:2; James 1:17) flows from Him.
God wasn’t looking for spectacle. He was looking for obedience. And healing comes when Naaman listens to the lowly, including the servants who urge him to obey (v. 13). Like the still small voice heard by Elijah, the Spirit often speaks through what the world deems insignificant (1 Kings 19:12).
Galatians 6:1–2 captures this beautifully: “Restore gently… Don’t think you are something when you are not… Carry each other’s burdens.” That little maid carried Naaman’s burden with words of compassion. She was willing, like the leper in Matthew 8:2–3, who said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus said, “I am willing… Be clean.” The maid was willing. She pointed Naaman toward God’s healing, just as Jesus’ disciples were sent in Luke 10:9 to “heal the sick” and proclaim, “The kingdom of God has come near.” She wasn’t a spectator; she was a participant in God’s restoring mission. So are we.
Naaman’s healing came only when he lowered himself, figuratively in humility and literally, into the Jordan. The image of baptism is striking, centuries before John began baptizing in that very river. But the principle is already clear: healing requires descent, surrender, death to pride.
He couldn’t hear Jesus, but perhaps he would have benefited from His words to the seventy-two in Luke 10. They were sent out with no money, no provisions, no status—only God’s authority. The power wasn’t in what they carried, but in who sent them.
Naaman’s healing wasn’t the result of his achievements, it was the result of God’s gracious initiative, sparked by the faith of a forgotten servant girl. And that, friends, is the Gospel: healing through humility, restoration through weakness, power in the hands of the least likely.
III. Obedience Unlocks the Blessing
Naaman is a tough case. His pride and expectations cause him to storm off in anger when Elisha doesn’t meet him personally but instead sends a messenger with a simple command: wash in the Jordan. His reaction reflects the inner turmoil of a man suddenly confronted with a call to spiritual honesty; the kind Paul describes in Galatians 6. Naaman “deceives himself” by thinking he is “something when he is not” (Gal. 6:3), measuring his worth by worldly standards, not God’s. But “the Lord detests lying lips” and delights in the truth (Prov. 12:22). Naaman’s worldview, self-centered, status-driven, culturally conditioned, is a trap. It’s a disfiguring lie, the very lie our culture celebrates.
Healing begins when that lie is exposed. When Naaman turns to God in obedience, we witness the first spark of faith. His act of stepping into the Jordan isn’t just physical, it’s deeply spiritual. It marks a shift from pride to humility, from self-reliance to dependence on God. He begins to “bear his own burden” (Gal. 6:5), testing his life not by comparison to others but by God’s standard (Gal. 6:4). His old foundation, status, comparison, entitlement, crumbles. In its place comes the first glimpse of repentance and accountability.
Naaman nearly missed his healing because the method didn’t match his ego. Dipping in the Jordan seemed beneath him, especially when better rivers flowed in Damascus (2 Kgs. 5:12). But that’s the point. God often works through what offends the prideful. Galatians 6:7 reminds us: “A man reaps what he sows.” Sow to the flesh, reap decay. Sow to the Spirit, reap life.
Naaman had to trust, had to believe, not in the spectacle he imagined, but in the quiet authority of God’s word through a prophet, a servant, a slave girl. Healing came through humility, through voices easy to ignore.
Faithfulness begins by trusting God’s call, even when it feels uncertain. Naaman’s journey to healing involved being stripped of every marker of status. He enters the water exposed, vulnerable, with nothing to offer but obedience.
His question, Why the Jordan? is answered by Scripture itself. The Jordan was a place of transition. The priests had to step into its overflowing waters in faith before God parted it (Josh. 3:15–16). Like them, Naaman needed humble trust. Like the blind man in John 9:7, who washed in the pool of Siloam and came back seeing, Naaman obeyed and was healed.
His immersion, seven times; the number of completeness, marks an end and a beginning. He comes out clean, but not yet whole. His healing is real, but his faith is new. He still asks for pardon to bow in Rimmon’s temple (v. 18). There is syncretism, a mixture of old loyalties and new insight. His story isn’t over; he’s begun the journey.
Elisha’s response is telling: “Go in peace.” He doesn’t demand full understanding or instant sanctification. Like Jesus in the parable of the sower (Matt. 13), he sows the seed and trusts God for the growth. Repentance is a process, and God’s kindness leads us there (Rom. 2:4).
Many today are like Naaman, reluctant to bend the knee, clinging to pride, expecting God to work on their terms. But healing comes only when we step into the water stripped of self, status, and control. When we do, God gives “perfect peace to those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in Him” (Isa. 26:3).
And so, too, in Luke 10, Jesus sends out the seventy-two “like lambs among wolves” (v. 3), vulnerable and dependent. They carry no money, no bag, no sandals, only faith. They offer peace, bring healing, and proclaim the nearness of God’s kingdom (vv. 5–9). They do not seek glory. They do not fear rejection. Like Elisha, they can say with quiet trust, “Go in peace.”
IV. God’s Mission Faces Rejection. Elisah’s “Go in Peace.” What it really means.
In Galatians, Paul says he bears the marks of Christ, a reminder that the gospel invites resistance. Faithfulness makes you a target. Jesus warns in Luke 10, “Some towns will not welcome you. Shake the dust off. Keep going.”
Naaman, proud and worldly, almost rejected God’s gift of renewal. Yet Elisha didn’t fail. Why? Because faithfulness doesn’t always look like success. You may share the gospel and be ignored. You may serve and be rejected. But faithful obedience to God is never wasted. God’s kingdom moves forward through the faithful.
In Luke 10, Jesus equips His disciples to face rejection with resilience and grace. Elisha’s words— “Go in peace” (2 Kgs. 5:19)—spoken nearly a millennium earlier, offer the same wisdom. Three things stand out: 1. Don’t take rejection personally. Elisha didn’t take Naaman’s continued idol worship (v. 18) as personal failure. Jesus clarifies in Luke 10:16: “Whoever rejects you rejects me.” Resistance is not against the messenger, but against the message, and the One who sent it. Faithful servants don’t linger on rejection; they entrust it to God. 2. Faithfulness, not outcome, is out goal. Elisha, like the disciples, was called to proclaim truth, not ensure its acceptance. Results are God’s responsibility. Our task is to remain faithful, trusting that the Spirit will accomplish what only God can do. 3. Separate with grace, not spite. Elisha’s “Go in peace” mirrors Jesus’ command to “shake the dust off your feet” (Luke 10:11). In Jewish tradition, this was a prophetic act of separation, not vengeance, but a solemn witness. It’s not about hostility, it’s about clarity. The message was offered. The door was closed.
Rejection and resistance are part of the path. They do not invalidate the mission. Elisha modeled grace under rejection. Jesus calls us to do the same, to persevere with dignity, rooted in faith, and resting in God’s will. Accountability lies with the hearers like Naaman. Our call is to respond without bitterness, firm, faithful, and full of peace.
V. Peace and Joy Come from Belonging, Not Performing
After he is healed, Naaman doesn’t boast about the miracle, he proclaims the true God. Paul says, “I will boast in nothing but the cross.” And in Luke 10, the disciples return rejoicing, Even the demons submit to us!” But Jesus redirects them: “Do not rejoice in this but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Real peace and joy aren’t found in what we do for God but in knowing we belong to Him. If your peace and joy come from performance, it will be like the tide. But if it comes faith, from doing for Christ, it stands forever.
Closing Prayer:
Father, use us like the servant girl, like Elisha, like the seventy-two. As you did with Naaman, strip away our pride. Replace it with humble obedience. Help us carry the burdens of others and sow to the Spirit. Teach us to rejoice not in our works, but in the grace that saved us; in serving You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.