Was Naaman Baptized?

There are several Old Testament passages we point to when we think about Baptism. The world is cleansed in the waters of the flood, allowing for a time of rebirth. Moses leads the Hebrews through the sea safely, while the Egyptian army is swallowed up. Joshua leads the people through the Jordan into the promised land. However, one passage that sometimes gets forgotten is the healing of Naaman, the commander of the army of Aram in 2 Kings 5. 

To briefly summarize, Naaman was a powerful military leader with leprosy. He learns about a prophet in Israel who may be able to heal him. He eventually travels to Israel to be healed, but instead of coming out to meet him, Elisha sends a messenger to simply tell him to bathe in the Jordan River. Naaman is initially furious, but his servants convince him to give the cure a try. He bathes in the Jordan and comes out completely free from his illness. He returns to tell Elisha that he knows that Elisha is the servant of the one true God.

There are various layers of meaning in this story. This could be simply a miracle story. God provides a miraculous cure to an illness, thus demonstrating the power of God. This could be seen as a story about humility. Naaman expects special treatment. He believes the Jordan River is insignificant and becomes angry because of the message from Elisha. However, when he swallows his pride and follows the instructions from the prophet, he is restored, and he carries that humility with him into a confession of faith. This could be a story about God showing mercy to repentant outsiders instead of Israelites who expect special treatment without exercising their own humility and repentance, as Jesus seems to claim in Luke 4:27. It could be seen as a story about the ease of coming to God for help. Though Naaman was prepared to do something difficult, all he needed to do to be cured was simply “wash and be clean.” 

With all these layers of meaning, could we find sacramental meaning here as well? Is this some kind of prototypical baptism? We certainly have some important parts here. He washes in the Jordan river, an act of immersion in water for cleansing. When he emerges, he is not only fully cleansed, but he has experienced a conversion. He is humbler and has faith in God alone now. Though, this may simply be a response to the healing, we could imagine other responses. Certainly, in the Gospel for this week, some of the lepers don’t return to show gratitude. Naaman could have just taken the miracle and run. Furthermore, he could have attributed it to his own gods, claiming that Elisha was unwittingly a servant of a god he didn’t know. Perhaps a less drastic step would be to move into syncretism, simply believing that Elisha worshiped his own gods by a different name. But he didn’t do any of that. He came up saying that Elisha’s God was the only true god. This is a remarkable transformation, exactly what we would expect from a conversion event around Baptism. He is cleansed. He is healed. He is converted.

Furthermore, some of the other layers we discussed apply well to Baptism. Baptism is easy. All we need to do to receive God’s promises is “wash and be clean.” Our part in salvation is incredibly simple and accessible to all. On that note, the fact that Naaman is an outsider is also important. Baptism is open to all nations. There is nothing about a person that can make them an inadequate candidate for adoption into God’s family. There are no outsiders. God’s circle is drawn unimaginably wide. Everyone is welcome. Baptism teaches us humility. When we go under the waters of baptism, our old self dies and we rise again as someone new. The significance and importance we have gained by worldly identities is drowned and replaced with the identity of a child of God. Our personal triumphs become small in comparison to the amazing gifts God provides. Just as Naaman, a great military leader, comes out with flesh like a young boy, so we, whatever titles we may have, come out as something new, like a child. When we pass through the gate of baptism, our vainglory is washed away, and we start fresh. Furthermore, baptism is certainly a miracle from God. We don’t do anything to accomplish the work, but it does something incredible for us. In Baptism, we receive the promises of God’s love and forgiveness. We are bound to Christ’s death, thus killing our sinful selves and promising that we will have a resurrection like Christ’s. Our souls are cleansed and made new by God’s miraculous healing. 

One major reason why this might not look like a baptism is that no one is present to actually perform the act of baptizing Naaman. Elisha doesn’t immerse him in the water and pray over him. He just goes to the river and washes his leprosy away. This lacks the heroic human element that many of the other stories we associate with baptism have. Noah, a righteous man, leads his family through the flood. Moses, the great law-giver, leads the Israelites through the Red Sea. Joshua, the conquering successor of Moses, leads the people across the Jordan river. Today, pastors and priests carry on the work of baptism. So who is the hero in the Naaman story? Did Naaman baptize himself?

The absence of a human hero is very important, and part of why I think we should celebrate this story more when thinking about Baptism. Naaman is the one who needs cleansing. His servants convince him to do it, but they don’t wash him. Elisha doesn’t even go out to give him the instructions himself. The miraculous cleansing belongs to God alone. When we try to put a human at the center of the story, we miss the point. In fact, while it is important that qualified ministry leaders baptize people, we shouldn’t think that they are really the ones doing the work. Baptism is, and always has been, God’s work. God creates the faith. God turns the heart toward repentance. God washes away sin and restores people to new life. The human element is only there so that we can participate in God’s work. 

We don’t need a human face for baptism. Naaman didn’t need one. And in the absence of a human baptizer, Naaman was not only cleansed but also came to faith in God. The only hero we need for baptism is Christ, who was baptized so that we may be baptized with Him. God does the work, humans can step aside. We don’t need to be or see heroes at work. All we need to do is “wash and be clean.”