Theologically speaking, the Old Testament is not about anything else but Jesus.  Theologically speaking, the Old Testament is about Jesus in that the Old Testament is an account of the sacred Word of God.  The Old Testament is an account of the sacred Word of God, Who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, became incarnate of the Virgin Mary . . . and was made man.  . . . So, a great deal of the Old Testament is comprised of something theologians call “types”, . . . events and saying which have foretold and now serve to illustrate everything that Jesus has made clear to us by His teaching and ministry and passion and crucifixion and death and resurrection.

    The readings we have heard today from the Second Book of the Kings and from the First Chapter of Saint Mark’s Gospel are a perfect example of this very thing.  For, here, in the Second Book of Kings, is Naaman, a Syrian general who also is afflicted with the nerve and skin disease called leprosy, . . . and he is sent by his king to the King of Israel (also called the Anointed One of Israel); . . . the King of Syria sends Naaman to the Anointed One of Israel with a note that says, “If you will, you can make him clean.”  . . . And in Mark’s Gospel we have a parallel situation to what is described in the Old Testament text; we have a parallel in that a man with leprosy, comes to Christ (a Greek word meaning “Anointed One”); . . . a man with leprosy comes to God’s Anointed One and says, “If you will, you can make me clean.”  . . . In the Second Book of Kings, when the prophet Elisha hears of Naaman’s request . . . he sends word to the King of Israel, saying “Let the leper come to me, that he may be cleansed and know that there is a prophet -- that there is a minister of God’s sacred Word -- in Israel.”  . . . And in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus, God’s Incarnate Word Himself, says to the leper, “I do will that you be clean.”  … In the Second Book of Kings, by submitting to God’s Word, spoken to him by the Prophet Elisha, Naaman is healed of his leprosy.  . . . And in Saint Mark’s Gospel, by surrendering himself to the touch of God’s Word, the man with leprosy is made clean.  . . . Do you see how the healing of Naaman by his obedience to God’s Word is a type of the healing presence of Jesus among us?

    But there’s more, . . . because the consequence of the healing touch of God’s Word . . . is that Naaman

returned to the man of God, . . . and he came and stood before him; and he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel . . .”;

and then Naaman says (a little further on in the Second Book of the Kings, Chapter 5, at verse 17) . . . Naaman says,

I pray you, let there be given to [me] two mules’ burden of earth; for henceforth [I] will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the LORD.

Naaman asks Elisha for a couple truckloads of dirt!  He makes such a strange request because it was the belief of that era that the god of a nation literally inhabited that nation . . . and would only listen to the prayers -- would only be present to -- individuals who stood upon the soil of that god’s nation.  So Naaman takes back to Syria with him a quantity of dirt from Elisha’s front yard, which he will put in a frame, . . . so that whenever Naaman wishes to pray . . . he will stand upon the soil of Israel and be in the presence of the One True God.  . . . Naaman takes back to Syria with him a quantity of dirt from Elisha’s front yard . . . so that whenever someone dear to Naaman wishes to pray, . . . they can stand upon the soil of Israel and be in the Presence of the One True God, . . . the only God, Who, unlike all the other gods of the nations, . . . is the only God Who has power to answer prayer.

    This is a type (we theologians say); . . . this incident with Naaman is a type of the consequence of the healing touch of God’s Word; . . . it is a type of the consequence of the touch of Jesus, . . . because in spite of the fact that

[Jesus] sternly charged [the leper who had been cleansed], . . . and said to him, “See that you say nothing to any one.”  . . . he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news.

The consequence of the healing touch of God’s Word is that the the man who had had leprosy tells simply everyone about Jesus . . . Who only has the power to answer prayer.

    And Saint Mark takes great pains to report this incident to us, . . . because  theologically speaking, . . . Saint Mark’s account of the cleansing of the leper is also a type.  . . . It is a type of the will of God’s Word for each one of us . . . and for everyone we know.  . . . It is the will of Jesus that, like the leper who came to Him and like Naaman who came to Elisha, . . . it is the will of Jesus that I accept His touch and that my soul and my heart and my mind . . . be made clean.  It is the will of Jesus that I allow His touch to make my life sacred; . . . to make of my life something which has entrusted herself to God . . . completely.  . . . And it is the will of Jesus that the touch of His Flesh and the taste of His Life make each one of you clean; . . . make your life sacred as well.  . . . So that every one of us might go from here and, as Saint Mark says, . . . talk freely about Jesus.  It is the will of Jesus that, having received His touch, you will go from here and talk freely about it to simply everyone . . . so that your dear ones and acquaintances might come to Jesus from every quarter; . . . might come to the only One Who has power to answer prayer; … so that your dear ones and acquaintances might come to Jesus from every quarter . . . and have their lives made sacred by His touch.