Naaman, Lepers, and the Righteous Servants

13 October 2019 –– Proper 23 Lectionary 28

Luke 17:11-19

The setting for this pericope is Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, a journey which Luke has Jesus setting out upon with great determination and resolve (9:51), knowing full well what lies ahead. As he passes through the border between Galilee and Samaria, he encounters a small leper colony who respectfully keep their distance, yet beg him to do something for them. . . As lepers they are isolated from the rest of society, yet Jesus breaks their isolation. . .

Despite their worship of the same God and their reverence for the same Torah, the divisions between Jew and Samaritan were often greater than those between Jew and gentile. Samaritans were thus considered by Jews to be inferior, both in terms of their worship and their lineage. Yet Jesus makes no distinctions—the healing he offers is for all, without distinction. Then, to what had to have been the disciples’ surprise, it is the Samaritan, the one thought to be inferior, who alone among all the others, thinks to return to Jesus to express his gratitude. . . .

Neither distinctive culture, nor worship style, nor ethnic background matter to Jesus, but only gratitude, the gratitude motivated by a faith flowing from one’s own encounter with the Lord Jesus. –– Lisa Marie Belz

2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c

. . . Naaman, the leper from Aram, is an enemy of Israel. . . [that] successfully raided Israel, taking as booty Israelite captives as their slaves (5:1–2). Nonetheless. . . Israel’s defeat by its enemies becomes the unanticipated occasion of the healing of an enemy of Israel by Israel’s own God, through the agency of an Israelite prophet, and the cleansing waters of the Jordan, Israel’s major river. . .

Elisha’s request, that Naaman bathe seven times in the Jordan, initially seems too absurd to the proud warrior. The waters of his homeland, after all, are better than those of Israel! Yet the waters of Aram cannot cure him, and he must be persuaded by his servants to do as the prophet requests. . . Thus the great and mighty warrior. . . finds himself in the position of having to listen to his own servants, at least one of whom is a little Israelite girl (5:2–4), the lowliest and most vulnerable of all.

. . . Appropriately, the victor is made to recognize his human limits as the tables are overturned and the defeated are exalted to a position of honor as healer, wise counselor, and unique agent of the God of Israel’s universal salvation. –– Lisa Marie Belz

2 Timothy 2:8-15

Writing from prison, Paul exhorts Timothy to bear his own share of hardship “like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” The verb used here, sugkakopathesan, literally means “suffer bad [things] with.” The hardships endured for the sake of the Gospel have a communal dimension to them: they are a participation in Christ’s own suffering and death (2:11), and are borne for the sake of the Christian community (2:10). . . Another way to translate this is “share life with” (suzao) Christ—Christ’s life becomes more deeply our own by virtue of our share in his cross.–– Lisa Marie Belz

Lisa Marie Belz, an Ursuline Sister, is assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Saint Mary Seminary & Graduate School of Theology in Wickliffe, Ohio.

Homily Service 40, no. 11 (2007): 22-32.