The story about Naaman, the Aramean general, always seemed odd to me. It didn’t really attract my attention other than to pique my curiosity a bit, until I focused on Luke 4, describing how Jesus announced his public ministry in his hometown synagogue.
Because Jesus referenced the healing of Naaman in the context of announcing his own purpose, the story takes on new significance. The story is not just an oddity. It should command our attention for the purpose for which Jesus referenced it – related to his earthly ministry. (Luke 4:16-30)
I have written about Jesus mentioning the healing of the pagan general in Luke 4 many times since 2020 when I first became intrigued with it. The mere mention of the healing in connection with the ministry of Jesus is intriguing. The intrigue is bolstered by the reaction of his hometown synagogue – they tried to march him out to a cliff and throw him to his death! (vv.28-30)
Until recently, I had spent much time reading the story itself. The fact that Naaman was an Aramean (Syrian) general, that Jesus made a peculiar point of saying Elisha could have gone to any one in Israel with leprosy and healed them, but he healed the foreign general, seemed to stand on its own. In New Testament theology, we would say that Jesus was tipping God’s hand about salvation for the Gentiles.
We might simply check the theological box and move on, but I think there is a deeper message here.
If we put ourselves in the shoes of those first-century Jews hearing the story, it takes on new significance. They and their ancestors had been God’s people for roughly 2000 years since Abraham and 1500 years since Moses. Their outrage at the suggestion of Jesus that he might bypass God’s people and go to the Gentiles is understandable.
Scripture is rich and the story itself is worth examining in more detail. It appears in 2 Kings 5. The details of the story add more nuance in the context of Luke 4 that has application for us today. It deepens and expands the significance of Jesus mentioning it in his home town synagogue when he announced his public ministry.
This story opens with an introduction of Naaman as commander of the army of the king of Aram. He is described as a great man in the king’s sight because the “Lord had given victory to Aram.” He was a valiant soldier who happened to have leprosy. (2 Kings 5:1)
As further background to the story, we learn that a young girl from Israel who was captured in a raid against Israel served Naaman’s wife, and the story begins with her giving advice for the king. (v.2)
We need to stop here and consider the context. Ben-Hadad II was king of Aram, and Joram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel, was king of Israel. They were bitter rivals. The text tells us that the Arameans had been raiding Israel and taking slaves from the Israelites.
The slave girl, who remains nameless, begins the dialogue, saying, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” (v. 2)
From the beginning, this story messes with our expectations. Naaman is a foreign general responsible for raiding and plundering the nation of Israel. He has a young Israelite girl in his home who was taken captive in one of his raids. She had every reason to resent her captor, but she shows compassion for him and evangelical zeal for God.
Though we might wonder why a mighty general would take the advice of a young slave girl, Naaman goes to the king of Aram to share what the girl told him, Ben-Hadad offers to send a letter to the king of Israel. It also seems a odd that a general who was raiding Israelite towns would go to the Israelite king for help with his leprosy, but that is what he did. (vv. 4-6)
King Joram’s response seems odd also. He panics and tears his robe, objecting, “Am I God?” He seems to think that Naaman has come to pick a quarrel with him (v. 7), which is understandable, given the fact that Naaman has been raiding the king’s territory.
It’s worth noting that the mighty general listens to the advice of a slave girl, but he goes to the king instead of going to the prophet as she suggested. I suppose ancient protocol might have dictated going to the king first, but the king panics hopelessly at the general’s request.
Elisha hears that King Joram offered no help, so Elisha sends word to have Naaman come to him so that “he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” (v. 8) Without hesitation Naaman shows up at Elisha’s front door with his horses and chariots, but Elisha sends a messenger out to tell him to wash himself in the Jordan River. (v 9)
Naaman is incensed that Elisha didn’t come out himself. (v. 10) Naaman left in a rage because Elisha asked him to bathe in a river he felt what was beneath him (v. 11), but his own servants tracked him down and urged him to do as Elisha instructed. (v. 12).
He humbled himself, did as he was told, and he was healed. (v. 13) The valorous general humbled himself many times: to listen to the slave girl, to ask permission of his king, to seek healing from an enemy king, to listen his own servants, and to do as Elisha instructed, though Elisha refused to meet him face to face.
In the end, General Naaman praises God, saying, “There is no God in all the world except in Israel.” (v. 14) He sought out Elisha and begged him to accept a gift and to name the price, but Elisha refused. (vv. 16-17)
There is a bit more to the story, but that’s enough for my purposes today. The story interests me because Jesus alludes to this story in the context of announcing his public ministry. What did Jesus intend by referencing this story to the outrage of the people in his hometown synagogue?
From a bird’s-eye view, this story is an example of the way God extends mercy even to a foreign enemy; but that mercy must be received with humility, and it is not transactional. At the same time, there are patterns in the details that are worth noting. In fact. almost every detail upends our expectations:
| Expected | Actual |
|---|
| Mighty general solves the problem | Helpless captive girl provides the answer |
| King can arrange healing | King tears his clothes in panic & despair |
| Famous prophet performs a miracle | Famous prophet sends a messenger |
| Great rivers and great status matter | He washes humbly in the local river |
| Healing is purchased with treasure | Healing is given freely by God |
| Israelite insider honors God | Gentile outsider & enemy honors God |
Jesus targeted is the audience’s expectations in his comment that prefaced the examples of Elijah blessing the Canaanite widow and Elisha healing the Syrian general: Jesus said,
“I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
Luke 4: 25-27
Jesus chose these examples because the blessing and the healing were provided by prophets of God to foreigners. And not just any foreigners: the Canaanites and Arameans/Syrians were enemies of Israel.
We might say that Jesus intentionally provoked the anger of the people in his hometown synagogue. So it might seem, but the fact that these examples exist in the sacred scriptures, however, suggests a much deeper and more poignant point.
Jesus was calling attention to something that was always there – something they had not noticed; something to which they had not paid sufficient attention. And not just these people in a synagogue in Galilee, a remote and unimportant area of Judea: the theme of upended expectations plays out throughout the life and ministry of Jesus.
John says that God became incarnate and came to His own people, but they did not receive Him (John 1:11) They did not recognize Him because they were expecting something completely different.
They were expecting a champion of the Jews. They were expecting a Messiah who would come in power to overthrow the Roman occupiers and re-establish the throne of David. They were not expecting a suffering servant who would open up the free gift of God’s grace to the Gentile world.
“He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
John 1:11-12
The foreign general, Naaman, had expectations also. He expected Elisha to come out and greet him and to perform the miracle himself. He didn’t expect to be instructed to go bathe in a dirty river. He didn’t understand, but he humbled himself, set his expectations aside, and received healing. This is the only way we can receive the grace God has offered to us.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. “
Ephesians 2:8-9
It doesn’t matter who you are – a servant girl? A mighty general? A foreigner? An enemy? God’s grace is available to anyone and everyone. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham by God to bless all the nations through Abraham’s descendants.
Nothing has changed of course. God’s grace is still meted out the same way – to people who receive it humbly by faith. God remains interested in all the nations not just Israel, and not just the United States of America. All nations.
If I lived in Italy or Iran I would have to say the same thing. God’s grace is not provincial. His purposes are global. We should never forget that – lest our own expectations be upended in ways that might shame us to consider.
The false expectations of many first-century Jews led to the crucifixion of God who became incarnate and walked among them – yet they failed to receive him because they did not recognize him. We should not be so proud or ignorant to think that we could not make just as big a mistake, a colossal blunder in our thinking.
Navigating by Faith 