Today we find ourselves still journeying with Jesus toward Jerusalem. Today Luke’s Gospel tells us, even if in a somewhat confusing way, that Jesus passes through Samaria on his way. Samaria is located between Jesus’ native region (Galilee) and Jerusalem, which is in Judea.
It is said, that in Jesus’ day certain observant Jews, concerned about purity, would make their way from Galilee to Judea by walking east, toward the Jordan River, crossing the river, walking on the far side of the Jordan to Jericho where, like their ancestors at the end of the exodus, they would cross the river and go up the mountain to Jerusalem. It was on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem that Jesus, earlier in Saint Luke’s Gospel, set his Parable of the Good Samaritan. It has been asserted that Jewish pilgrims took this longer route to avoid passing through Samaria. However, examples can be found of Jews, other than Jesus and his entourage, passing through Samaria.
Our first reading, from 2 Kings, also takes place in Samaria. It occurs as Elisha, the successor of the great prophet Elijah, warns Israel about the possibility of exile due to their failure to heed his prophetic call to repentance.
An exile happened in about 740 BC. According to the narrative of Samuel/Kings, it occurred not long after the episode concerning Naaman. The Assyrian exile is what alienated Samaria from the rest of Israel (i.e., Galilee and Judea). What happened, as still often occurs in conquered territories, was a population exchange. Some Israelites were exiled and some Assyrians were moved into Samaria.
This population exchange resulted in Israelites intermarrying with foreigners. Not only did they intermarry, but they also adopted some foreign religious practices and blended these with their ancient form of Judaism. Instead of Jerusalem, the holy site for Samaritans became Mount Gerizim, in Samaria. This is why, some 700 years later, in Jesus’ day, the Jews and the Samaritans hated and avoided each other.
Something relevant to the point of our readings today is that Naaman was the commander of the army that threatened Israel. He was Israel’s enemy. The reason he sought out Elisha after discovering a troubling “spot” on his skin, was because a young Israelite woman, who had been taken captive and made a servant to Naaman’s wife, suggested he do so.
Before leaving for Israel with a large amount of money to pay for his cure, Naaman sent a letter to Israel’s king announcing his trip and its purpose. The king, convinced that it was a trick by Israel's powerful northern neighbor, one that would lead to war, tore his clothes because he did not know how Naaman could be cured.1
When he heard of his king’s torment, Elisha sent a message to the king of Israel, telling him to send Naaman his way so the Syrian leader would “find out that there is a prophet in Israel.”2 When Naaman arrived at Elisha’s abode, the prophet himself did not go out to meet him, but sent a messenger. This servant told the general, “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.”3
Naaman, who was a man used to getting his way, started to leave, very angrily saying, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand there to call on the name of the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the place, and thus cure the leprous spot. Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?”4
Stated simply, Naaman was angry because God didn’t do what he wanted God to do in the way he wanted God to do it. If we’re being honest, are we not sometimes like that?
Ultimately, the Syrian general heeded the pleas of his servants and did as Elisha instructed him. The result was his immediate and complete cure. Refusing his generous gift, Elisha sent him away with two mules loaded with earth from Israel. Naaman assured the prophet that henceforth he would only worship the one, true God, the God of Israel, the One who had healed him and to whom he owed a debt he could never repay.
This episode is typical of Elisha’s miracle-working, which can be summarized in three points. First, he did not exclude anyone: he performed miracles for the rich and the poor and, as with Naaman, even for Israel’s enemies. Second, when compared to the complicated incantations and rituals performed to get pagan gods to act miraculously, the miracles God accomplished through him, geared towards demonstrating God's power, were done quite simply. In Naaman’s case- “Go wash in the Jordan and you’ll be clean.” Finally, Elisha’s miracles were done for free. No fee required, even from someone as rich as Naaman, who was clearly prepared to pay a lot for a cure.5
Naaman is like the healed lepers who did not return to thank Jesus and then like the Samaritan who, unlike his presumably Jewish companions, gave Jesus thanks for what he’d done. While Israel’s king ignored God’s prophet, the enemy general heeded him. In this episode, Elisha is very much a precursor to Jesus.
The word used by Luke for the Samaritan leper’s gratitude to Jesus is the appropriate form of the Greek word anglicized as “eucharist.” Considering this, we should recognize that what we are doing right here now is “Eucharist.” Eucharist is simply the Greek word for thanksgiving.
We give God thanks because, as our reading from 2 Timothy tells us, once we truly belong to Christ, he remains faithful even when we are unfaithful, which happens.6 Our infidelities require us to acknowledge that we are incapable of saving ourselves. Therefore, we need to make frequent recourse to the healing power of Christ, which is made available to us most effectively in and through the sacraments.
My brothers and sisters, worshiping God in gratitude is what makes us members of his chosen people. While perhaps a bit anachronistic, by his act of thanksgiving, the Samaritan cured of leprosy becomes a Christian, just as Naaman worshiped the God of Israel after his healing.
What ought to bring us to our knees in gratitude is our personal experience of God’s mercy given us in Christ by the Holy Spirit’s power. This is why we kneel as we say, after being told to “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world…,” using the words of the grateful Roman centurion, whose servant Jesus healed at his request, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof…”7
As our Collect, or opening prayer, asks, may God’s grace always go before and after us, making us “determined to carry out good works.”8
1 2 Kings 5:1-8.↩
2 2 Kings 5:8.↩
3 2 Kings 5:10.↩
4 2 Kings 5:11-12.↩
5 José Enrique Aguilar, Richard J. Clifford, SJ, Carol Dempsey, OP, Eileen M. Schuller, OSU, et al. Eds.
The Paulist Biblical Commentary, “First and Second Kings,” Peter Dubovsky, SJ, 306.
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6 2 Timothy 2:13.↩
7 Roman Missal, The Order of Mass, sec. 132; Matthew 8:8.↩
8 Roman Missal, Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Collect.↩
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