Readings:
2 Kings 5-8
Wisdom 6
John 4:1-42

2 Kings 5-8

This story of Naaman the leper has always been very interesting to me because I feel like it really points forward to some New Testament principles that are constantly at issue among Christians. And one of them is the faith vs works dynamic.

The Protestant “reformers” taught that we are saved by faith alone, while Saint James writes in his epistle that we are not saved by faith alone. To complicate it a little more, Saint Paul writes in his letters that we are not saved by works. So what is the formula, I’d it faith plus works or faith alone? Neither.

We are saved by grace. It is the grace of God, a free gift, given to us that we accept in faith and work through love. It’s everything and all of it.

That’s what Naaman discovered here when he went to Israel to be healed of leprosy. He already had some kind of faith to make the journey and make the request, but what he needed was a humbling experience before he could fully grasp and accept it. He was mad when Elisha sent a servant to speak with him, he was used to diplomatic protocols and expected a formal greeting. He was even more mad when he was told to go dip in the river.

After being convinced to give it a shot by his servant, he goes and does what he’s been commanded to do and he’s healed. He immediately returns to Elisha and professes that there is no god in all the world except for the God of Israel. Grace, faith and action.

Jesus’ parting words to his apostles was to go and baptize, and teach people to observe “all that I commanded you.” He didn’t tell the apostles to teach people knowledge, he told them to train people to practice and observe. To be doers of the word and not just hearers. Naaman, although begrudgingly, did as he was told and obeyed the voice of God, and because of this faith in action he was healed.

There follows after the story of Naaman several miracles of Elisha, including one where he could either bi-locate (as he hinted to his servant earlier) or just some other miraculous means, but he was privy to the plans of the Syrian king that he spoke in his private chambers. He sends an army to capture Elisha but he, through the assistance of unseen armies of angels, captures the entire army and delivers to the king of Israel.

Then there’s another Syrian siege of Samaria that causes a famine, and one of the most depraved stories in the Old Testament where neighbors eat each other’s children. But Elisha promises the king deliverance from this siege and it happens as he said it would.

John 4:1-42

John mentions that Jesus had to pass through Samaria on his way back to Galilee, but this isn’t because it’s the most direct or easiest route. Most Jews actually traveled to the Jordan river and then up that valley to the Sea of Galilee, bypassing Samaria all together. This was because there was bad blood between the Jews and Samaritans that went all the way back to Jeroboam and Rehoboam.

This is compounded by the fact that when the Israelites go into exile after being conquered by the Assyrians, there a some who are allowed to stay behind for various reasons. They eventually intermarry with five tribes that are sent to colonize the land for the Assyrians. This makes the Samaritans of Jesus day half Jewish and half gentile, while somewhat practicing an altered form of Judaism.

So for Jesus to sit and talk to a Samaritan woman, let alone ask to drink from her vessel, was out of the ordinary for Jewish-Samaritan relations. So to make a long story short, Jesus had to pass through Samaria for no reason other than he had a divine appointment with this woman at the well.

When she says this meeting is out of the ordinary she is absolutely right, but Jesus responded by telling her that if she only knew who he was she’d be asking him for a drink and he’d give her “living water.”

Not exactly picking up on what he’s saying, she thinks he’s talking about literal water, and when he describes the attributes of this water and how people who drink it won’t thirst any longer, she wants some. She’s at the well in the heat of the day, all alone, because she’s being ostracized by the community. Apparently she’s had five husbands and is currently living with a man she’s not even married to. in todays world this might seem just a little outside of normal, but think of how poorly this would’ve been received in the past. Just 100 years ago such a situation would be scandalous, never mind in an age when infidelity could easily have you stoned to death.

These five husbands Jesus mentions could also have a deeper meaning too. The word in Aramaic, almost certainly the language they’re communicating in, for husband is Baal. As you know this is also the name of a Canaanite god that was frequently worshipped in the land of Israel through the years. It is both the proper name of a god, and used for gods in general (i.e. “he worshiped the baals”) and its most direct translation is “lord.” So when the five tribes that were resettled into Israel brought their gods with them, they bring their “baals” or lords. See 2 Kings 17:24-41

So Jesus might be saying she also has five other lords or gods, and the one she is with (not her boyfriend at home) is not her husband or lord. Meaning she’s speaking to God in the flesh, but he’s not her lord.

She seems uncomfortable by this personal turn in the conversation so she kind of changed the subject at this point and asks if this mountain (mt Gerizim) is the mountain of God or if it’s in Jerusalem. Remember when the kingdom initially split, Israelites continued to go to Jerusalem to worship, but the king set up altars in the north so that they’d worship at home, and this eventually devolved into outright idolatry. This national chip of their shoulder goes all the way down through the generations and eventually someone rewrites the scriptures so that the Samaritans come to believe that Mt Gerizim’s temple (which was destroyed by the Jews about a century before Christ) was the temple location chosen by God. There’s a few other geographical changes in the Samaritan scriptures to coincide with the change in temple location too (the binding of Isaac for example). The Samaritans actually still exist and still worship atop Mount Gerizim.

When Jesus answers he questions to her satisfaction she has one more to ask. She says she’s also awaiting the Christ, to which Jesus tells her she’s speaking to him. Then she runs off and perhaps becomes the first gentile convert and evangelist.

It’s amazing to think that Jesus went to that town and sat at that well to speak to that particular woman. That’s why he “had to go through Samaria” it was all to talk with her. It easy to think of Jesus having lived and died for us, as in all of us collectively, but we forget that he came for each of us individually too. Jesus didn’t just die for us, he died for YOU.

Readings:
2 Kings 9-10
Wisdom 7
John 4:43-54