2 Kings 5:1-14

Many Israelites Had Leprosy, but Naaman Was Healed

As we go from mountains to fresh water, we go from Elijah to Elisha.  Despite having a double dose of Elijah’s power and a fraction of his hair, Elisha is less revered in our day and evidently was in Jesus’s as well (not necessarily by Jesus—see below—but in general).  To our knowledge, nobody asked John the Baptist if he was Elisha, and Elisha did not appear on the Mount of Transfiguration.  Perhaps people were turned off by the whole “she bear” episode.  Still, Jesus refers to both Elijah and Elisha when positing that a prophet is not accepted in his hometown (Luke 4:27), referencing today’s story in Elisha’s case.

Specifically, Jesus points out that many Israelites had leprosy, but the leper whom…