Loving Extreme Enemies

I was jolted and shaken this morning as I began reading the lectionary texts for next Sunday, July 7, starting with the story of Elisha and Naaman in 2 Kings 5. Through all of the turmoil of human trafficking and separating families of our time, the Israelite servant girl screamed at me from this story. Captured in an Aramean military raid across the border into Israel, she was forced to serve as a slave in the home of the commander of the army that had abducted her. Nevertheless, she had compassion for him as he suffered from leprosy, and she maintained a faith in God that had weakened in Israel to the point that God had allowed their oppression at the hands of the Arameans.

In no way whatsoever am I suggesting even the slightest excuse for either human trafficking or separating children from their families in our time, nor am I suggesting that victims of these crimes today should happily comply with the suffering and wounds imposed on them. Rather, the voice of this girl who was enslaved many centuries ago cries out to recognize that I am part of a society that is more like the Arameans than I am comfortable acknowledging.

This enslaved girl from long ago and far away is also an icon or portrait of what Jesus meant by instructing us to love our enemies, which was on my mind quite a bit in my ponderings last week. As the whole story unfolds, Elisha takes this a step further by guiding Naaman to the path (bath?) of not only his healing from leprosy but also to a dramatic spiritual transformation, in which he switches allegiance from the idols of Aram to the God of Israel, even though many in Israel had abandoned their God.

The two mule loads of earth (v. 17) may be a puzzle until realizing that Naaman was likely creating an Israelite shrine in his home where he could worship the God of Israel on Israel soil. Especially with our New Testament perspective (“neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem” – John 4:20) we tend to regard this as silly or superstitious, but Elisha not only allows this but even grants Naaman peace when to kneel in the house of the pagan god Rimmon when his earthly lord worshipped there (vv. 18-19). I am pondering how this might be a pointer as to how to “love our enemies” when they do not espouse and even oppose our following Jesus.  

This story offers much more richness I expect to contemplate as the week goes on, but for today I am pondering how the enslaved girl and Elisha shape and inform my/our attitudes and relationships with my/our Muslim neighbors and others who follow Islam around the world.  The issue here is not so much attracting Muslim folk to Jesus as how I/we can become more like Jesus.