demand for exclusive worship (v. 18)? Naaman’s faith far outstrips anything one can find in syncretistic Israel. This Aramaean implicitly condemns Israel; he receives the blessings of Israel’s God while Israel is passed by. That’s what Jesus said—and it almost got him killed. ‘And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian’ (Luke 4:27). This threw the fine folks in the Nazareth synagogue into a rage. They weren’t upset