A few days ago, one of my students and a “friend” on Facebook expressed in his status his disgust over the hypocrisy of a group of people.  His other friends on Facebook made comment after comment.  One in particular arrested my attention:  He said: “dapat kuyugin.” “Kuyog” is a Tagalog word that means “a mob.”  “Kuyugin” is a Tagalog verb that means “to be overwhelmed by a mob.”

This reminded me of a story in Luke 4.  Jesus was an expositor in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth where He was well-known and well-liked as a child.  An expositor is one who regularly read from the OT Scriptures on Sabbath and explained the passage to the hearers.  Today, the modern equivalent of an expositor in a synagogue would be a preacher or a Sunday School teacher.

Jesus read from Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” And when He finished reading, He closed the scroll and proclaimed “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

Jesus was well-known and well-liked in the small town of Nazareth. Everyone knew Him, He was the town’s most eligible bachelor. He may have been nothing but a poor carpenter, but He had personality, He was winsome and wise.

But after He left His carpentry business and got baptized in Jordan by John the Baptizer, He had changed.  Apparently, the people of Nazareth thought Jesus had “put on airs” because when Jesus said that the Scriptures had been fulfilled, the crowd’s reaction was one of unbelief: “Is not this the carpenter’s son?”  Loosely translated, “who does this guy think he is, he’s just the town carpenter’s son! He’s not that cute!”

Jesus knew exactly what they meant, He knew exactly the unbelief in their minds and in their hearts. He told them then the truth about the unbelief in their hearts.  His words were an indictment of their unbelief.  Jesus proclaimed that He was that prophet, the Messiah sent from God and prophesied of in the OT.  He told them: “a prophet is not accepted in his own country.”

The exchange would have remained just another witty enigma had not Jesus made a further comment that the people of Nazareth found vastly insulting. For more than just claiming Himself to be a prophet, and making Himself equal in stature to Elisha or Isaiah, or even blasphemously claiming that He was that Messiah,  Jesus said that, Elijah in his time was not sent to the Jews, but to a Gentile widow from Zarepath, a city in Sidon.  And Elisha, in his time healed no Jewish leper, but Naaman the Syrian.

The crown was enraged!  Imagine, the holy people of God, told that they were no better than Gentile dogs.  For this is how the Jews thought of Gentiles, that they were no better than dogs because they were unclean and not chosen by God.  This also displays how the Jews view themselves, that they were better than everyone else because God had chosen them to be His people.

What was the crowd’s reaction? Kuyog!  When all the people in the synagogue heard him, they were filled with wrath.  They rose up, as one, they thrust Jesus out of the synagogue and pushed him up to the brow of a hill (bangin sa gilid ng gulod) a cliff, an overhang on a hill.  They meant to push Jesus to His death.  Jesus escaped.  It was not yet His time to die.

Naaman’s story is a prophecy that Gentiles who were unclean can also be cleaned and saved.  Naaman was so unclean, not only was he a despised leper, he was a captain of the Syrian army who invaded Israel and took captives away. Naaman embodied all that Jews despised.

When Naaman went to Elisha’s house, he stood at Elisha’s door. Here was the mighty Syrian captain, with his company of soldiers, all armed.  Standing at the prophet’s house.  But they were not out to invade, lay siege or conquer.  They were not there to mob Elisha, they were not a “kuyog.” They stood there waiting for Elisha.

This was an act of deference and humility for the mighty Syrian captain.  He honored the Jewish prophet’s separation, he did not enter his house by force.But  Elisha didn’t bother to come out of his house, Elisha snubbed Naaman and just sent out his servant, Gehazi who told Naaman to clean himself in the river Jordan.  Elisha’s words seemed insulting to Naaman.  Naaman thought that Elisha was telling him “go jump in the river!”  Or, “bahala ka sa buhay mo!” Or, as teenagers would say, “whatever!”

No wonder Naaman left Elisha’s house in a huff.  Imagine telling a mighty Syrian captain to bathe in the muddy Jordan river to be clean. In Naaman’s mind, he was being told to do the impossible — get himself clean, this was why he humbly came to the prophet in the first place — he couldn’t make himself clean.  He couldn’t heal himself!

The remedy was so trivial, it was truly insulting.  The story is also “prophetic” because Naaman was told to go to the Jordan River.  The River Jordan was where John the Baptizer preached repentance. He preached baptism as an outer evidence of an inward change of heart.  Naaman was on his way home, frustrated and enraged.  But his servants told him, it is such a small thing to bathe in the river.  If the prophet had told Naaman to do some great thing, Naaman would do it.  Naaman would do anything to be healed.  Why not humbly obey the command to bathe in the river.

Naaman changed his mind about the prophet’s command.  Naaman retraced his steps and went to the Jordan river.  He took off his armor, all his clothes, he was exposed in all his leprous state for all to see.  He literally had nothing left to hide, he shed all, even his dignity.  But then he obeyed.  He dipped himself in the muddy river seven times.  On the seventh time, he came up healed.

Take note that he first had a change of mind, then he had a change of heart, he began to believe enough to obey the seemingly absurd command. This is a picture, an example of repentance. Once he had galvanized his resolve to believe, he fully obeyed.  And his belief, his faith, was honored by God.  Naaman was healed. It was not the river Jordan that healed Naaman, it was not his bathing in it, it was his faith.  He believed the prophet’s words. He obeyed the prophet’s commands.

Naaman is every Gentile like you and me who first heard of Jesus Christ the soul-healer.  We changed our mind about Him, we changed our heart toward Him.  We believed that He is the Son of God, He is the Redeemer.  We obeyed the absurdly simple command “Believe also in me.” And, we were saved.  Just like Naaman.