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2 Kings 5:8 - But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you torn your clothes [because of this letter]? Let him [Naaman] come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel."
This devotion pairs with this weekend's Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.
See, one day the king of Israel got a letter from the king of Syria. The letter said something like this, "Dear sir, my servant, Naaman, the commanding general of my army, has leprosy. I'm sending him to you. I hear you can help him. Hugs and kisses, the king of Syria." And how does the king of Israel read this letter? As a threat! Why? Because he can only see it as a plot in a single story—a story of him versus his enemies. Because that's what the Syrians were—his enemies. The king of Israel knew that Syria was trying to pick a fight. This letter couldn't be the bid for help it purported to be. It had to be a threat, because that was the only story he knew.
Author Skye Jethani suggests that it happened because of what he calls the "fallacy of the single story." What's that? An example of it was illustrated in a study conducted in England. Soccer fans completed a questionnaire. The questions were written to identify the Manchester United fans in the group. Each participant was told that the next part of the study involved watching a film about soccer in another building. While the participant walked to that building, an actor, hired by the researchers and pretending to be a jogger, would run past, fall, and grab his ankle, howling in pain.
Now, sometimes the jogger wears a Manchester United jersey. Other times he wears a Liverpool shirt—the rival soccer club. As you might have guessed, the Manchester United fans almost always helped the jogger when he was wearing the Manchester jersey. But when he was wearing the rival shirt, they very rarely helped—they stopped only 30 percent of the time. Why were these die-hard soccer fans so callous to their rivals? The single-story fallacy. That's when I reduce another human being to a role in a single story, when I see that person only as a rival, an irritation in my story.
But, do you remember how Naaman the Syrian heard there was a great prophet in Israel? And what prompted him to ask his king to reach out to his counterpart in Israel? It was the witness of a slave girl from Israel. Naaman's armies, on one of their raids, had kidnapped her, and made her their slave. And this girl, she had every reason to hate Naaman. But she didn't. Somewhere in her heart she found herself caring for him. She didn't see him in a single story, but in the light of something bigger, because she had grown up hearing the stories of the One True God. And she trusted that God had placed her here to invite Naaman into God's story, because God had embraced her and her people. Even centuries later, when they rejected and crucified their Messiah, God would embrace them. God raised Jesus from the dead to bring everyone into His story.
WE PRAY: Dear Jesus, help me be like the little girl from Israel, and see people as You see them, Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker for The Lutheran Hour.
Reflection Questions:
1. When are you more likely to fall prey to the "fallacy of the single story"?
2. Read 2 Kings 5:1-19. What are indications that Naaman has come to faith in the One True God? What are indications that he's still stuck in his old ways?
3. What helps you see people more graciously, in their tragic and marvelous complexity?
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