And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. (Lk 4, 24-28)
Famine and sickness make a society vulnerable. It was famine that led the sons of Israel into the land of Egypt, a land of slavery. Leprosy was the sickness that made the people to flee their own kith and kin and live in seclusion (almost like in a land of slavery) Famine and leprosy make the people to live in a foreign land. We can say that famine and leprosy make the people foreigners.
These two prophets, Elijah and Elisha, make the foreigners as God’s people. By dealing with these two situations of famine and leprosy, the prophets make these two situations as opportunities for God’s activities. God is revealed and God is made present in these situations.
The widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon and Naaman the Syrian become God’s people. Because God is revealed to them and God is active in them.
Jewish people believed that God was present only in their land and he was active only in their land and among the people of the land of Israel only. When Jesus presented these two stories from the Old Testament to prove God’s activities in foreign land they were infuriated.
God is not limited to a situation, a place or a people. But He is active in a place, in a situation, among a people.
