Readings: 2 Kings 5:1–3, 7–15c; Psalm 111; 2 Timothy 2:8–15; Luke 17:11–19

The strange, heartwarming story of Jesus’ healing of the ten lepers in Luke 17 is foreshadowed by the perhaps even stranger story of the Gentile Naaman’s healing through the washing commanded by Elisha in 2 Kings 5. “Naaman is cleansed and brought near [to the God of Israel] through washing. Because he is a Gentile, Naaman’s baptism is a particularly apt sign of Christian baptism, which marks out a new community of worshipers in which the distinction of Jew and Gentile is utterly dissolved. … Having been baptized, [Naaman] realizes that he is exclusively devoted to Yahweh and promises to worship no other gods” (Peter Leithart, 1–2 Kings, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible).

The baptism of the Christian is not simply a spiritual “high,” a personal “testimony,” or the public affirmation of a private “decision,” although baptism is indeed spiritual, personal, and public. Rather, as with Naaman’s cleansing, baptism happens to the one baptized. Baptism is then and thereafter an inescapable fact about the one baptized. And this is so, of course, because it is God who acts in baptism: God who gives, God who marks, God who pledges, God who declares, “This one belongs to me.”

That doesn’t mean that Christians can’t act in contradiction to their baptism, in forgetfulness of their baptism; our wandering from God makes us a painfully baffling paradox even — especially — to ourselves. But what could possibly put us back on track, turn us in repentance? Our feelings? That would be a disaster. Our works? Not now and not ever. God’s Spirit? Yes indeed — and the Spirit, who is not in any way a projection of our feelings or works, does what he does through means external to us: the voice of the Word; the actuality of our baptism; the body and blood of Jesus; the intrusively odd relationships of the church.