2 Kings 5:2-3, 14a
“Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, ‘If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’…So [Naaman] went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored…”

Matthew 20:26b-27
“‘…whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”

Ephesians 2:4-5, 8b-9
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved… through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Father God, you choose the small, the weak and the poor to bring hope to the world.

A powerful stranger to grace receives healing through a lonely, lowly child of God.  The miracle of restoration is not the result of reluctant and seething obedience, but the faithfulness of a servant.

Remind us that our freedom comes at the cost of a Saviour’s captivity.  It is not by our own diligent efforts, but by the generousity of one who owes us nothing.

We ask this in the name of Christ, who as a servant to all offers us a baptism into wholeness.

Listen to ‘Pensive, Doubting, Fearful Heart’ by Red Mountain Music