‘And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.'
His second illustration was of the healing of the leprosy of the Syrian general Naaman. He pointed out that there had been many lepers in Israel, and yet it had only been the foreigner, the Gentile, who was cleansed. Again His point is that Elijah's countrymen did not come to him for healing. And again He was probably making the same point about why He had healed in Capernaum and not in Nazareth, with the double witness sealing His point. But it infuriated them even more. It appeared to them as though He was suggesting that God had rejected Israel and was only ready to show mercy to and heal the Gentiles. Such misunderstandings do occur when people are not listening properly because their minds are already made up. So Jesus' innocent remarks appeared to them as blasphemy. Their fury had been roused to fever point, and they lost control of themselves.
We must remember that these were troubled times and that Galilee was a hotbed of seething rebellion, waiting to burst into the open. They were ever ready for a fight. Thus it seemed to them that Jesus was a traitor and a blasphemer. And there was only one thing to do with people like that. His words were like a spark on tinder dry wood.