1 Corinthians 4:9-16
Matthew 17:14-23
It’s easy to become annoyed by some
of the distortions of Christianity that are so common in our culture. Some preach on television and elsewhere that truly
faithful Christians will become rich and have no problems. Many seem to assume that following Jesus
Christ is just a little religious icing on the cake of worldly comfort, part of
an easy way to a happy marriage, a model family, perfect health, and whatever
else we may want out of life. It’s as
though the Son of God came to make us really successful by conventional standards.
The irony is that even a quick look
at the life of Jesus Christ, his Mother Mary the Theotokos, or apostles such as
St. Paul shows how foolish such teachings are.
None of them lived what any mainstream culture thinks of as a happy or
successful life. Now don’t get me
wrong: they obviously lived the best and
holiest of lives; they are models for us in how to live and to die. But they put the Kingdom of God first and refused
to put even their own happiness before God’s will and the humble service of
others. They all suffered greatly, but
thereby participated in joy and peace that are not of this world.
The Son of God lowered Himself in
the Incarnation, becoming one of us and even enduring death and descent to
Hades in order to conquer them and bring us into His eternal life. He was rejected by the leaders of His own
people and brutally executed by the Roman authorities. Mary the Theotokos accepted a scandalous
pregnancy as the Lord’s virgin mother and saw her Son murdered by those He came
to save. St. Paul endured hardships of
all kinds, beatings, imprisonment, and ultimately martyrdom for Christ. These were not wealthy people; their lives
didn’t follow conventional patterns; they weren’t in favor with the religious and
political authorities of their land. In
some ways, there were outsiders and outcasts. But it was precisely through
their difficult struggles and their faithful ministries that salvation has come
to the world and we have inherited the blessings of life eternal.
That’s an important truth to keep in
mind when we hear the heart-broken father of the epileptic boy cry out to the
Lord for healing for his son. The poor
man had probably done everything he knew for his son without success, even
asking the disciples to cure him. They had failed to do so, however, because of
their unbelief, which was shown by their lack of attention to prayer and
fasting. In other words, they lacked the
spiritual strength to overcome evil, probably because they assumed that
following Christ was an easy path to a privileged life. After all, most Jews expected the Messiah to be
a great king and military ruler who would presumably reward those who served
Him. In their hopes for that kind of savior, the
disciples were part of a “faithless and perverse” generation that trusted in
and served itself, rather than in the one true God.
The epileptic boy was not healed
because his father was wealthy, powerful, or popular—or because Jesus Christ
was on His way to becoming an earthly king.
Instead, the boy’s father had true faith, trust and humility before the
Lord, kneeling down before him and asking for mercy from the bottom of his
heart. He lowered himself before Christ,
putting himself in the humble place of one who could receive the blessing of
the most humble One of all.
Unfortunately, some in the church of
Corinth were nothing like that father; they were so full of pride that St. Paul
had to set them straight on what it meant to serve Jesus Christ. He wrote that true apostles lived “as men
condemned to death,” as fools who are weak, dishonored, homeless, and treated
as the filth of the world. Well, you
can’t get much lower than that or much further away from the lie that
Christianity should be a means to wealth, success, and what the world calls happiness.
And the words used by St. Paul remind
us of how the Lord spoke of the “least of these,” identifying Himself with the
hungry, the stranger, the prisoner—those at the very bottom of any society.
The application to our lives is
clear. Instead of following today’s popular
false prophets who worship money, power, and other forms of self-indulgence, we
should follow the advice of the Lord Himself to the disciples on the centrality
of faith, prayer, and fasting. Instead
of believing that success in any earthly kingdom or culture is the highest
good, we must entrust our lives only to the One who has conquered death. Instead of being constantly distracted by
television, the internet, video games, work, sports, the demands of a busy
schedule, or other earthly cares, we must carve out at least some time every
day for quiet contemplation and spiritual communion with the Lord. Instead of
satisfying every desire and wallowing in unrestrained indulgence and consumption,
we must learn to say no to our addiction to pleasure through appropriate forms
of fasting and self-denial on a regular basis.
Instead of making our faith a way to get what we want and gain the
praise of others, we must learn the essential place of humility in the
Christian life. For it is only when we
stop focusing on ourselves—our strengths, our virtues, our abilities, as well
as our failures and weaknesses—that we will be able to kneel before Christ like
that father who was at the end of his rope and open ourselves
to the mercy and healing of the Lord.
One of the many problems of popular,
easy Christianity is that it makes us spiritually weak. If the faith is basically about helping us
get what we want, then we will always serve ourselves and become addicted to
self-centered desires. We will become so
enslaved to our bellies, the love of money, popularity, and the endless pursuit
of happiness that we will be just like the disciples: powerless against the forces of evil and
corruption in our own lives. If we serve
and please only ourselves, we will become so self-focused and self-centered
that we will find it impossible to cultivate the humility required to serve God
and our neighbor. We will become so
addicted to our desires that we will lack the ability to say no to ourselves
for any reason, which is ultimately a recipe for nothing but misery.
Well, that’s certainly no way to
live the Christian life; better to look to Christ who came not to be served,
but to serve, and who gained strength for the many challenges of His ministry
by intensive prayer and fasting. The
Theotokos grew up in the Temple and was sustained throughout her life by these
spiritual disciplines, as was St. Paul.
Our Savior and His Saints call us to follow them in humility, obedience,
and self-denial. Yes, there is hard work
involved, but should that really be surprising?
Physical rehab after an injury requires discipline and the same is true
of making progress in any line of work or in maintaining healthy relationships
within a family or marriage. And if we are in the process of dying to self so
that we may become holy and share in eternal life, should we be surprised that
the struggle is even greater?
The good news is that Christ is with us in
that struggle. He endured the agony of
the cross for us, and we will grow in faith by bearing our crosses patiently,
by accepting the difficulty of prayer, fasting, selfless service, and all the
other disciplines of the Christian life.
No, they will never make us rich and famous, but they are tools for helping
us become like the father of the epileptic boy who, in his humble faith,
received the mercy of Christ. Then we
will learn in our own lives that what looks like weakness by worldly standards
is actually the greatest strength of all.
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