Christ is Risen!
On this fourth Sunday of the season
of Pascha, we remember Jesus Christ’s healing of the paralytic, the paralyzed
man who had not been able to move for 38 years, probably his entire life. He had seen others healed miraculously in a
nearby pool of water, but he had no one to help him get there when the angel
stirred the water. So he was stuck, unable to move, unable to heal himself, and
unable to receive God’s blessing.
This event occurred during the
Jewish feast of Pentecost, which commemorated the giving of the law through
Moses. The Lord Jesus saw this poor man,
lying near one of the gates to the temple area, and He simply asked him if he
wanted to be healed. When the man
explained that he had no one to help him into the healing pool, Christ said,
“Rise, take up your bed and walk” and he did so. This healing occurred on the Sabbath day,
when the Old Testament law indicated that no work was to be done, so some of
the Jews criticized the man for walking around carrying his bed on that
day.
In response to their questions, we
find out that this man did not even know Jesus Christ’s name; he could not identify
the One who healed him. But then the
Lord found him and said, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon
you.”
During this season of Pascha, when
we remember Christ’s victory over death and sin, we want to become like this
man who took up his bed and walked, who entered into a new life made possible
by the mercy of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. We
want to participate in the blessing that Christ’s resurrection has brought to
the world and to be transformed and healed by it. For like this man, we are too often paralyzed
when we face difficult and painful life circumstances before which we feel
powerless. We cannot snap our fingers
and change our world, other people, or even ourselves. We cannot raise the dead, heal diseases, or
otherwise make our problems go away. We
are weakened by our habitual sins, our passions, or disordered desires and
habits that keep us from experiencing the joy, peace, and freedom of life
eternal.
Like this poor man, we have a law, a
set of religious commands, but we often lack the strength to move ourselves to
obey them. Sometimes we have carried
burdens in our souls for thirty-eight years or longer; perhaps we cannot even
imagine ourselves without anger, hatred, greed, lust, pride, self-righteous
judgment, sloth or other sins that we know all too well. How often have we said, “I won’t act that way
anymore. I won’t do this, I won’t say
that, I won’t think this way. I won’t
treat him or her as I have before. ” But all too often, we lack the strength to
change; the disappointing truth is that we are paralyzed by our sins and
weakened by a lifetime of giving in to temptation. We may even have accepted the excuse that
that is simply who we are and there is no point in even trying to change.
The good news of Pascha, however, is
that the Risen Lord calls every single one of us to “Rise, take up your bed and
walk.” His blessing is not for a select
few, but for the whole world: all the living and the dead. The Lord has mercy on those who do not even
know His name, like the paralyzed man. He
asks only whether we want to be healed, for He never forces us. And to those who will accept His mercy, the
Lord promises the strength to rise, take
up our beds and walk; in other words, He enables us to live a new life.
We have to be ready, however, to carry
our beds even on the Sabbath day, for reminders of our sins, weaknesses, and of
the imperfection of the world will still be with us. Very often these are our own thoughts to
which we pay too much attention; for we find it impossible to believe that we really
have been forgiven, that what is done is done, that the Lord’s mercy has
brought us into a new way of living. How
often we carry a burden of guilt and fear that paralyzes us, that freezes us in
the past and makes us think that we are fooling ourselves to imagine that
Christ’s victory is also ours. And how
often we become obsessed with whatever challenges and difficulties we face,
blowing them out of proportion until we think that they are even more powerful
and real than the Lord Who has conquered sin and death.
Yes, the formerly paralyzed man had
to carry his bed, the reminder of his illness; but the miracle was that he
could actually do that: he had the
strength to stand up, walk, and carry something. And we are all given the ability in Jesus
Christ to make progress in our lives, to become more like God, to grow in holy
joy by using even our most difficult struggles as opportunities to trust more
fully in the Lord, to take up our crosses, be purified of our passions, and to
shine more brightly with the light of Christ.
Through our Savior’s cross, joy has
come into the all the world. And it is
through our patient, faithful endurance of whatever trials, tribulations, and temptations
we face that we will open ourselves to the joy, to the strength, to the life
that has conquered even death itself.
We cannot triumph over all our
troubles by sheer will power, but we can do what we can do. Each day, each moment, each hour, we can walk
as best we can in the right direction—in other words, we can refuse to lie down
again in our bed of weakness and despair.
We can do our best to pay no attention to negative and unhealthy
thoughts; we can treat others as we would have them treat us; we can keep our mouths
shut when we are tempted to judge or condemn others; we can focus our energies
on changing what we can change in our lives and relationships—and leave the
rest in God’s hands. In other words, we
should not think we are either totally paralyzed or completely healthy. We are somewhere in between, and the same
Lord who conquered death itself constantly invites and enables us to greater strength
and wholeness, to the joy of those who know that they really can move—step by
step—more fully into the brilliant light of the Kingdom.
Fortunately, we do not have to
wrestle with these problems as isolated individuals. We are blessed to participate in the life of
Christ as members of His Body, the Church.
And in the sacrament of confession, we are assured of God’s forgiveness
and exhorted to give no further care to the sins which we have confessed. The paralyzing burden of our sins is lifted at
confession; no, that does not mean that we are never tempted again or that we
do not have to live with the consequences of our actions, but it does mean we
hear the voice of Christ and feel the touch of His hand as He says, “Rise, take
up your bed and walk.” The sins which
you have confessed are behind you. Do not
return to them. Go forward with your
life to the glory of God. Go and sin no
more.
The point here is not legalism, but
healing. For if we really want to be
made well, we must open the paralysis of our souls on a regular basis to
Christ the Great Physician, Who is
present to us in His Body, the Church. And
every time that we take confession, Christ in effect says to us, “See, you have
been made well. Sin no more, lest a
worse thing come upon you.”
No one forces us to sin or to cower
in fear before the difficult challenges of life; but it seems inevitable that
we will at times be overcome by our passions and our problems. We are often like someone healed of paralysis
who cannot escape the habit of staying in bed or cope very well with the
challenges and struggles of his new life.
So we lie down again in our bed of habitual sins and weaknesses. But fortunately for us, the Lord is
merciful. He always asks us, “Do you
want to be healed?” And if we respond
with truthfulness and humility, He has compassion on us, and assures us of His
forgiveness and strength.
So we rise, take up our bed, and
walk. We may fall back into our
paralysis, weakness, and fears more times than we can count. We may fall down ten thousand times, but
Christ is always there to raise us up and give us a share in His eternal
life. We probably do not see it in our
own lives, but through this journey of humble repentance we do find
healing. The course of our struggle is
upward; the paralysis decreases; our souls are strengthened as we struggle to
press forward in faithfulness; the light shines in the darkness and the
darkness has not overcome it.
And this is a vital part of the good
news of Pascha. Despite the setbacks,
despite the temptations, despite the burdens and obstacles that we and others
place on our path, the glorious new day of God’s kingdom has dawned. Christ has raised all humanity, including us,
from sin and death. No, our sharing in
Christ’s salvation is not something magical that happens in an instant; like
everything in creation, it takes time.
And that is not because of God, but because of us.
So let us not only say “Christ is
Risen!” this Paschal season; let us rise with Him, getting up from whatever
sins have weighed us down, finding the strength in His resurrection to overcome
our paralysis and weakness, to refuse to be shackled by fear, and move step by
step, day by day, into the joy of His Kingdom.
Now is the time to take up our beds and walk in the brilliant light of
the empty tomb, for Christ is Risen!
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