Acts 9:32-42; John
5:1-15
Christ is Risen!
We
do not like to be dragged down or held back by problems that we cannot
solve. Whether it is our own health, a
broken relationship with others, or a complex set of circumstances over which
we have little control, it is very frustrating to know our weakness before
seemingly insurmountable challenges.
That
is surely how the invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed felt as they waited for
the chance to be healed by being the first to reach the pool of water troubled
by the angel. Due to their illnesses,
many must have despaired over ever being healed. The man who had been paralyzed for 38 years
was one of those, for there was no one to help him move toward the water. Here we have an image of humanity before the
coming of Christ. The Jews had a Temple
in which animals were sacrificed, and the pool provided water for washing lambs
before they were offered to God. This
scene occurs at the Jewish feast of Pentecost, which commemorated Moses receiving the Law, which was given by angels.
Fallen humanity,
however, remained spiritually weak and sick.
They lacked the strength to fulfill God’s requirements, and certainly
could not conquer death, the wages of sin for all those who have fallen short
of the glory of God. The sacrificial
system of the Temple foreshadowed the great Self-Offering of our Lord on the
Cross, but did not heal anyone from the ravages of spiritual corruption or
raise anyone from the grave. It was a
great blessing for the Jews to have the Law, but surely also a tremendous
frustration not to have the strength to obey it fully. Only Christ Himself fulfilled the Law, which
is why He can call and empower us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is
perfect. (Matt. 5:48)
In contrast, the
paralyzed man represents all who lack the power to move themselves to complete
healing, to find the fulfillment of our common human calling to become like God
in holiness. Notice that he did not call out to Christ to help him; instead,
the Lord reached out to him, asking “Do you want to be healed?” That may seem like a strange question, for
presumably anyone waiting by a pool for healing after 38 years of illness would
want to be made well. But think for a
moment about how we have all learned to adapt to our favorite sins, how we have
become comfortable with whatever forms of corruption have become second nature
to us over the years. By virtue of
coming to Church, we are apparently religious people, but that does not mean
that we truly want to be healed. For to
be healed means obeying the Lord’s command to this fellow: “Rise, take up your
pallet, and walk.” It requires making
the effort to rise up in obedience, to be transformed personally in how we live
each day, and to grow in holiness.
It would not
have sufficed for that man to have remained on his bed and have warm feelings
about how Christ had healed him. Just as anyone who lies motionless for a long
time will become weak and unable to rise up and walk on his own power, the same
will be true of us spiritually if we try to rest content with simply believing
ideas about God or having positive emotions about Him. If we are not gaining strength by actually
serving Him faithfully, we will become paralyzed and unable to cooperate with
our Lord’s gracious healing energies. Any
spiritual health that we claim in that state will be a figment of our
imagination.
The good news is
that the Lord does not simply provide us with a set of rules to follow or
services to perform. He makes us participants
in Himself by grace. He unites us to
Himself, raising us up with Him from slavery to sin and death to the great
dignity of those who share in His eternal life. The Savior makes us members of
His own Body, the Church. He is the
Bridegroom and we are the Bride. He
makes us radiant in holiness, like an iron left in the fire of the divine
glory. That is how He heals us such that
we have the strength to obey His command to get up from our bed of corruption
and move forward in a blessed life of holiness.
Though we may
not yet have the eyes to see it, this healing and strengthening of our humanity
happens to this day through our life in the Church. In our reading from Acts, St. Peter heals a
paralyzed man and commands him to get up. He even raises a woman from death. Peter did not do this by his own power or
authority, but because the Lord was working through him. He said to the paralyzed man, “Jesus Christ
heals you…” Throughout Acts, we read of
how the Lord works through His Body, the Church, to enable people to
participate personally in the new life of the resurrection that He shares with
us by grace.
That is not,
however, a life of merely having our names on a church membership roll or of
calling ourselves Orthodox Christians. If our faithfulness extends only that
far, we will become as weak as a person who remains immobile in bed and refuses
to stand up and walk. We must not be
like those poor souls waiting by the pool for someone else to move them into
the healing water. On His own gracious
initiative, Jesus Christ has given each of us the strength to overcome the
paralysis of sin through His resurrection.
He does not simply give us commands; He gives us Himself. And our life in His Body, the Church is truly
our participation in Him.
We receive His
healing of our souls when we humbly repent of our sins in Confession. We are nourished for the life of the Kingdom
by His Body and Blood in Holy Communion.
When we offer our time, energy, and resources to support the ministries
of the Church, we rise up from selfishness to participate in the abundant
generosity of the Lord. When we stop thinking of ourselves as isolated
individuals and instead as members of a Body with a common life in Christ, we
will be able to love and serve one another in ways that will open us to His
strength personally and collectively in powerful ways.
In the joy of
the resurrection, we must learn to see that embracing our life together in
Christ is an essential dimension of obeying His command to “Rise, take up your
pallet, and walk.” He calls each of us
to turn away from the paralyzing weakness of selfishness and laziness that
would make whatever sins we have become comfortable with appear more important
than serving Him in His Body, the Church, where the glory and power of the resurrection
are fully present.
Think about that
for a moment. Pascha is not an isolated
event that happened long ago, but an entrance into the new day of the Kingdom
of Heaven which is fully open to us in the worship and common life of this
parish. The Savior calls each of us, weakened and held back by the corruptions
of sin, to get up and move forward in the blessed life for which He made us in
His image and likeness. That is why He
died and rose again, to raise us up with Him for a life of holiness, to restore
us to the ancient dignity of Paradise. May
this season of Pascha be our entrance as a parish into the joy of the Kingdom.
That will happen when we rise up, from whatever corruptions are holding us
back, to a life of obedience in serving Him and one another in His Body, the
Church. That is the only way to answer
the question that He asks each of us today and every day: “Do you want to be
healed?”
Christ is Risen!
No comments:
Post a Comment